Inclusion Stories - Chapter Three: Everyone's an Inclusive Educator

9:07PM Oct 26, 2023

Speakers:

Tim Villegas

Sonia Cole

Jordan Chalfont

Erin Furda

Keywords:

students

inclusive education

classroom

learners

inclusion

educators

school

work

teachers

learning

support

sdi

disability

feel

year

started

general education classroom

washington

taught

special education

All right. Is it okay if I parked there? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Good morning, by the way, already have a great day. I always thought SeaTac was an airport. Well, apparently, it's a city to in an area of Seattle known as Highline. And where I'm starting my day, I'm in Washington for three days to see three of 16 inclusionary practices model demonstration sites across the state of Washington. In the fall of 2019, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction launched the inclusionary practices professional development project, in collaboration with the Hearing Center for Inclusive Education at the University of Washington, elementary. mcmicken Elementary was one of the first demonstration sites. As I walk into the school, there's a multicolored mosaic of students self portraits, and on the top it reads, We are a rainbow of possibilities. And I'm wondering, is it possible to have a whole state get on board with Inclusive Education? I guess I'm gonna find out. I'm Tim Vegas from the Maryland Coalition for inclusive education. And you're listening to inclusion stories, our podcast series that tells the stories of families, educators, and school systems on their journey to full and authentic, inclusive education for each and every learner.

turned out the lights back on a neat buy. Hold on the hammer. Bam.

Chapter Three, everyone's an inclusive educator. I think now would be a great time for a quick recap. We are three chapters in with our podcast series. And I hope that you have a little bit better understanding what I mean when we're talking about inclusive education. So here goes. In chapter one, we met the Shams who were so tired of fighting with their school district, that they removed special education services, just so that their daughter Natalia could attend her home school. And then we visited Cecil County Public Schools in Maryland, which includes all learners starting in pre K. In chapter two, we met the berries who advocated for their daughter Harper, to be taken out of her segregated special education classroom and be placed in a general education classroom with her peers. And then, with the help of our friend Bree, we learned about how Westland Wilsonville school district was building a culture of inclusion. For chapter three, I'm taking you with me on my visit across the state of Washington to observe schools, who are fully committed to inclusive education for all learners. And this time, you are going to hear directly from some students. Now there are a lot of school districts out there that are trying to be more inclusive, which is amazing, and I don't want to take anything away from their efforts. But what is exceptional about the schools you're going to hear from in this chapter, and in the whole series, is that they have a shared understanding of what inclusive education really means. For instance, does your school district have inclusion classrooms, or inclusion teachers, or an inclusion program? Well, then they may not actually be inclusive. When we at MCIE II talk about inclusive education, we essentially mean for things that learners with disabilities are present in classrooms with non disabled peers, that they are members of that classroom and experiencing belonging, just like every learner should, that they are participating in the same classroom rituals, routines and activities as every learner does, and that they are learning the same things as every other learner It seems simple, right? But you would be amazed at how many learners with disabilities are left out and excluded in the biggest way they are left out, is by being separated into multi grade classrooms where it is impossible for educators to teach even one set of grade level standards. There's this classic article written by Julie Causton. Called does self contained Special Education deliver on his promises? The short answer is no. Well, the long answer is no to. But the article starts off with a quote from a student, Victor, who was educated in a self contained classroom for much of his life. And here's the quote, please know that self deadening spaces are hard spaces to make progress and learn stuff. They don't have people wanting you to really learn anything except person, place or things, nouns I know. That's my take, but I'm just one person. I know lots of people love those rooms. More often they just play games like Uno. A school should be what we all love. The my experiences about broke my freaking soul. Wow, Tim, you are really going hard after special education classrooms. Yeah, I am. And one of the reasons why is because I know exactly what goes on in these classrooms because I taught in them. And on my best day, it wasn't ideal. As you're listening to this episode, take note of how the school leaders talk about educating all learners. And I want you to notice how incompatible having special education classrooms are with this philosophy and practice. After a short break, we visit mcmicken Elementary School. Catch you on the other side.

Welcome back. Let me set the scene here because we are going to stay in this conversation for a while. I'm sitting in a conference room at MC MC in with various school leaders from across the state, and even some from nearby states. And we are listening to the origin story of the inclusionary practices professional development project. Here is Cassie Martin, the Executive Director of Special Education at the Washington office, the superintendent of public instruction. Oh SPI talking about Alex hos the principal at make making. And you'll hear Cassie mentioned Jennifer raining. She is the chief academic officer in Highline public schools, which mcmicken is a part of

where this all started with a leadership conference in Highline public schools. I was doing leadership session with the school leaders on equity and inclusion. And then Jennifer and I started working together pretty closely. And then one time we went out for coffee at Starbucks. And she said to me, what is your dream? And I said, Well, I'd like to create a model demonstration site for inclusive education. Because what was happening is we had our pre service educators also at University of Washington, it didn't have a place to go, there were no repeat replacements. We didn't have a place to go. And we were also thinking about what would be a really good transformative professional development model. So we sketched out our plan on a napkin there, and I believe, and and that's where the proposal kind of started. And then I said, I had one ask, I said, you know, I just really want an innovative Sybase leader. And Jennifer said to me, Well, I have just the person for you. And I believe that seven years ago, and it started a beautiful friendship and relationship with Ken Ellis and myself. And we've had so the inception of his work was before the formal work of the IPP demonstration site. So Alex, really kick this all off, come here and make negative assumptions and save time.

Here is Tonya May, Assistant Superintendent of special education at Lspi. And the next voice you'll hear is Alex Haas.

And I would just add further that not only led to it but inspired it. And that's the thing about these grassroots movements is there was amazing work happening here and systems change that helped to elevate the need and create urgency higher up in the system, including at the state.

So so we're excited, and we've been on a journey and continue on the journey. And so I've been here this is my ninth year. I'm really excited prior to that I was in Seattle Public Schools as an assistant principal and prior to that I was in Los Angeles Unified School District as the second year started to notice that just the very beginning stages are Learning Resource Center. Students were pulled out during core instruction and that was preventing some application opportunities for them. They were called out have a chance to really practice their reading skills and then given Some very discreet specially designed instruction, and then weren't necessarily making the progress that they needed to be making where you started success group, everybody who needs either extension, or individualized instruction, small group instruction. The idea is that no longer are a certain sub set of students pulled out and called out as you're the ones who need this instruction, and nobody else needs it. And Sarah Morgan, was instrumental in that. So Sarah, if you want to jump in at any point, you attended some co teaching training you want to share a little bit about last year?

This is Sarah Morgan, a student support specialists with an inclusion focus.

Yeah, so our district had offered a soft Maryland friend her everything around co teaching from her research. And our district put on an informal PD around that was like, let's just get this information out and see where it lands with people. And so myself and another teacher who was duly certified as well, in special education and general education, we both attended, and we walked Wait, like, let's do this. And what was echoed a lot in the meeting was you need your admin support. Otherwise, this is not going to work. And so we came right back to Alex and said, Look, this is what you know, was highlighted, it seems to be with what we want to do already with the success groups be more inclusive and have students more than general education classroom, never missing core. And so then we just evolved from there. And we were looking at master schedule, and all those things of the reasons why you needed your admin support to be able to do this. And we all just work together to start this, that's coteaching is one of many inclusive practices. But that's where we did start.

So if you like, you got some really nice flowers with that. So that was that next year. And because we had been approached by our team, by our teachers, we started planning in April of the year prior. So if we wanted to see it be successful. And so then we monitor how it went, we got really great results, doing impact data. And then we were able to make a case to scale the model. And so the next couple of years really show how we scaled that model across gen ed, and special education. And so over those years, we basically quadrupled, or quintupled, even at some point, the amount of co teaching that we were doing. And what we found is once you kind of break through some of those initial constructs, like there has to be the special education teacher who does the SDI, it doesn't, it doesn't have to be a special education teacher who does. There used to be some oversight and some case management. But so we would have oftentimes two general education practitioners overseeing not only Trump allocation instruction, but any of the SDI minutes that were needed in assessment.

Alex and her staff continued breaking down barriers dismantling something called an emotional behavioral Center, which was a separate classroom where students who exhibited challenging behaviors received services, they were now included in general education classrooms. For students with extensive support needs, they were now included, right from the start in kindergarten, learners at mcmicken, were receiving the benefit of strong core instruction of a general education teacher, while simultaneously being supported by teachers who could design interventions, the special educator, kind of like how it was always meant to be. And they're not finished changing how they serve all learners.

By next year, we really will have almost every model of special education programming here, epic make it. And that's deliberate, because the idea is, of course, that no matter who walks in that door, we can serve them here, you're in this neighborhood, you get to come to this school, you don't have to be on a bus for an hour, we have the staff and the program support and expertise to support you here. And of course, as much as possible. In the general education classroom, I think what we've been trying to message and it lands in different ways is that everyone's an inclusive educator. And so we talked to our team, and like all the strong routines and structures, the explicit teaching, the teacher clarity, the learning targets, the success criteria, the modeling, having asset based language around student learning, all of that is an inclusive education construct. And so you might not feel quite as comfortable for example, supporting a student with an AAC or an assistive communication device that may be very new for you, right? But all the things you're doing in your classroom every day to make your learners feel safe supporting and have rigor and be warm demanders. Those are all setting the stage for

after a short break. We're going to chat with some students

Oh Sarah Morgan, Student Support Specialist and MC MC N and was kind enough to set up some student interviews for me. We aren't going to use their names, but they were all second, third and fourth graders. Let's roll the tape and I'll share some thoughts on the other side.

Or tell me about what you like about your class.

I have a crush. actual difference. So some rivals, but they're all

good about having two teachers in your classroom.

It's good. Yeah, they get more help.

How does the How did the two teachers help you? Yeah. What do you like about making making? Nap?

Yeah, teachers and I can merge?

Yeah. So you have two teachers, right? Yeah. What's that? Like?

So like having parents teaching me? Yeah.

How are they like parents?

And their students, I Humayun dad, and they teach me like, about math, reading and writing.

Yeah, Tim. I heard you had a podcast. Yeah, I'm

podcast Mike at home. I haven't figured out how to like make a podcast yet.

All you gotta do is pick a topic, you start talking about it. That's it. What do you like? I like like animals,

I bet you can make a fantastic animal contest. If I asked you what inclusive means. Like, if I say make unique, it's an inclusive school. What does that mean to you?

Inclusive kind of means like, do selected special needs students here, we make sure that they get the proper type of learning. And if they don't succeed, we make sure that they will, and will never hold them back.

So what do you like about Makemake? It

is how a lot of nations do. It likes teachers and stuff. That's a very nice school here. Especially the way that it was built to.

Um, it's it supports me a lot, let's say in writing something called co writer, which just picks up everything I say. And sometimes I need to get back and get back to me.

What would it be like if you didn't have Caretta?

Probably very difficult, because physically, I can't write I have dyslexia and feel very supported a couple of years ago, add a teacher that would teach us in a way that everybody would understand, like, um, I think everybody would, she would find out what we understand. And like a lesson, so we would all know what was going on.

I heard MC MC ns are really great ways to learn. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Why do you think it's so great,

um, they support you when you like, you need help in your learning. And if you like, need any new strategies, they'll probably, like, teach you. They're really kind to since like, even if anything happened, they would still support you.

So, I heard so I heard you use the word support, like how do you how do you feel supported?

Um, how do we like go groups successfully, it's really helps a lot of streets, especially when they need help, like in math, reading, and using like your notebook. We use notebooks to write down like maybe, or notes are something that you observe or kind of do during that. And I really like how our teachers push us, challenge us to use our strategies. So then we could like be more engaged in the learning.

Thank you. I really appreciate your time. Okay. All right. Awesome, awesome.

A few reflections from my visit. What an exceptional school. Not only was it clear that the staff bought into a vision of inclusion, but the students also had inclusion on their mind. I loved how the last couple of learners I interviewed talked about feeling supported isn't it get exactly what we want. Another thing that I want to mention that didn't come through the audio, were how many visual supports that were available everywhere around the school, in the gym, to the library. And to each and every classroom. learners were supported with visual schedules in ways to guide them through routines. And just for example, in the library, when you looked at the shelves, there were little tags that were posted on the outside of the shelf with pictures of the cover of some of the books. So even if you weren't yet able to read the author or the book title name, you could find what you were looking for, just by using the visuals. Well, it was quite a day and make making but my day and trip isn't over. I still needed to meet some friends at a nearby Panera. Let's go.

I'm Sarah butcher. I'm co founder and director of roots inclusion I'm also a parent.

Hi, I'm Cindy Blasco. I am also a director at roots of inclusion and a parent.

My name is Grant Blasco, and I am 20 years old. I communicate primarily with augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC. I'm currently in Running Start students at Bellevue College with an eye on a college degree.

I'm Jennifer Carl's, and I'm co founder and director of roots of inclusion I'm also a parent roots of

inclusion may sound familiar to you. That's because they are one of our wonderful sponsors. They are also based out of Bellevue, Washington, which isn't too far from where I spent my day at MC MC. And so we decided to have a meet up at a local Panera.

I told him, there was no pressure to this meeting, if you're supposed to listen.

Grant is a remarkable young man, someone who I would describe as breaking down stereotypes for people who type to communicate wants to talk. And I just have to give him huge props for sticking out this conversation with us because the environment was very distracting. And there was background music coming over the speakers in the ceiling. And there are people coming in and out of the area. But he had some really important things to say.

I would like to learn about how you will change the minds of the people who don't believe this will work.

Great question. That's the whole reason why I'm here. For reason I'm here is to try to help change people's minds. Green, the podcast of people. Listen to people like you.

I think when inclusion works, when I think about it, only when the administration is informed about disability justice.

Well said. That was awesome. That's kind of like that might be behind.

He's really struggling today. I will say that, like,

I don't know if it's a grant.

I really use finals next week. So

I appreciate you being here and chatting with me. Really do.

Yeah, that piece is so key. It's interesting. Like I think it was the U DUB that had did a workshop with a bunch of educators around disability justice principles and education. And it was really powerful to listen and listen to educators think about those pieces and how that applies reflecting on their learning, but also then how it applies into what they're doing. Yeah. Now, right?

What one of the things that we noticed when Grant's when he became older and when Bob Williams started mentoring him was that it became harder and harder to go when he went into the college or Running Start dual enrollment program and and had a better accessibility and there was more understanding about disability and there was an expectation that you should be accommodating. And then all of the work with communication first, and then trying to come back into a regular school where there wasn't an informed staff who had anything to do with the disability community. It was the language that was speaking two different languages, really, and so, so hard because you would hear the language that people were using during an IEP meeting or during any sort of your school training, and, you know, we we used to joke that you needed a disability advocate in an IEP meeting so that somebody could call out how many different times Seems there was just language that was used that was not appropriate. And it was just the complete lack of being informed that led to that. And then it made it just really difficult to enter into the space. So the space didn't feel safe. And there was such an awareness that the space wasn't safe, that you do get to the point where you just think I just need to move on.

What is that example? Like the early adopters, and then kind of the late what is that? I was thinking about doctors. Right? Like, the story you're telling helps move people along that curve, right? And there are the is it the stragglers, or the people at the end, we're gonna have to kind of drag along. But there's those folks kind of in that middle, where it's like, what is it that makes them feel that emotion? Right? And that's where, like, not only the storytelling, but then hearing those examples like what you were just sharing those, I didn't realize I was doing that because we have amazing people that don't in any way want to be part of the problem. And they're completely unaware that some of the things whether they've been taught or they've witnessed and they've just taken on as their own practice, like is part of the problem. So how do we have that curiosity? Right to just be in relationship together as we learn and move through these system changes? Right rather than defending why and the story show Yeah, like that it's harmful and so let's figure out a different path forward right let's say someone else moment I

met you I know I

like you moment I met you I knew I like you

that's always good to hear.

Thank you. Thank you all right. Are we good? Tomorrow, see home high school time to get some rest and take the drive up the Washington coast to Bellingham?

Today is Thursday, March 16. Just drove up from Lynnwood Washington headed to Bellingham Washington, and I am trying to navigate a lot of people at C home high school like everyone's getting to school. You want to see how Oh, thank you. It looks like a snowmobile. On that guy's truck. I think I got here right on time. Morning, I'm here with a tour. You've been asking me meals together. I'm Tim. Nice to meet you, Tim. My hands are cool.

So here is what I'm learning about inclusion in the state of Washington. Before the inclusionary practices project was even a thing. Sites like mcmicken and si home were already well on their way to changing how they educated all learners. And as I settle in for my tour, I'm wondering, what does an inclusive high school really look like?

I'm gonna do my best teacher projection voice here. So I know a lot of you came from long and far. Welcome to Bellingham. And so my name is Christina Novak. I'm part of the icfi demonstration sites project and I get to be the lead here at the helm and work with the great Z home team. And most of you have already met morning Rena Marie Leon Guerrero, then

joining I'm sorry, Nicole, I'm the principal. Thanks for being here.

Hi, I'm Kim Kirkman, many of you at the door. I'm our instructional coach.

So sort of how we do things is we'll take you to a classroom, we'll encourage you to go inside, if you have questions, step outside into the hallway, and we can answer those questions. So feel free to go in and out. So we can have that dialogue. You just don't want to be doing it. While instructions happening. There's lots and lots and lots of great pods and chairs and couches and screens throughout the building. So it's wonderful campus for collaboration. So back in 2019 2020, we see home was running about 18 co taught classes with two resource pullout classes. And as of this year, they're running COVID-19 top sections with no resource at fault. Pretty, pretty awesome. co teaching is one of those practices that Seaholm does exceptionally well, along with CO planning, co assessing and master scheduling to make sure that everything works.

Just a quick note here, see home has no resource classrooms. And you'll notice it's not just co teaching, but they put an emphasis on CO planning, co assessing and master scheduling. It sounds like general and special education teachers are constantly and consistently working together.

See home has done a wonderful job at looking at not just this being a special education initiative. But how are we expanding this definition for all students, and making sure that all students support and access needs are met. So we are going to pack up our things or take all of our stuff to a mall.

Kim Kirk, the instructional coach takes us to a number of different classrooms, math, language arts science, she takes us to a class called leadership. And before we go in, one of the educators in our group asked Kim a question.

So basically, what you did if I understand it correctly, for you became a fully inclusive school, you would take your special ed staffing allocation, and now they do co teaching and then your parents that may be in that classroom. And now our agenda.

Yeah. So when we started, we had it was really a couple of our special ed teachers, which Sonya was especially a teacher at that time before she came principal here. So she was one of our special ed teachers along with other woman and went to our principal and said, Hey, this doesn't feel right, we've got a couple gen ed teachers that are interested. So we did a math and an English. So we kind of just went right with the Coalition of the Willing from the beginning, and started off with just a couple of classes and more. And so now it's at the place where every year when Sanyuan sends out at the like December like what are you interested in teaching? Are you interested in co teaching? We have so many teachers that are like I want another adult and they don't have enough of them? Then that's where we start to try to plug in our parent educators.

Can you just say your name and your role?

Yeah, Jordan Chalfont. I'm a parent educator here at Salem High School, work one on one with a student.

Fantastic. And so what what are we in right now?

Right now we're in leadership class. Kids do a bunch of different things with organizing assemblies, organizing clubs.

Like it seems like they're busy.

Yeah, absolutely. Every day, we always have our board right there. You can see, like, sign up for stuff. And that's our task for the day. Usually when we get into the task part of it. And yeah, no, it's it's pretty cool.

Can I say hi, I'm Tim.

This is Malcolm, Malcolm. Malcolm, are you working on? Well, he just finished up watering his plants for the day was watering can. Now we're trying to find another maybe for the clovers.

I'll save this one for later. Next time. It's nice, me Malcolm

ultrafico Say goodbye. Bye.

Have a good day.

And so what they need to we have some students that we have one student that a good chunk of her day is in Casey's classroom with the goal that we are going to go to this we're going to get out into the school setting right so she may be like more like doing ta jobs around the school because that is just to where she's at and where she's going to find success. We have another student Oh, Um, who is nonverbal, but he goes in pushes into our ASL class. And so there are days where he's there for five minutes. Yeah. And there are days that he is there for 25 minutes depending on where he's at in that particular moment. So we do still have some students that are in life skills, yeah. But in the sense of resource of pulling out from math skills, English skills, reading skills, that doesn't exist.

That explanation about lifeskills is a little concerning to me. So I filed that away to ask Sonia, Kim and Christina later, but what I've seen so far has been very encouraging. It feels like Seaholm is making an effort to make spaces available to every learner, including classes that have historically been only for learners, with more extensive support needs. The leadership class I just observed, I don't see why every high school couldn't have a class just like this one. We're all learners work on projects to benefit the entire school community. I pick up the next part of my tour with Christina and catch up part of a conversation she's having with two educators. They're asking her about something that we at MCIE II get asked a lot about grading.

I think what what Seaholm is finding at this point is that usually it's like, oh, you're down syndrome, life skills. Are you like there? Is that sort of segregated thinking? So now, some of those students that have been in life skills their entire life are earning diplomas. Right.

So if they're in the same i co taught class, what I think sometimes we struggle with, with the general teachers is the grading grade, because this is looking really different. And you approach that with UDL with, like, how do you do you accommodate a really great and they get past failed? Like? Yes.

How does all of those things? Okay, yeah. So you you look at the IPS, what accommodations do they have? There is always training needed, with teachers and understanding that accommodations don't make things easier. tool for it to be accessible. Versus modifications. Yeah, if you've planned intentionally to use those tools, then then you're not like, can meet this this at this. You just do it in one lesson, you've accounted for everyone. Versus modifications, which is you are changing the expectation.

Is there a point here in the classroom with the student here where it's so heavily modified, it's not the same. And then that student is not in say, a co taught algebra pass,

those students could still be in CO taught algebra, they might also have an additional modification to Amazon supplemental curriculum or curriculum, just here's what the lesson is how my scaffolds are working to an extent I still need them. But then I also need to do more and changing, you're changing the objective, right?

That in that case, that student might be in a class where there's a co taught or para that can help get that yes,

yeah, yeah. But well, I guess the question comes to then what is the is there a difference in grading, when when we're at that level of modifications,

just make one thing, provide the scaffolds? And then if a kid need something really extra, and again, we're talking about like, oh, right, you do that for them? Right.

Yeah. In that algebra, they would maybe get a steal on the same grading scale, or is that they would be maybe pass fail for that particular course. Yes. They would be passed. Yeah.

So you could put in IEPs modified grading, which means passing

that common. Yeah. There we can just relax now. Okay. We understand.

Yeah. And but but that's one of the things that Kim was talking about, that they've pushed back. There's a lot of students that have that passport online and get the modification rating in there. And they've been like, huh, they're meeting standard. Yeah. So so they're actually starting to remove that from my piece. I know you can. Yeah, it it. It took just one person again, to look at the rubric and be like, two is passing. What's wrong with it do

exempt shows proficiency? Yes. Yes.

Oh, wow. So much great stuff there. But I keep moving on into more classrooms. Many of them have two or three adults. And it's not obvious to me, who is the general education teacher, the special education teacher or the paraprofessional? And I think that is by design. After a while we settle into the auditorium for a debrief. Multiple educators representing school districts. from across the state of Washington, and Utah, and beyond are buzzing with excitement, you can see it in their faces, inclusive education is possible. A common theme is that if only educators could see it themselves, then maybe they can move the needle toward inclusive practices back in their home district. As the group is being dismissed, I catch one of the teachers I observed while we were touring the classrooms. Just firstly, state your

name. Yeah, my name is Aaron Fordham, and I'm a co teacher and department chair, can

you think of like a story of a student that really benefited from co teaching?

One that comes to mind it was during our first year. So Julie, and I've been co teaching together for five years biology, and during our first year, we were both brand new to it. And we also didn't know each other very well. And so we believed in trying this, this thing, but also, like, still, I think, had some questions in our mind around is this right? Like should all the students who who are here really be here, we, you know, just try, and there was a student in our classroom who had Down syndrome, so formally would have been all served in the life skills like totally segregated classroom, and they were in our ninth grade biology class. And it was maybe a month or so. And we were in our first unit. And we were going through a routine where we had just like, asked a question, but it was a pretty, like, rigorous, like, cognitively complex question. And the room was silent, except for this student blurted out the answer. And everybody in the room turned and looked at her. And she was absolutely right. And I almost like started crying. And Julie and I looked at each other, and it was kind of like this pivotal moment, and acknowledgement about how often we are wrong about kids, when we segregate them. And when adults decide, here's what they're capable of, or because they can't do this, then they can't do this, like everything is so linear, when it is not. And that was just like that one moment. But it has happened constantly, in our CO taught classes of students showing up in spaces that even five years ago, people were like, well, that's impossible, what are they really going to get out of that? And they get so much out of it, and they go home, and they're talking to it about their parents and their parents call us and say they're, they're so excited about what they're learning in class, and it like mean something to them. And there's also something like very disarming for other students, where do we have students with disabilities, especially some of those like very presented disabilities in our classroom around like, it's okay. It's okay to like, be where you're at. Like, we all come in here with different identities, different strengths, different weaknesses, it's all good. And so I just feel like there's so much benefit for everybody in that space, having kids in our classroom that have those significant disabilities.

I'm completely floored my experience at mcmicken. And si home has been exhilarating. And I think I had pretty high expectations. As I'm headed out to make the drive back down to Seattle, I have some FaceTime with Sonia, Kim and Christina. And the first thing I asked about is the very obvious inclusive culture that has been fostered at see him and how they achieved it.

I'm Sonya Cole, principal and C home high school.

I'm Kim Kirk, our instructional coach here at sea High School.

Christina Novak, inclusion specialists with the IVP demonstration sites project out of University of Washington,

I think that what the beauty in the culture at sea home is that it has been able to adapt and change as the people who come into a space adapt and change. I think that that's really the only way to not make it feel awkward because otherwise, there is a space that someone is entering. And that that's not what it is here. All of our classrooms are classroom for everyone. Even our students with more complex needs have their life skills classroom that they could go to. But we also have lots of other students who enter that space as well, like, no one space belongs to one group. And I think that that is the key to starting to make the whole building feel like it belongs to everyone.

I think kids are at times more accepting of humans, then those of us in our adult years we get stuck in our ways. And and I think our kids have pushed on us, they've demanded that this is the space and they have created that realm if this student belongs with with all of us.

So let's talk about life skills for a minute. So I think for a long time, parents have believed what we told them and what we told them was that Students with complex needs really our best, the services are best provided in a separate setting that looks more like we're doing community outings, we're doing some really specific IEP goals based on the things that are determined, but really keeping in a separate space is a really important piece. And we told them that, because that's what we believed for a long time. And so they believed us. And we have some families who really believe that that space should remain. And so we're honoring that, and also continuing to try to re educate and kind of reframe some of our own thinking, while meeting with families and being like, what are your goals for your kids? And is this space match that, and in the places that they feel that we agree that that matches, we've continued to provide services in that type of space. And the places where we feel like belonging, connection, access to peers is the family's goal and the students goal, then we believe that that's best served in the gen ed setting. And so that's where we've provided the services. And so right now, we're kind of in this reframing, reeducating, making sure that we're all really clear on what our goals are for students, and where's the best place to have them. We believe in a range of services and options for those less and less, we're being able to justify that a separate space is the best place to provide that service. Like you could just shut it down today. But we don't think that that really honors the work, and is the best interest. I really like

how you phrase that, that you're really honoring the, you know, the decisions and the choices that the fit that the family has made in how they want to support their child, right. But you also like haven't given up and said, Well, I guess that's all we can do. But you know, you have a vision and you're moving forward. So it's a both and type of thing.

Yes. Because I mean, I think that there are places where we need to provide a safe, quiet, safe space for students. But I would argue that that is not a specialized thing, that that's a human thing. And so when we say like, only students with complex needs, need separate spaces where they go, I think that we do a disservice to everyone

what's living on your own, like, Help me Help me understand that?

Well, essentially, that was a course that we had for many of our students that were receiving services and life skills and and through a lot of the components that our students were learning there of just literally, how do you live on your own? Like, how do you pay for your rent? What does it look like to go actually get a rental agreement? What does it look like to go and apply for a job fill out your job application, and realize why all of our kids need those skills as well. It's not just for a certain cohort of students. And so we have two sections of living on your own. It's open to the entire school population to sign up for and they're literally learning the skills that I wish that I would have learned when I was their age of like how to walk out after high school post high school and you know, eventually, hopefully, moving out of your out of your parents house. I have

questions about SDI. Okay, go for. So it's so hard to pop in a classroom, and looking looking at a lesson and be like, there's SDI, there's SDI. So did you happen to see it or see something that pops out into your mind?

Well, I mean, I can speak to like, as you walked into the history classroom, one of the things you may have noticed is, we all use the same template. So kids receive the same template that's color coordinated for many of our students who need that realm of service have seen explicitly Where are we going next to links to having access to like they, when you left, they were going to get ready to do a reading. So every kid had access to that reading that now they can either read it in it in their group, or they can hit Immersive Reader and do those things. That is a continued piece that we're continuing like last year, that was a lot of my work was, hey, we have these really cool tools. Let's use them for everybody. Like we need to directly teach that every kid has access to these things. So it's not just specialized for one room.

Well, yeah. And so it's so I appreciate you explaining it that way. Because I think that there's a misconception that SDI has to look so different for like one or two or three students or whatever. But if you are providing SDI, it's like the SDI for Student A, B and C. That's SDI for them, but for everyone else, it's just a support. Correct? Right. And it's still SDI for that. Right, you know, but it looks the same like as a person walking in so you're like, oh, I don't know it's but but that seems to be the goal and

We have a lot of folks that are not making 10 different graphic organizers, they're making a graphic organizer that is assessable. to, if you believe that you need this graphic organizer to help you out, it's sitting here also knowing that I know that you may, this is going to be the best place for you to start, I

think that the most of our SDI here at si home happened in the planning stage, right? Like, that is the power that is where instead of having to be like, I'm gonna have to pull a small group out to provide this specific instruction for these needs. What we're noticing is that everyone benefits from an on ramp.

Yeah, I'll just add that, like, a lot of what both Sonya and Kim are describing is their journey towards like the universal design framework. So where everyone is sort of at their own on ramp in taking out the principles and the framework. That's the number one question we get when we when we give tours is, where's the SDI don't see it. And we say Good. Because see, home team has intentionally designed materials to support all learners. So they're being designed with maybe your most complex learner in mind are a few of them in mind, and then they're accessible to all. So it's funny when we when we go into classrooms, and maybe kids are doing like a lot of independent work. And you know, there might be that, oh, we're not really seeing great co teaching. Can we go somewhere else? And we have to say, go look at the assignment. Let's go look at it. Go talk the kids. Is it accessible for you? So that's part of the beauty of the work that's happening here is that universal design element. File soundbite cm high schools looking for donations for us, Link? Yes. Okay. Don't swingset

first, folks. I don't want to leave, you can tell something magical is happening here in Washington. And I'm not even done with my visit. I still have one more school to go to Ruby Bridges. But before we visit our last site, I want to introduce you to the extraordinary people at the tools for the journey conference in Pasadena, California. They have some stories to tell. That's next time on inclusion stories.

Thank you to Michael McShane re sohna Meyer, and Cheryl Jorgensen for their work on the beyond access model, which has influenced our understanding of membership participation and learning, as well as Eric Carter and his work on belonging. Inclusion stories is written, edited, sound designed, mixed and mastered by me, Tim Vegas is a production of the Maryland Coalition for inclusive education. For more information about inclusive education or how MCIE can partner with you and your school or district visit MCIE.org a huge shout out to our sponsors. We couldn't have done this project without you. Communication first roots of inclusion, the Council of parent attorneys and advocates the Thompson Policy Institute on Disability, I secure privacy, the white family, the Teague family and to our supporters at the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, as well as our friends at Club 21 in Pasadena, California, we are grateful for your partnership. Special thanks to our friends at mcmicken Elementary School and C home high school. Thank you to Greg Drew's in the truth for giving us permission to use their song the light from the album yellow rose as our theme. Check it out wherever you stream your music. Also, thank you very much to my friends in the caffyns for letting us use N Song for the end credits of chapter three. Two more chapters of inclusion stories coming your way. So watch your podcast feeds closely. Thanks for listening

What is the camera man behind us?

I don't have a camera x. Well, I do have a camera. This is just This is Audio. Just listening. I feel you're putting on podcast. I am I am he let you listen to didn't you? Yes, I'm doing a podcast. So what? I'm gonna put out a podcast about inclusive schools Hello Tim, what do you what are you doing right now? What are you learning? I don't really parentheses in parentheses, email my dad a sharp email all right, I'm gonna let you get back to your lesson. Oh it's great MCIE