Blue Valley School District - Kansas
Community Setting
The Blue Valley School District is located an upper middle class suburb southwest of Kansas City.
Population Served
Blue Valley Schools enroll more than 17,000 students in 38 schools. The vast majority of students in the district (more than 90%) are Caucasian, while the remaining students are either Asian/Pacific Islander or African-American. Students who receive special education services that emphasize self-determination practices are typically classified as having learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, autism, mild to moderate mental retardation, or other health impairments
Program Description
Programs in Blue Valley Schools that emphasize self-determination for students with disabilities include resource and self-contained classrooms at the middle and high school levels, the semi-independent learner programs at the high school level, and the Adult Cooperative Community Education Services and Support (ACCESS) program for students ages 18 to 21.
Exemplary Self-Determination Practices
Self-advocacy instruction and participation in IEP development
Middle and high school students in resource settings in Blue Valley Schools are
taught self-advocacy skills with The Self-Advocacy Strategy (Van Reusen,
Bos, Schumaker, & Deschler, 1994), a curriculum designed to promote student
participation in educational planning. Beginning in middle school, students are
engaged in activities to promote self-awareness and knowledge about their
disabilities. Middle school students often attend their IEP meetings. High
school students assume increasing responsibility for their IEPs. As
upperclassmen, they are actually responsible for selecting their own IEP goals
and objectives, and many students run their own IEP meetings. Students with more
moderate to severe challenges also participate in educational and transition
planning through person-centered planning. They participate in their own
meetings by introducing the participants, or by presenting information about
themselves to the meeting participants
A wide range of opportunities to apply self-determination skills in other
settings
Especially true in the ACCESS program, self-determination is embedded within
daily instructional activities at Blue Valley. Students in the ACCESS program
work on choice- and decision-making in major life domains such as leisure,
education, career, and personal management. Self-determination is incorporated
into extracurricular activities and programs outside the school, including the
Career Development Opportunity Program, a Choices Club for middle school
students, the Mentorship Academy Program, and an annual Futures Conference
co-sponsored with other school districts.
What Makes it Work?
- Administrative support
The self-determination philosophy and high expectations for students are pervasive throughout the entire district, including students with mild to severe disabilities, ages 11 to 21, and among general education teachers, special education teachers, and administrators. There are several leaders with strong self-determination backgrounds, including transition staff, teachers, and administrators. One high school teacher and one middle school teacher are learning strategies trainers.
- Continuum of Services
While Blue Valley Schools offer a wide range of programs for its students, it
also has strong collaborative relationships with local universities and colleges
and adult service agencies that have strong self-determination-promoting
policies and practices of their own.
- Parent Involvement
Parents of Blue Valley students are aware of their children's education and advocate for changes in programming to better meet students' needs. Parents were instrumental in creating the ACCESS program for students ages 18 to 21. They have also requested that strategies first used only in some schools (e.g., the I-PLAN) be implemented in other schools as well.
Staff
Because the programs at Blue Valley cross school lines, it is difficult to count the staff that directly contribute to students' self-determination. Transition specialists, resource and self-contained teachers, and other support staff contribute directly to the self-determination programs and also work with general education teachers on creating opportunities for self-determination within inclusive settings.
What People Say About Self-Determination and Blue Valley Schools
I fought the whole system for the first two years, really tooth and nail.In [other schools] it had been two people. They were one person and I was another and we were going to battle until one of us gave up and then we worked together. And when I came to Blue Valley, it was different in the fact that we were going to work together to figure out how to solve this problem and it was our problem, not just that they helped me in the ownership of this problem. So for the first time I felt like I had an ally after a while. And it is hard to fight somebody when they don't fight back. And so I kept trying to fight them and they kept being nice to me and so I couldn't figure out-these people seemed concerned in a way that is proactive and they acknowledged that I had a problem, rather than acting as if I am just a little slower than everybody else. It was a big change.- Program graduate
Before, we decided what the person needed and what was best for them and how they were going to get services. Now we're trying to do things the other way and just here's an individual, this is what they need according to not just me, or not just the parents, but a whole lot of people -- including the person -- are saying this is what they need and this is how we're going to give them the support. And this is what they want, too. They want to live like this. So these are the supports we're going to give so they can live and work where they want to. - Human service agency representative
I see a huge difference in the IEP for a ninth grader and an IEP for a twelfth grader. The ninth grader is terrified and kind of reads the IEP, knows that he or she has responsibility for taking care of it but their confidence in doing their own IEP is very different. When they become twelfth graders, they're in charge. They state everything that has to be done, everything that they have to do, everything the teachers will do and they are very much in charge. So they learn over a period of four years how to really take responsibility for their own IEPs. It's real impressive when they do it. - High school administrator
All of [students'] files are open to them. They have a copy of their IEP in the classroom at all times. When they say, "What do we do next?" We say, "Go look at your IEP and it will tell you." They look at their IEP 15 or 20 times a year. They do the updates. They do the progress checks. So they know it very well. It is their document. And there is a lot of ownership they take because of it. - Resource teacher
You might talk with [students] and explain the advantages of what you are trying to do, but in the end you respect their opinion and their decision. And so that is what we do with these students. It is not to infuse our values or goals but to work with them. - Occupational Therapist
For more information about self-determination in Blue Valley Schools, please contact:
Wynne Begun
Blue Valley Service Center
7500 W. 148th Terrace
Overland Park, KS 66223
Phone: 913.681.4172
Fax: 913.685.7664
Email: wbegun@bluevalley.k12.org