Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 39, March 25, 2024
Subpart 1.
Scope of practice.
A teacher of special education: academic and behavioral
strategist is authorized to provide evaluation and specially designed
instruction to eligible children and youth with disabilities from kindergarten
through age 21 who have a range of mild to moderate needs in the areas of
academics, behavior, social, emotional, communication, and functional
performance. These students come from the primary disability areas of autism
spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental cognitive disability (DCD), emotional
or behavioral disorders (EBD), other health disorders (OHD), and specific
learning disabilities (SLD). This teacher is not prepared to serve needs beyond
those that are moderate in these disability areas.
The teacher with this license may work in collaboration with,
but not replace the expertise and services of those who serve children and
youth with a disability in the areas of: blind or visually impaired, deaf or
hard of hearing, deaf-blind, speech and language impairment, physical
impairments, traumatic brain injury, and severely multiply impaired. For these
children and youth, a teacher with the academic and behavioral strategist (ABS)
licensure would need to refer to an educational professional with expertise,
certification, or specific special education licensure. This teacher is
required to collaborate and consult with families, other classroom and special
education teachers, and specialized service providers in designing and
implementing individualized education program plans.
Subp. 3.
Subject matter
standard.
A candidate for licensure as a teacher of special education:
academic and behavioral strategist must complete a preparation program under
subpart
2, item D, that must include
the candidate's demonstration of the knowledge and skills in items A to
E.
A. Foundational knowledge. A
teacher of special education: academic and behavioral strategist understands
the foundations of special education services for students who have mild to
moderate needs in the areas of academics, behavior, social, emotional,
communication, and functional performance on which to base practice. The
teacher must demonstrate knowledge of the:
(1)
central concepts, tools of inquiry, history and context, models, theories, and
philosophies that form the bases for special education practice for students
with academic, behavioral, functional, social, emotional, and communication
needs;
(2) laws, policies, and
ethical principles regarding behavior management planning and implementation of
positive behavior supports for students with challenging behavior;
(3) educational definitions, issues related
to identification, and eligibility criteria pertaining to students with
emotional or behavioral disorders, specific learning disabilities,
developmental cognitive disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and other
health disabilities, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds;
(4) etiology,
characteristics, and classifications of students with emotional or behavioral
disorders, specific learning disabilities, developmental cognitive
disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, other health disabilities, and
traumatic brain injury;
(5)
similarities and differences across disabilities, including impact of
coexisting conditions or multiple disabilities, on acquisition of academic,
behavioral, functional, social, emotional, and communication skills and how to
meet the needs in a range of service delivery models;
(6) levels of support required and a
continuum of related services available for students with developmental
cognitive and other disabilities to succeed in a range of
environments;
(7) research-based
theories of behavior and the impact of disability, gender, familial background,
socioeconomic status, cultural, and linguistic factors on perceptions and
interpretations of behavior for students with emotional or behavioral disorders
and other disabilities;
(8) impact
of abuse and dependency on individuals, their families, and the
community;
(9) impact of
information processing deficits on children and youth with specific learning
disabilities and other disabilities;
(10) legal, judicial, medical, and
educational systems and their terminologies and implications in serving
students with disabilities;
(11)
how attributions, anxiety, withdrawal, and thought disorders affect learning
and behavior; and
(12) the major
mental health disorders manifested during early childhood, childhood,
adolescence, and adulthood and the complexities of comorbidity including
behavioral manifestations of these disorders and their effects on learning and
implications for instruction.
B. Referral, evaluation, planning, and
programming. A teacher of special education: academic and behavioral strategist
understands and applies principles of prevention and intervening early and
procedures for referral, assessment, evaluation, individualized planning,
programming, and placement specific to teaching students who have mild to
moderate needs in the areas of academics, behavior, social, emotional,
communication, and functional performance. The teacher must be able to:
(1) select, administer, and interpret
academic, behavioral, functional, social, emotional, and communication
screening tools;
(2) design,
implement, evaluate, and adjust as needed, research-based interventions based
on screening results, information from families, and performance data in the
context of general education instruction and prereferral
interventions;
(3) consult and
collaborate with school personnel and families to maintain educational supports
found to be effective during prereferral interventions and needed in the
general education classroom;
(4)
apply decision-making procedures based on data to determine when students are
not responding to interventions and should be referred for a formal,
comprehensive evaluation;
(5)
evaluate one's own knowledge, strengths, and limitations in evaluation
planning, administration, and interpretation of results to assemble a
comprehensive team with the capacity to assess all known and suspected areas of
student needs, disability, and level of severity, in the areas of specific
learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disorders, developmental
cognitive disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, other health disabilities,
and other related disabilities;
(6)
select, administer, and interpret a variety of informal and formal assessments,
including rating scales, interviews, observation checklists, direct
observations, formative assessments, assistive technology considerations, and
academic achievement assessments, accounting for technical adequacy,
limitations, and ethical concerns;
(7) complete, as a member of a team, a
systematic, functional behavioral assessment including consideration of the
forms and functions of behaviors, context in which behaviors occur, and
antecedents and consequences of behaviors for the purpose of developing an
individual positive behavior support plan;
(8) integrate assessment results and
information available from family, school personnel, legal system, medical, and
mental health providers into the evaluation, planning, and programming
process;
(9) communicate the
purpose, procedures, and results of interventions, assessments, and the
evaluation process to students, families, educators, and other
professionals;
(10) collaborate
with teachers, specialists, and related service providers, to identify patterns
of strengths and weaknesses that require systematic explicit instruction,
accommodations, and modifications, including the use of assistive technology
for access to the curriculum;
(11)
address factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, and familial, cultural,
and linguistic diversity that may influence the identification of students in
the areas of specific learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disorders,
developmental cognitive disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and other
health disabilities; and
(12)
design and implement individualized education program plans, considering a
range of educational placement options and required levels of support in the
least restrictive environment, that integrate student strengths, needs,
assessment results, and student and family priorities, incorporating academic
and nonacademic goals.
C. Instructional design, teaching, and
ongoing evaluation. A teacher of special education: academic and behavioral
strategist understands how to use individualized education program plans to
design, implement, monitor, and adjust instruction for students who have mild
to moderate needs in the areas of academics, behavior, social, emotional,
communication, and functional performance. The teacher must be able to:
(1) utilize principles of universal design
for learning in order to meet student needs across disability areas and across
settings and provide access to grade-level content standards;
(2) design, implement, modify, and adjust
instructional programs and processes and adapt materials and environments to
enhance individual student participation and performance when serving students
with a range of disabilities and diverse needs;
(3) design, implement, monitor, and adjust
goals and objectives to address the individual strengths and needs of students
with autism spectrum disorders, developmental cognitive disabilities, emotional
or behavioral disorders, specific learning disabilities, and other health
disabilities;
(4) monitor, collect,
summarize, evaluate, and interpret data to document progress on skill
acquisition and make adjustments to and accommodations in
instruction;
(5) select and apply
evidence-based instructional practices, including those supported by
scientifically based research when available, for academic instruction, social
skills instruction, affective education, and behavior management for students
with a range of disabilities and diverse needs within a common instructional
setting;
(6) apply strategies to
increase functional developmental skills, academic skills, reasoning, problem
solving skills, study skills, organizational skills, coping skills, social
skills, self-advocacy, self-assessment, self-awareness, self-management,
self-control, self-reliance, self-esteem, test-taking skills, and other
cognitive strategies to ensure individual success in one-to-one, small-group,
and large-group settings, including preparation for transition;
(7) modify instruction and teach skills to
increase accuracy, fluency, academic vocabulary, and comprehension in reading,
writing, and listening including modifying pace of instruction, introducing
monitoring strategies, and providing organizational cues;
(8) modify instruction and teach skills to
increase accuracy and proficiency in mathematical reasoning and
calculation;
(9) collect and
interpret academic progress monitoring data using a variety of assessment
tools, including general outcome measures, curriculum-specific measures, and
grade-level content standard measures;
(10) design, implement, monitor, and adjust
instructional programs;
(11)
utilize assistive technology devices, accessible instructional materials, and
accommodations to strengthen or compensate for differences in perception,
attention, memory, processing, comprehension, and expression;
(12) design, implement, monitor, and adjust a
range of evidence-based instructional strategies and practices and develop and
adapt specialized materials that facilitate student engagement and the
maintenance and generalization of skills;
(13) access information from functional
behavioral assessments in order to develop, implement, monitor, evaluate, and
revise as needed an individual positive behavioral support plan across settings
and personnel;
(14) design
functional and safe school and classroom environments, utilize classroom
management theories and strategies, establish consistent classroom-based
positive behavioral support practices, and apply individual positive behavioral
interventions and practices to support learning, behavior, social, and
emotional needs; and
(15) collect,
interpret, and use data to monitor the effectiveness of replacement behaviors,
prompts, routines, and reinforcers in changing and maintaining positive
behaviors.
D.
Collaboration and communication. A teacher of special education: academic and
behavioral strategist cultivates and maintains positive, collaborative
relationships with children and youth with disabilities who have a range of
mild to moderate needs in the areas of academics, behavior, social, emotional,
communication, and functional performance, families, educators, other
professionals, and the community to support development and educational
progress. The teacher must be able to:
(1)
access services, networks, agencies, and organizations for individuals with
autism spectrum disorders, developmental cognitive disability, emotional or
behavioral disability, specific learning disabilities, and other health
disabilities and their families;
(2) understand the issues and resources and
apply strategies needed when transitioning and reintegrating children and youth
into and out of alternative environments;
(3) provide and receive consultation and
collaborate with educators, specialists, families, paraprofessionals, and
interagency professionals for the purposes of observation, problem-solving,
providing positive behavior supports, and coaching in order to improve the
academic and nonacademic performance of children and youth;
(4) differentiate the roles and
responsibilities of mental health professionals and agencies from those of
school professionals in order to align services to children and youth with
disabilities;
(5) assist children
and youth and families in understanding terminology and identifying concerns,
priorities, and resources during the identification of a disability and at
critical transition points across the life span;
(6) apply cultural competencies, including
self-awareness of one's personal perspectives, when communicating and problem
solving, taking into account differences in familial background, socioeconomic
status, and cultural and linguistic diversity;
(7) collaborate and actively participate with
stakeholders to develop, implement, and refine schoolwide systems of academic
and behavioral supports;
(8)
cultivate professional relationships that encourage peer observation, coaching,
and systems for giving and receiving feedback from colleagues to enhance
student instruction and program outcomes;
(9) access and evaluate information,
research, and emerging practices relevant to the fields of autism spectrum
disorders, developmental cognitive disability, emotional or behavioral
disability, specific learning disabilities, other health disabilities, and
academic and behavioral interventions through consumer and professional
organizations, peer-reviewed journals, and other publications; and
(10) engage in continuing professional
development and reflection to increase knowledge and skill as a special
educator and inform instructional practices, decisions, and interactions with
children and youth and their families.
E. Clinical experiences. A teacher of special
education: academic and behavioral strategist applies the standards of
effective practice in teaching students who have a range of mild to moderate
needs from the primary disability areas of autism spectrum disorders,
developmental cognitive delays, emotional or behavioral disorders, other health
disorders, and specific learning disabilities in primary (kindergarten through
grade 4), middle level (grades 5 through 8), and secondary (grades 9 through
12, including transition programs) settings.