Children with behavioral health disorders often experience challenges in general education settings, sometimes resulting in placement in alternative settings. After decades of research into how students with behavioral health disorders learn, including students with serious emotional disturbance (SED) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schools have developed and implemented successful approaches and evidence-based practices that are helping many children, even those with the most serious needs, learn and achieve academic proficiency in the general classroom. Some of these practices include: intervention plans, positive behavioral-support strategies, and individualized approaches to teaching and learning, among other innovations in teaching. This webinar will provide an in-depth overview of these services, discuss strategies for how these services can be utilized to create an inclusive school, and highlight the experiences of family members advocating for their children. The webinar will also briefly address relevant federal laws affecting a school’s responsibility to provide services and include students. Participants will gain a new perspective for what is possible for children with even the most serious behavioral health conditions, and potential strategies for bringing these practices to their own schools.
Presenters
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Thomas Hehir, Silvana and Christopher Pascucci Professor of Practice in Learning Differences and former director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs.
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Ethan d’Ablemont Burnes is the principal of the Manning School in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston for eight years, where he has focused on building an inclusion model for students with emotional impairments and increasing the academic challenge in the classroom.
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Monica Causey, family member and parent advocate, Rutherford County, Tennessee.
Moderator
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Lewis Bossing, Senior Staff Attorney of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law