IEP Team Decision-Making Eligibility Tool

1. IEP Team Decision-Making Eligibility Tool Alt-MSA Eligibility

2. Why Complete this Tool? • The IEP Team is required to determine assessment participation • Parental guardian involvement is documented • The tool provides a guide for the IEP Team’s decision-making process

3. Why Complete this Tool? • The IEP Team is encouragedto use the Alt-MSAIEP Team Decision-Making Process Eligibility Tool for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities to determine if the Alt-MSA is the appropriate assessment • The tool uses multiple sources of information to document the assessment decision • The tool provides documentation for the Alt-MSA Monitoring Process

4. Alt-MSA Monitoring Process • In January 2010, MSDE will be conducting an audit of each student identified as participating in the Alternate Maryland School Assessment (Alt-MSA) • In each of the local school systems that are implementing the Maryland Online IEP, the monitoring process is conducted as a desk monitoring process since the DSE/EIS has full access to the data included in the Maryland Online IEP • Local school systems not using the Maryland Online IEP, the DSE/EIS provides the Local school systems with several options to share the monitoring documentation with MSDE

5. Alt-MSA Monitoring Process • A team of experienced consultants review the IEPs for compliance on meeting the eligibility requirements for participation in the Alt-MSA • The Alt-MSA tool may assist in the Alt-MSA monitoring process to ensure the appropriate identification of students participating in the Alt-MSA.  Without the tool, the results of the audit may not fully represent the process • If a system does not appropriately  document eligibility during this year’s audit, the tool will be required as part of a corrective action

6. Getting Started • Complete Demographic Page • LSS Number: Local School System • SASID#: State Assigned Student Identification Number • IEP Team Chairperson will sign the document once it is completed.

7. Team Members • It is an IEP Team decision when determining the appropriate assessment for a student • IEP Team members should sign the tool to indicated their participation in the IEP decision-making process • If during the IEP team meeting, the team will be reviewing assessment results, the local school system needs to designate who is the individual(s) qualified to interpret and discuss those assessment results

8. Characteristics of Assessment Review Maryland’s Differences Among Assessment Handout

9. Parent Understanding • Fully inform parents of the impact this decision would make or have on their child’s progress toward earning a Maryland High School Diploma • Parents are informed that the decision is made annually for the assessed year • If the parent/guardian does not attend the IEP meeting, they must be informed that the meeting was held and the decisions made

10. Significant Cognitive Disability The Alt-MSA Decision-Making Process

11. Significant Cognitive Disability • IDEA defines intellectual disability, formerly mental retardation, as ". . . significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance." [34 Code of Federal Regulations §300.8(c)(6)] • When making this determination, the IEP team should review all information available pertaining to the cognitive and adaptive skillsof the student.

12. Significant Cognitive Disability • Intellectual functioning, or IQ, is usually measured by a test called an IQ test. The average score is 100. Those students who have scores below 70 to 75 are thought to have an intellectual disability • Therefore, those students with the most significant cognitive disability may have scores at or significantly below the 70 IQ range • The IEP team must determine the impact of the cognitive disability on the student’s academic performance

13. Significant Cognitive Disability

14. Significant Cognitive Disability • MSDE has not identified a specific IQ score for this group, in TA Bulletin #17 guidance is given on what a score might be when an IEP team is looking at multiple sources of information.   • An IQ score is only one of the sources used to make the determination as to whether a student is a student with a significant cognitive disability. The determination is not made by one specific test score or source, but an IEP team should take into consideration multiple sources of information, including adaptive skills, when determining a student with the most significant cognitive disability. 

15. Significant Cognitive Disability • Students who may have variable results on IQ tests, may be determined a student with the most significant cognitive disability when multiple sources are reviewed.   • Teams should not use a categorical determination when determining a “significant cognitive delay”

16. Eligibility Criteria The Alt-MSA Decision-Making Process

17. Eligibility Criteria • IEP Chairperson needs to assure all necessary multiple sources of information are available to guide the decision making process • What are multiple sources of information? Sources of information that document academic achievement to guide the decision making process. Those sources may include the following: • Current IEP • Results from informal and formal assessments • Data gathered from classroom assessments • Information from parent/student

18. Eligibility Criteria • The process begins by reviewing the criteria for eligibility, the IEP Team first needs to determine if the student has a significant cognitive disability Descriptor: Review of student’s school records indicate that he/she has a moderate, severe, profound disability that significantly impact cognitive function and behavior or multiple disabilities that significantly impact cognitive function and adaptive behavior.

19. Eligibility Criteria • The IEP Team needs to consider the following: • The term significant cognitive disability is a designation given to a smallnumber of Maryland students with disabilities for purposes of their participation in the statewide assessment program • The IEP team must review and discuss multiple sources of information, including psychological assessments, assessments of adaptive skills, classroom observations, formal and informal assessment data, curricular content for evidence of a significant cognitive disability

20. Eligibility Criteria The IEP Team will need to document the evaluation review of cognitive/adaptive ability when making this determination • Individual Cognitive Ability Test • Adaptive Behavior Skills Assessment

21. Eligibility Criteria • The IEP Team must answer yes to all criteria • If the IEP Team disagrees/answers no, the team must using this eligibility tool and consider if the student is eligible for participation in the regular MSA or HSA with accommodations or use the IEP Team Decision-Making Process Eligibility Tool for determining participation in the Modified MSA/HSA

22. Eligibility Criteria Criteria #1 The student is learning (at emerging, readiness, or functional literacy levels) extended Maryland reading, extended Maryland mathematics, and extended Maryland science content standards

23. Eligibility Criteria #1 Descriptor • All students access the Maryland State Curriculum (SC) or Core Learning Goals (CLG). There are no separate extended content standards in Maryland • The content learning objectives and expected outcomes for the student are extended to focus on the emerging, readiness (prerequisite) and/or functional (real life) application of the general curriculum • The student is substantially below grade level expectations even with documented participation in research-based interventions over multiple years in all content standard areas

24. Activity

25. Eligibility Criteria Criteria #2 The student requires explicit and ongoing instruction in functional skills.

26. Eligibility Criteria #2 Descriptor • The student has substantial deficits in adaptive behavior*, such that the student has difficulty demonstrating independence in everyday living skills, including interpersonal and social interactions across multiple settings *Adaptive Behavior is defined as essential for someone to live independently and to function safely in daily life. Adaptive behaviors include “real” life skills such as grooming, dressing, safety, ability to work, money management, and social and personal responsibility

27. Eligibility Criteria Criteria #3 The student requires extensive and substantial modification (e.g., reduced complexity of objectives and learning materials, and more time to learn) of general education curriculumCurriculum activities differ significantly from that of their non-disabled peers. They learn different materials, and may participate in different learning activities

28. Eligibility Criteria #3 Descriptor • The modifications needed by the student to participate in the regular assessment would compromise the validity of the test • The objectives written for the student in the designated content areas(s) are significantly less complex than the grade level expectation, the curriculum is significantly modified and instructional pacing is significantly reduced, making the regular MSA/HSA or Modified MSA/HSA, even with accommodations, inappropriate for the student

29. Eligibility Criteria Criteria #4 The student requires intensive instruction and may require extensive supports, including physical prompts, to learn, apply, and transfer or generalize knowledge and skills across multiple settings

30. Eligibility Criteria #4 Descriptor • The student requires substantial, repeated, individualized instruction with extensive supports such as substantially adapted and modified materials, instructional prompting systems, individualized methods of accessing information in alternative ways such as tactile, visual, auditory, and multi-sensory, across multiple settings to acquire, maintain, generalize and demonstrate performance of skills

31. Eligibility Criteria Criteria #5 The student requires extensive support to perform and participate meaningfully and productively in daily activities in school, home, community, and work environments

32. Eligibility Criteria #5 Descriptor • The student requires intensive systematic instruction across multiple settings with tasks broken into small steps for all learning outcomes • The student is dependent on others, for some or all daily activities with the expectation that the student will require extensive ongoing support in adulthood

33. Eligibility Criteria Did the IEP Team answer YES to ALL the criteria? If YES, then proceed to the Additional Requirements on the Tool. If NO, then using this form and consider the student eligible for participation in the regular MSA/Mod-MSA or HSA/Mod-HSA with accommodations.

34. Additional Requirements The Alt-MSA Decision-Making Process

35. Additional Requirements If an IEP Team responded YES to All the criteria listed in the tool, then the IEP Team must also answer YES to ALL of the additional requirements, in order for the student to be appropriately identified as student to participate in Alt-MSA.

36. Additional Requirements • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is not based on a specific categorical label and/or educational placement. • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is an IEP team decision, and the decision is NOT being made for administrative purposes and/or anticipated impact on local school system and/or school performance scores.

37. Additional Requirements • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is NOT based on deafness/blindness, visual, auditory, physical and/or emotional behavioral disabilities • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is NOT based on language, social, cultural, or economic differences • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is NOT based solely on the fact that the student’s instructional reading level is below the grade level of the regular MSA/HSA or Modified MSA/HSA to be administered

38. Additional Requirements • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is NOT based on the fact that the student is expected to perform poorly on the regular MSA/HSA or Modified MSA /HSA • The decision for participating in the Alt-MSA is NOT based on the fact that the student is expected to experience significant test anxiety under regular testing conditions, even with the provision of accommodations or based on the high probability that the student will demonstrate disruptive behaviors during the regular MSA/HSA or Modified MSA/HSA as a result of this significant test anxiety

39. Eligibility Criteria • If the student meets or exceeds the standards on previous alternate assessments, the IEP Team should consider participation in the MSA or Mod-MSA or HSA or Mod-HSA with accommodations

40. Eligibility Criteria Criteria #6 • As documented through the eligibility criteria and additional requirements listed above, the student cannot participate in the regular MSA/HSA or Modified MSA/HSA even with accommodations • YES/Agree • NO/Disagree

41. Additional Requirements • If any or all criteria or additional requirements are identified as “NO” using the form! • The student does not meet the eligibility criteria for the Alt-MSA participation. The student will not participate in this assessment

42. Eligibility Decision • If the IEP Team determines that all eligibility criteria and additional requirement statements are identified as “YES”, then the student is eligible to participate in the Alt-MSA

43. IEP Team Decision • Ensure that the IEP Team has documented the decision on this form and in the IEP • Document disagreement by any team member. • If parent disagrees, provide copy of the Parental Rights Handbook and inform of due process rights

44. Documenting the appropriate assessment in the IEP IEP Teams need to indicate YESor NOto all applicable Statewide assessments, in which the student will participate, including the applicable content areas on the student’s IEP

45. Maryland’s Statewide Online This is where you document the appropriate assessment This is where you document why the assessment was determined appropriate