Related Services: Common Supports for Students with Disabilities

CAEP standards for the accreditation of educators are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness not only of new instructional practitioners but also the evidence-base used to assess those qualities in the classroom.

• Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge

The DEC Recommended Practices are designed to help improve the learning outcomes of young children (birth through age five) who have or who are at-risk for developmental delays or disabilities. Please note that, because the IRIS Center has not yet developed resources aligned with DEC Topic 8: Transition, that topic is not currently listed on this page.

Assessment

• A1. Practitioners work with the family to identify family preferences for assessment processes.
• A2. Practitioners work as a team with the family and other professionals to gather assessment information.
• A3. Practitioners use assessment materials and strategies that are appropriate for the child’s age and level of development and accommodate the child’s sensory, physical, communication, cultural, linguistic, social, and emotional characteristics.
• A4. Practitioners conduct assessments that include all areas of development and behavior to learn about the child’s strengths, needs, preferences, and interests.
• A5. Practitioners conduct assessments in the child’s dominant language and in additional languages if the child is learning more than one language.
• A6. Practitioners use a variety of methods, including observation and interviews, to gather assessment information from multiple sources, including the child’s family and other significant individuals in the child’s life.
• A7. Practitioners obtain information about the child’s skills in daily activities, routines, and environments such as home, center, and community.
• A8. Practitioners use clinical reasoning in addition to assessment results to identify the child’s current levels of functioning and to determine the child’s eligibility and plan for instruction.
• A9. Practitioners implement systematic ongoing assessment to identify learning targets, plan activities, and monitor the child’s progress to revise instruction as needed.
• A10. Practitioners use assessment tools with sufficient sensitivity to detect child progress, especially for the child with significant support needs.
• A11. Practitioners report assessment results so that they are understandable and useful to families.

Teaming and Collaboration

• TC1. Practitioners representing multiple disciplines and families work together as a team to plan and implement sup ports and services to meet the unique needs of each child and family.
• TC2. Practitioners and families work together as a team to systematically and regularly exchange expertise, knowledge, and information to build team capacity and jointly solve problems, plan, and implement interventions.
• TC3. Practitioners use communication and group facilitation strategies to enhance team functioning and interpersonal relationships with and among team members.
• TC4. Team members assist each other to discover and access community-based services and other informal and formal resources to meet family-identified child or family needs.
• TC5. Practitioners and families may collaborate with each other to identify one practitioner from the team who serves as the primary liaison between the family and other team members based on child and family priorities and needs.

InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards are designed to help teachers of all grade levels and content areas to prepare their students either for college or for employment following graduation.

• Standard 10: Leadership and Collaboration