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Issue Areas
Child Welfare
Cultural Competence
Families
Juvenile Justice
Mental Health
School Violence Prevention and Intervention
Schools and Special Education
Alternative Schools
Miniwebs
Functional Behavioral Assessment
Prevention Strategies that Work
Prevention and Early Intervention
Promising Practice in Children's Mental Health
Strength-Based Assessment
Wraparound Planning
Strengthening the Safety Net
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Vermont is committed to a state-wide approach that enables schools to serve all students and their families. Two programs, ACT 230 and BEST(Building Effective Supports for Teaching Students with Behavioral Challenges), are the central pieces of a state-wide puzzle of child care reform. ACT 230 focuses on the early identification of students at risk of school failure and on increasing the capacity of schools to support all students. The state’s BEST program carries this initiative a step further by providing teachers with materials and training that enables them to address behaviorally challenging students. ACT 230 Implemented in 1990, ACT 230 has led education reform in Vermont, particularly for special education funding and services. Although Vermont was already a leader in including all students in the general curriculum, the new funding system hoped to increase the use of pre-referral services and the placement of children with disabilities in regular classes. According to a 1995 report, of the students that have exited special education and have been placed in regular classrooms, 79 percent were rated successful by their parents in classroom performance, behavior in school and the classroom, friendships, and participation in after-school activities. Perhaps more importantly, 96 percent of the students reported that they now like school and 89 percent reported that they felt successful in school. ACT 230 has had a significant impact on the state of special education services in Vermont by serving a greater number of diverse students in need and by working to succeed at having all students prosper in regular classrooms. BEST Vermont’s BEST initiative builds on the National Agenda to Improve Results for Children and Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance by focusing on four areas: (1) increasing educational opportunities and options (e.g., addressing different learning styles and intelligences, vocational opportunities and apprenticeships, social skills, and the community as classroom); (2) improving the school environment (e.g., school-wide and individual behavior management systems); (3) enhancing home-community-school collaborations; and (4) building teacher and student support (e.g., teacher teams, behavior specialists, and mentors). BEST has developed materials (e.g., A Positive Approach to Understanding and Addressing Challenging Behaviors; Supporting Educators and Families to Include Students with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties in Regular Education) and has offered training in such areas as Crisis Prevention and Management (CPM). Teacher feedback suggests that the training is effective. The number of requests for learning physical intervention skills has declined significantly since teachers have been provided with CPM training. Two Vermont schools, Montpelier High School and the Barnett School, reflect how the state is developing its school-based capacity. Montpelier High School has used BEST training to increase staff ability to work with behaviorally challenging students while reorganizing the schedule so that teachers have time to plan how to meet the needs of diverse learners. This, plus the commitment of the principal and faculty to serve all students, has enabled the school to serve students who are behaviorally challenging. The Barnett School, an elementary school that serves an area marked by rural poverty, has been able to include all students by combining an engaging academic curriculum; clear and proactive behavioral expectations; and a planning room to which students can self-refer or be referred in order to gain academic and behavioral support. As in the case of Montpelier High School, the principal and staff have a commitment to serving all students. The state of Vermont also leads training in Crisis Prevention and Management, supports a graduate study program at the University of Vermont to prepare teachers to work with students with behavioral challenges, and provides extensive technical assistance and interagency collaboration. |
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| © 2001 The CECP is part of the American Institutes for Research (AIR), and is funded under a cooperative agreement with the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education (ED), with supplemental funding from the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). | ||||||||
