E85: Preschool Teachers (General Education AND Special Education (ECSE's)!
Welcome to the 4th week of the IEP Team Bonus Series! Today we ae talking preschool teachers, and there are 2 different situations! 1) A district hires a preschool teacher who is a general education teacher AND an "itenerant" ECSE (early childhood special education teacher) 2) A district can hire someone who is DUAL certified and is the general education teacher AND the ECSE!
[Scroll down for giveaway details!]
Welcome to the 4th week of the IEP Team Bonus Series!
Today we ae talking preschool teachers, and there are 2 different situations!
1) A district hires a preschool teacher who is a general education teacher AND an “itenerant” ECSE (early childhood special education teacher)
2) A district can hire someone who is DUAL certified and is the general education teacher AND the ECSE!
In this episode we break down each situation, what the qualifications are, and what their job actually looks like!
All to give you a little context on what’s happening “behind the scenes” in preschool classrooms!
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E85: Preschool Teachers (General Education AND Special Education (ECSE’s!)
[00:00:00] For parents with preschoolers, or maybe you have a child who’s about to be a preschooler. I don’t know why they made the system so confusing for you.
See today in our IEP team bonus series episode, we are talking about preschool teachers. And some districts hire teachers who are dual certified as general education teachers and special education teachers for preschool and some districts hire both separately. So they’re two different people.
Well, we’ll get into all the details in this episode. So stay tuned because today we’re talking about preschool teachers, what their qualifications are and what they actually do for your child.
You are listening to the parent IUP lab, the podcast that helps you get an effective IEP plan for your child so that you can get them supported and learning in school. I’m Beth LEAs and fellow occupational therapist, who started to notice trends in parents who got effective IEP for their kids without having to fight the school.
My mission is to help you turn insider knowledge from the school side into effective [00:01:00] parent advocacy for your child. The parent iep lab is all about the important parent input prepping for an upcoming meeting but also commonly missed opportunities for parents to get an effective iep outside of the iep meeting so let’s dive into today’s topic and think about what we can change and tweak to get the right formula for success for your child to learn and grow at school welcome to the lab
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Okay. So, as I mentioned in the intro, preschool is a little bit different and that’s because it’s considered quote unquote part B services. Which have a different roles within the law and all states have a little bit different ways of how they fund preschool and the rules surrounding preschool. So there’s been several times where people are coming into the prep course, or they are coming through the decoding IEP data [00:03:00] workshop.
And we have to quickly look at the rules for their state as far as preschool goes, because it might be slightly different.
For example, some of that is about funding and opportunity and support within the preschool classroom. So in Colorado, actually, what’s coming down in the next year is that we are going to Start offering. Universal preschool, which means that every person who’s living in the district should be able to get a spot for preschool in their local district. Now that is not the case as it works right now, there’s like a lottery system and you have to get in, and if you have an IEP, then you are able to get in sooner to get your services.
And it’s like this whole very complicated workaround, but all that to say that every state does these a little bit differently. Here’s the thing though. The thing that we can talk about across states is the certification, the qualification and how districts run. The staffing of their preschool classrooms. And that’s what we’re going to talk about [00:04:00] today, as well as how they actually are serving your kid in the classroom. Like, what does this actually look like?
So there’s obviously a lot to talk about as far as preschools go. But today for the bonus episode, we’re focusing on the qualifications for preschool teachers and what they do. So if you’re new to this IEP team bonus series, then just know that we’ve been at it a couple of weeks now.
And we’ve covered special education teachers and general education teachers K through 12. So it’s fitting that we’re talking about preschool teachers today because there are some overlap between special education teachers in general education teachers. When we talk about preschool. So if you’re interested in kind of checking out those other two roles and what they do and their certifications, and they’re kind of overlapped because you’ll see, as you listen to this one, there’s overlap, you can go back and scroll through your podcast player and find those just in the past.
To Thursday episodes as well. So let’s talk first about this. If a district hires a preschool teacher who is only a general education teacher, then most of [00:05:00] the time they have a second staff member with the credentials of an E C S E. Not stands for early childhood special education teacher. So E C S E is early childhood special education teacher.
And this second person would be considered itinerant. And this is actually when we talk about OTs and PTs, like we’re itinerant to, and all, all this itinerant word means is that they float between classrooms and don’t necessarily have their own room, but support multiple teachers by pushing in and giving special education services in multiple different places.
So that’s what they itinerant means. So they can either have this system where they hire a preschool teacher. Who’s has the general education teacher certification. And then they have to hire a second person who has that ECSE license, who can come in and give the special education minutes. Okay. So that’s one way of doing it.
And the second way of doing it is that the [00:06:00] district can hire one person. And this person has both the general education teacher qualifications and the E C S E or it’s special education teacher qualifications. With credentials to be both of those things. Right. And so they are doing both roles many times at the same times, but we’ll talk about like how this looks in the classroom. After we get through this first part, when we’re going to talk about qualifications.
So let’s talk about qualifications and credentials. So again, we’re going to use Colorado state guidelines here because I’m in Colorado and Colorado really, as you guys are coming into the Facebook group and really asking for. Outlines for your own states for like eligibility checklists and for these staff, you know, details. It’s really interesting that I think Colorado has a really good model and a lot of information on their website already. So it’s just kind of an easy one to find as well as me just being here and being familiar with their website to pull the guidelines here.
Um, and also just, if you’re [00:07:00] new to me, I’m an example person. I need examples. To be told to me to truly understand what I’m listening to. So this is just a good place to grab an example and to share that with you. And then if you have any questions about your state specifically, Then join us in the Facebook group and the link to join the Facebook group is in your podcast player below this episode as well. So you can just click that, fill out the information to get into the group, and we’ll see you in there and just let us know if you need any resources.
And we will help you find that. So let’s go through the Colorado rules for an ECSE, which is what we’re going to focus on So for an initial license. So somebody coming straight out of school, what they need. And they need a bachelor’s or higher degree from a regionally accredited college or university.
They need to complete an approved program for the preparation of early childhood educators. And they need to pass two exams, which are called the Praxis exams and the one for Colorado there’s [00:08:00] practice 50 24, which is the practice for teaching young children. And then there’s the practice? 52 0 5, which is the Praxis test for teaching reading to K through
So that brings up an interesting thing that I want to talk about real fast is that preschool teachers actually have a license to teach kids up to the age of eight years old. So I actually have a really, really good friend. Who’s an ECSE. I loved being in her classroom. She’s amazing. Maybe I can talk her into coming on the podcast because I think you guys would
A lot about what a good preschool teacher looks like. She’s just incredible. And what happened was she was looking for something different. She had been in the classroom a while. She wanted to do something different. She got an additional certification in autism. And so what she wanted to do is move up and provide interventions for kids who were in the autism program.
So what happens though? Is [00:09:00] that after they decided to make this switch and she was actually job sharing this position. They realized that she couldn’t run the IEP. For any kid who was nine years old or older, Because her license only covered her to be up to eight years old. Now, if this is true in your district, I’m not quite sure, but it’s something that we can look into because in at least in Colorado,
they have this early childhood education certification, but it goes up to eight years old, which. Typically kids once they turn five are going into kindergarten. So it’s this interesting, like, overlap that they have. So anyway, just to throw that caveat out there, that you could really have somebody with this certification that’s.
You know, serving kindergarten to three, maybe if you have a primary school. Like they’re, you know, they do K through three and then they do four through fifth in a different building. You actually might have somebody with this ECSE, certification that’s that’s doing the special education services. So anyway, [00:10:00] that’s just to give you context, maybe you want to ask about it, maybe it matters to you, maybe it doesn’t.
Um, but just kind of throwing that out there that I didn’t realize that that happened until my friend kind of moved into this, this physician. And then the second bullet point here under Colorado’s checklist says existing Colorado teacher license. So somebody already has a Colorado teacher license.
They may add the endorsement of an ECSE. Via just taking those two practice exams only. So they don’t necessarily have to go through it. It’s what it sounds like. They don’t necessarily have to go through the approved program and they don’t have to have an additional degree in that content area. It looks like they can just study for those two tests and then take those two tests.
Now I’ve One teacher who was K through 12 certified, who went back to school through an ECSE program. And she was working in the preschool at the same time under neath, like an [00:11:00] emergency license, which happens. But she was in a program and then got that temporary license to work in the preschool. And then of course finished her preschool, coursework and took her exams. And then she’s an ECSE and has worked in that situation for the last three or four years, I think. Um, so people do kind of like switch around
If they’re going to move into preschool or out of preschool, just know that that is a different set of qualifications. So they might be. In the middle of getting that additional certification or going through that process or. You know, taking more classes or something like So really, I mean, overall though, it’s pretty standard stuff. Right? So coursework and a test to be able to, you know, sit for those exams and then, you know, get your qualifications.
So let’s get into the second part of this podcast. Now we’re, we’re talking about what these preschool teachers actually do, and this is why I would absolutely encourage you to go in and. You know, go on field trips with [00:12:00] them, go and push and try to see if you can volunteer in the classroom. Even if it’s just one time that you’re pushing in and you’re getting to see this classroom because, oh my gosh, good preschool teachers are just so amazing. And I learned a lot about. How to teach my own son being that he’s so young by things that I saw amazing preschool teachers do. So I think there’s a lot of things that we can learn from them.
So let’s go over these two different situations. So for general education teachers only. So this is like the person who only has that general education teacher preschool certification. Right? Typically, they will have a set schedule. And this is really for both of them whoever’s running the classroom will have a set schedule that includes, you know, circle time where they’re like reading a story together, answering questions about that story.
They’re doing centers and this is where they break up into small groups and focus on certain tasks or they do crafts. And this is because they can often do centers because they typically have a paraprofessional in there with [00:13:00] Who works in the preschool with them. So typically this is a permanent person.
And that does the preschool classroom with the teacher. And so many times they can actually split the group into, and let’s say one group is doing, uh, a more engaging reading activity or they’re measuring their skills on a certain thing. And that teacher has them on the carpet. And you know, they’re reading a story and they’re answering questions about the story.
And then the para professional can be running like a craft activity so that they’re making the letter a craft. And so they have them back there and, you know, they’re using glue and scissors and. That para is kind of managing, you know, I don’t know, like five or seven kids at one table. And so they’re able to do that. And then something else to note in this situation.
Is that most of the time states have requirements that we are trying to provide all of the services that everybody needs within the classroom. So you might get some looks. You might get some pushback if you are [00:14:00] asking for pull out services in preschool, because at least in the state of Colorado, we are really supposed to be pushing into the preschool classroom to provide those services. So what happens is like these minutes that are for special education services and these accommodations and things like that. Just end up getting incorporated into the preschoolers day. And it’s really quite cool. Actually, this is really the, the environment that you most see inclusion be the most natural and people don’t necessarily need extra education into how to make inclusion work because preschool classrooms are just naturally set up to meet kids where they are developmentally.
And there’s not a lot of judgment in my opinion, from what I have seen in, you know, somebody who’s quote unquote behind or. Doesn’t have those skills yet because everybody’s coming from somewhere different. Some kids might’ve come from a very highly structured daycare situation. And some kids might’ve never been away from their mom before. [00:15:00] So there’s this naturally understanding from the staff, from what, again, from what I’ve seen in preschool. That kids are going to come in at all different levels of knowing things. And it doesn’t really matter. Like we’re just going to adapt the activities to what they know and build their skills over the next year. And everything’s going to be a new experience. And they’re just going to get more exposure to things like scissors.
You know, some parents don’t feel comfortable giving their kids scissors. And so, you know, people in the preschool classroom expect that some kids have seen scissors before and some kids haven’t. So. It’s a really good example of, you know, what inclusion actually looks like and just like the natural things that are in the day. Right.
So I kind of went off about centers a little bit. Hopefully. That helps because I’ve had a couple of questions about centers recently. So hopefully that answers your question about So their day includes a lot of times circle time centers, which is breaking up into small groups, recess music, and movement, which means that they’re popping on a YouTube video and.
[00:16:00] It’s some kind of music that has instructions to it. Like my favorite that I’ve learned from a preschool classroom is Lauria Bergner and she has a lot of, you know, music that has instructions to it and movements that go to it. So a lot of times they’ll do that. They’ll do a snack and then they’ll also have a lot of time for free play.
Um, some teachers will have like a certain theme for a couple of weeks or units. And so some of them will do like a transportation unit or they’ll have an animal unit. Um, and they’ll just keep it really fun. So preschool tends to be super hands-on and that’s why it’s one of my most favorite places to be is in a
So let’s talk about the other situation where there’s
That do both the general education and special education minutes and services within the classroom. So typically you can probably guess by the way that I went off about centers, that when somebody is both the general education teacher and the ECSE meaning the special education teacher.
Th that they are. [00:17:00] Really capitalizing on those centers time, especially if there’s like the speech therapist comes in on Tuesdays, right. And so maybe the speech therapist comes in and they do a group activity with, you know, understanding the story or they’re using a program like story champs to like pick out the character in the story or the plot or, you know, location or whatever. And so that staff member or the speech therapist, or the OT, or whoever’s coming in can do like a whole group activity.
And that allows the flexibility for the special education teacher or the ECSE. To pull out, you know, a small group of, of kids to the side, or maybe just one kid to the side. So that they can do targeted work. On their IEP goals as well. So a lot of times there’s this, oh, we have extra support on Tuesdays, or we have somebody else that comes in on Thursdays or the para is in charge of doing a whole group activity.
At some point and the teacher is still in there, but maybe they’re pulling aside to do these [00:18:00] special education minutes. Now when somebody is itinerant, meaning they float between, it’s like, yeah, they can come in during centers and they can pull them to the side, but it’s like an additional person that’s there.
So it doesn’t necessarily have to be this like planned thing. They can probably come in. Um, any time that they’re in the classroom and kind of pull those kids to the side and work on their IEP goals from there as well.
So, what I’ve seen happen though, is when this teacher is both an ECSE and a general education teacher, that a lot of the times, and even if they don’t have this. Specific certification. What ends up happening is the preschools are so embedded. Like I was talking about just like everybody accepts that like people are at different levels and that’s okay.
Then a lot of times what happens is those that embedded work gets into the story, right? If they have like three or four kids with a similar goal, As far as learning numbers, then guess what? That teacher is probably going to pick an activity for that [00:19:00] week or that day, that targets that goal so that everybody benefits from working on this goal, but it specifically is designed so that that teacher can learn and take data on these particular kids goals of.
Learning their numbers or identifying letters or something like that. So it can be a really good thing because we’re talking about like universal design, even where like, these things are beneficial to everybody, but it also addresses where a couple kids need some extra support and learning these skills. So it’s just a really cool environment. And that’s why I really, really encourage you that you, you know, be able to push it and be able to observe somehow, go in and volunteer, um, and see what you can learn from this setting, because
it’s such a fun setting to push into, and I think you would learn a lot about. Not only just like the context of like what they’re talking about when they talk about centers or what that looks [00:20:00] But also just the techniques that they’re using to be able to build those skills. And then you just learn those cues that they’re using and you can pick up on what they’re doing as well, Which just makes it easier to translate things to home Well
Okay. So hopefully that was really helpful in breaking down these two different situations and really talking about preschool as far as general education teacher. ECSE teacher either itinerant or those two roles being combined into one. And so hopefully that gives you a little bit more context into what they
What the classroom might look like and what you can do to further learn about their role and you know, things that you can ask of them too. So if you have any questions about preschool that I didn’t answer in this episode, please know that you can go into the Facebook group, join us in there. So please go ahead and click the link below this podcast in your podcast player. To go into the Facebook group
Also just another reminder to go ahead and enter the [00:21:00] giveaway. So you just have a week left to enter the giveaway so don’t forget to enter the giveaway we are going to announce those shortly after thanksgiving and i hope you guys have a great week thank you so much for joining me and i’ll see you same time same place next week thanks So much!