Student Success Team
The Student Success Team (SST) is an ideal forum for assisting students. SST is a regular education function, designed to assist the regular classroom teacher in meeting student needs. Essentially, it is a child study team.
The St. Thomas the Apostle School Student Success Team usually consists of the following persons:
- Resource Teacher, or designee, who acts as the facilitator
- Teacher consultant and/or school psychologist (GRPS Team)
- Referring teacher or regular classroom teacher
- Other teachers or St. Thomas personnel involved with the student
- Assistant Principal, if needed
The SST facilitator schedules the meeting and notifies all participants. Prior to the meeting, the referring teacher reviews the student’s performance record and collects work samples. For the second meeting, the resource teacher, psychologist or resource specialist should have done at least one observation of the student-preferably in the area of the problem (this may be a subject area or may be an observation on the playground or during lunch) This person should also review the student’s Cum folder.
How the GRPS Special Education Team Works with SST
- A designated time will be agreed upon to meet: for example, the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 11:30. Teacher’s classes should be covered, if meetings will take place during the regular school day, not including lunchtime.
- As parents and/or teachers become concerned about students, and wish to have them brought to the Student Success Team (SST), they will contact the Resource Teacher. A running “agenda” with the name of the student and teacher will be kept.
- Approximately 4 days prior to the SST meeting, the Resource Teacher will fax the agenda to the GRPS Team: this is helpful because many times the students have some previous special education history, and there are records in the GRPS screening file that can provide useful information. The school district master files are also helpful, but accessing them will require a little extra time.
- Prior to the meeting a schedule will be determined, each teacher will be assigned a time slot, 15-30 min. to talk with the GRPS Team or they may brief the Resource Teacher to speak on their behalf. The referring teacher should come to the meeting prepared, with work samples, observation notes, specific questions to ask, etc. The Resource teacher will supply copies of pertinent paperwork, the student cum folder and confidential file.
- After meeting with the regular classroom teacher, the GRPS Team can
usually get a “feel” for what needs to be done. Possibilities
include:
- Recommendations to the teacher
- Observation of student
- An academic screening
- A behavioral screening
- Depending on the recommendations, parent contact should be made, if not done initially, and certain forms will need to be filled out, such as, teacher information form, parent questionnaire, and parent permission to screen. When the forms are returned, the appropriate service will be scheduled.
- Please DO NOT have the parents sign the permission to screen form prior to the team meeting, this locks the team into completing evaluations that may not be in the best interests of the child, and can be premature.
- The service provider in your building does speech only screenings. You do not need to bring a student who needs speech only (articulation) screens to the team