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Understanding Special Ed Services
Episode 27 •
19th March 2025 • The Inside Scoop • Cobb County School District
00:00:00
00:21:36
Shownotes
Cobb County School District provides essential special education services that significantly enhance the educational experiences of students with special needs. It is imperative for parents to comprehend the available resources and supports designed to assist their children. In this enlightening discussion, Host David Owen engages with George Morgan, the Director of Special Education, to explore the diverse services offered within our district. We delve into the identification process for special needs students, the development of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), and the importance of collaboration among educators and families. Our conversation emphasizes the critical role of community involvement and the continuum of support that extends from preschool through age 22, ensuring that every student receives the individualized attention necessary for their academic and social growth.
Guest: George Morgan, Director of Special Education Services
Chapters:
- 00:00 - Introduction to Special Education Services
- 04:18 - Understanding the IEP Process for Special Needs Children
- 08:36 - Navigating Educational Support Systems
- 15:50 - Support Services for Special Needs Students
- 16:25 - Connecting Students to Community Resources
Useful links from the podcast:
- Special Education - Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Special Education Nursing
- Special Education – Preschool
- Special Education – Parent Mentors
- Georgia Department of Education - Special Education Services and Supports
- Special Education
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http://www.youtube.com/@TheRealCobbSchools
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The Cobb County School District:
https://www.cobbk12.org
Takeaways:
- In Cobb County, over 14,000 students are receiving special education supports tailored to various needs.
- The process of identifying special needs students involves collaboration between parents and educational professionals.
- Individual Education Programs (IEPs) are crucial for outlining the specific support each special needs student requires.
- Parent mentors play an essential role in guiding families through the complexities of the special education system in Cobb County.
- Support and service administrators are embedded in each school to assist families in navigating available resources.
- Cobb County provides a wide range of services from preschool through age 22, ensuring students receive necessary support throughout their education.
Transcripts
Speaker A:
All about Cobb special education services is the topic for today's the Inside Scoop.
Speaker A:Hello and welcome back to the Inside Scoop.
Speaker A:I'm David Owen.
Speaker A:Every parent wants the very best education for their child.
Speaker A:That includes the parents of special needs students, too.
Speaker A:Getting the right people, providing the right services for your child can make a huge difference in the lives of special needs families.
Speaker A:It's critical here to provide insights on what that looks like.
Speaker A:In Cobb is our director of special education, George Morgan.
Speaker A:George, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker B:Hi, David.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker A:Good to see you.
Speaker A:It's great having you here.
Speaker A:Although the tie is just so over the top.
Speaker A:You are.
Speaker B:I mean, I chose this color for you.
Speaker A:Okay, that's.
Speaker A:I've never had somebody do that, but that's all.
Speaker B:So you not like it?
Speaker A:No, purple's fine.
Speaker A:It's good.
Speaker A:It's all good.
Speaker A:So you, as head of the special ed department, so many challenges to deal with.
Speaker A:And that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you here, is to understand what you guys do, who you serve, and maybe offer some help to parents who have a special needs child as well.
Speaker A:So let's just start kind of as an overview.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:How big is the special needs community in Cobb County?
Speaker A:Students.
Speaker A:How many students have special needs in Cobb?
Speaker B:That's a good question.
Speaker B:We have over 4,14,000 students in our district receiving special education supports.
Speaker B:And those supports are wide ranging.
Speaker B:We have students that receive supports for a number of different eligibility categories, whether it's a specific learning disability and other health impairment, maybe even autism.
Speaker B:Maybe they're deaf, hard of hearing.
Speaker B:There is a list of categories that we support.
Speaker B:And on a daily basis we've got special educators tapping in to provide that support.
Speaker A:Actually, kind of.
Speaker A:My next question, how many special ed teachers and I guess parapros.
Speaker B:Yes, We've got special education teachers, paraprofessionals, related service providers, think nurses and occupational therapists, physical therapists.
Speaker B:We have a lot of different folks, and that's only a small list out of a long list of folks that are there to support students.
Speaker B:And we're talking about over 2,000 of them that are supporting our students across the district.
Speaker A:How are those students situations reviewed or qualified?
Speaker A:Or let me ask you this, how are they identified, first of all as being a special needs student Potential.
Speaker A:Not every child that comes in is a special needs student.
Speaker A:How does that process work?
Speaker A:Because a lot of us don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's actually one of the most frequently asked questions when you have parents that are exploring the possibility of having their students receive services they want to know, how does this whole process work?
Speaker B:And you've got a team of professionals that come together with parents using all of this information that is gathered over time to make those decisions.
Speaker B:So you have information that's provided from the parent, you have information provided from the schools, sometimes evaluative information that is provided from folks like our school psychologists and other personnel.
Speaker B:The list keeps going on and on, but we bring all of that information together and we make a decision based on some rules and requirements about whether the student is eligible for services.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And those rules and requirements are, I'm guessing, federal, state.
Speaker A:Everybody's got something to say about the situation.
Speaker B:That is true.
Speaker B:You're in the right pocket with that.
Speaker A:And I'm assuming a lot of paperwork.
Speaker B:There is paperwork, yes.
Speaker B:There is paperwork after paperwork after paperwork.
Speaker B:But it's good in that it defines exactly what students need and gives us a good foundation for really understanding who is the student.
Speaker B:What is it based on their profile that they're going to need from us if they're deemed eligible?
Speaker B:Without all that information, we wouldn't be able to hit the mark as well as we do.
Speaker A:All right, so we have a child who has been deemed eligible for special needs services.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Okay, as a parent, what's next?
Speaker A:How does that all work?
Speaker A:I mean, the whole process, first of all, I could see as being overwhelming for a parent who's probably overwhelmed to begin with.
Speaker A:So what would be the next step?
Speaker A:Do you guys approach the parent?
Speaker A:Does the parent fill out a special form?
Speaker A:How does that all work?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:After they determine that the child is eligible, they move forward with developing an iep, which is an individual education program.
Speaker B:And what you've got are all the supports that will be available to the students, to that particular student as they're going through their educational journey year to year.
Speaker A:And that's tailored for the student?
Speaker B:That is tailored specifically for the student.
Speaker B:So you've got those same professionals.
Speaker B:We talked about a team of people.
Speaker B:We've got parents at the table.
Speaker B:We've got those professionals that helped determine the child was eligible for services in the first place, all coming together to make some decisions about what is it that this student requires day to day from a special education teacher, from a related service provider, from additional supports.
Speaker B:However, those supports.
Speaker B:Look, who is it that is providing those supports?
Speaker B:How do we get that student to make progress based on the supports that we outline?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And this goes to the famous EIP meetings I've heard about.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Which can be rather lengthy, I would imagine, because you're Having these very in depth and at times, maybe even painful discussions about a child's needs and where the parent would like to see them go and the assessments.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Is that how that all kind of works?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, these are honest conversations that we're having, necessary conversations so that we can see the growth that we need to see from students.
Speaker B:It was interesting a second ago you said eip, and it's one of those things because there's so many acronyms out there.
Speaker A:We are educated.
Speaker A:That's what we do.
Speaker B:They are.
Speaker B:It's interesting because one, as they're looking through the IEP by going through that process and supporting students with that document, there is a compliment when the students are deemed eligible, actually the family gets a welcome packet.
Speaker B:And one of the items in that welcome packet is a list of acronyms.
Speaker B:When you said EIP a second ago, I thought about all of those acronyms because sometimes you need that guide right next to you to know what exactly have they said in this meeting based on all of these acronyms?
Speaker B:So just a little funny addition because those welcome packets are really.
Speaker A:No, that's spot on.
Speaker A:I mean, education, it seems like there must be a class in educational graduate degree programs that make up an acronym kind of thing.
Speaker B:Which gets to your point of how do you even navigate this as a parent?
Speaker B:What is happening after you go through the process of determining eligibility?
Speaker B:What happens after you establish that iep?
Speaker B:And who can you go to as you have questions?
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Some of the ways that we kind of help parents navigate that is to say, one, we've got parent mentors in our district.
Speaker B:There's two of them, to be exact, that help parents navigate this journey from start when they are deemed eligible.
Speaker B:Questions prior to even to help them understand what that's going to look like from the perspective of an actual parent that has had a student with disability go through the process?
Speaker B:So that is always a valuable resources.
Speaker B:Sometimes they even are directing folks to other resources as they are engaging and hearing the questions and giving them perspective on different benchmarks, how they go from one year to the next, and some things that they might see.
Speaker B:So parent mentors are key.
Speaker B:If you go to our district web page, you'll be able to access information about them in trainings that they provide throughout the year because they're a valuable resource.
Speaker A:And we'll make sure that the links to your page and all of that are in the show notes and description and all that.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So that brings to the top of my mind an acronym I Hope is relevant SSAs.
Speaker A:What are SSAs?
Speaker B:So that's another frequently asked question.
Speaker B:Usually after the student is deemed eligible and they have that IEP in place, parents are like, I heard the language around an ssa.
Speaker B:This acronym, what does that mean?
Speaker B:That's one of our support and service administrators.
Speaker B:They are actually embedded in every school.
Speaker B:So there is one that is assigned to each school.
Speaker B:And in the same way that parent mentors help parents navigate the journey through a particular perspective, in their case, as a parent that has gone through the experience, there are lots of rules and regulations.
Speaker B:You brought up paperwork earlier and an understanding of what this process is about, why we have so many documents to support students in this process and what is happening day to day to support students.
Speaker B:That SSA is trained to help them understand the entire of that process.
Speaker A:Yeah, so that's like, tell me if this is accurate.
Speaker A:It's almost like having the parent mentor for the school wide audience of special needs.
Speaker B:Yeah, they're district administrators.
Speaker B:So you have local school administrators, they're district administrators embedded in in each building and they can give you perspective on what the day looks like.
Speaker B:Given how you all have outlined what supports are required for a student, they'll help you with resources.
Speaker B:If you have additional questions, they can help guide you through.
Speaker B:Go to this resource or utilize this personnel to support you in this and link you together.
Speaker B:So they're a key part in making sure that students are supported district wide.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's fantastic.
Speaker A:Because it doesn't do any good if there's a program available to help your child if you don't know about it.
Speaker B:These are facts.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All right, so a moment ago, I guess early in the podcast here, you mentioned the wide range of services available.
Speaker A:Can you kind of touch on briefly what that encompasses?
Speaker A:I mean, you have mentioned so many already, but can you kind of go through the litany of general services that are provided by Cobb Schools?
Speaker B:Yeah, I usually tell people think of support from preschool up until potentially the age of 22, when that student turns 22.
Speaker B:We provide supports that range from preschool to school, age, time to even transition.
Speaker B:So as we prepare students for post secondary outcomes, we've got programming that helps connect the dots for parents in making sure once they leave our school system, we want to make sure they're prepared.
Speaker B:So it gives a frame for helping get us there.
Speaker B:And then you've got everything that happens in our day to day support of students.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So it's everything from occupational therapy, speech therapy, of course, the educational side.
Speaker A:Got to work that in.
Speaker A:We are an educational institution.
Speaker A:And these are all tailored for each individual child's needs and understood capacity or goals for what they can realistically achieve.
Speaker A:You were talking about those hard discussions.
Speaker A:That has really got to be challenging for every parent to be able to face.
Speaker A:Okay, here are the realities.
Speaker A:But also, let's have some hope in setting those realistic goals.
Speaker A:Maybe they're a little bit high.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's fine, I would presume, right?
Speaker B:I like how you used hopefulness in the midst of what they're experiencing.
Speaker B:Because those honest conversations, once you outline a plan for how that support will look, there is a.
Speaker B:An element of hopefulness in terms of how your student will move forward.
Speaker B:There's a clear vision, set out key benchmarks for what success looks like.
Speaker B:And the team is working together to make sure that those benchmarks are set or to reframe those benchmarks Once we get into that pocket in our discussions about what we know is the reality.
Speaker B:But couple that with our clear picture for where we want to move the student and how we're going to get there.
Speaker B:It assuages parents concerns because we're all on board together.
Speaker B:This whole team, inclusive of them, trying to make sure that we have outlined everything the way it should be outlined to meet the needs of kids.
Speaker A:One of the things that any student needs is not only the academic side of school life, but the socialization side.
Speaker A:What is Cobb doing to help special needs students relate to others in the real world in a good way?
Speaker B:If there is a deficit identified for a particular child because we want to support the whole child, efforts are made in the development of that IEP to figure out how to support those socialization needs.
Speaker B:It could be in the form of opportunities that might be embedded personnel that helps a student practice it and models it so that they can, when they're in certain situations, they can show what they have learned in terms of how to engage more appropriately.
Speaker A:Man, you've just top of my mind.
Speaker A:Recently we had the dance at Kennesaw Mountain.
Speaker A:Is that a good example of the sort of thing you're talking about?
Speaker B:Yes, it was right before Exceptional Children's Week, which followed that week after, from March 10 to March 14.
Speaker B:And you had children from across the district, Middle school, school and high.
Speaker B:When I was there, I was like rocking it out with them.
Speaker B:So all of us were actually rocking it out because they too needed a space where they could have the freedom and be able to just be themselves in all of their fullness with a supportive family.
Speaker B:As I say, all around them, rocking.
Speaker A:It out together and the general ed students there.
Speaker A:The socialization between our special needs kids and the general ed population was just.
Speaker A:That's something special.
Speaker A:If you ever get a chance to view that, I can't tell you enough how heartwarming that is to watch and.
Speaker B:Shout out to Kennesaw Mountain, which hosts the event.
Speaker B:Yes, we have community volunteers that come in.
Speaker B:All of the students.
Speaker B:When I tell you they put on an event.
Speaker B:It is an inspiring event that happens every year.
Speaker B:And you can see it from the moment that the students walk through, with students clapping and cheering as they walk through the door.
Speaker B:There is nothing that will bring you more joy than that kind of event because you can see the immediate joy rising for students as they are entering the space.
Speaker B:And it gives them the freedom to be themselves and have fun.
Speaker A:You know, I think you've inspired me to drop a video in right about here.
Speaker B:I think that's where you were going.
Speaker A:That's the end of my career.
Speaker A:If it were on YouTube right up here, there should be a link for you to be able to see some of what we're talking about at the dance at Kennesaw Mountain High School.
Speaker A:So is there.
Speaker A:George, you have shared so much so far.
Speaker A:Oh, I do want to go into a couple of things here.
Speaker A:Earlier, you talked about special needs students can receive services up to age 22.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And of course, this depends on the individual again.
Speaker A:But there are resources that you guys provide throughout the year for all levels of special needs students.
Speaker A:One that comes to mind is the.
Speaker A:I think it's called the Resource Fair.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:There's a Todd Marietta Resource Fair that is happening on the 27th of March.
Speaker B:So what you'll have are lots of community providers there to connect people to resources, some while students are still in school.
Speaker B:So think recreational resources that you might be able to access for your kiddos.
Speaker B:And then for those thinking about what happens after they leave our schools, connecting them to all those resources, because you need a starting place.
Speaker B:And when I tell you there are a number of vendors ready and willing to help them navigate that, it is a good thing to witness.
Speaker B:So if you can join us for that resource fair, that'll be an amazing thing.
Speaker A:Yeah, I will make sure that there's a link to that information as well as an example of that.
Speaker A:There are some children who don't do well in loud environments.
Speaker A:I would imagine they were not at the dance.
Speaker A:At Kennesaw Mountain, we make sure that.
Speaker B:We have created a space for them.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:In some form or fashion to speak to that need There are some movie theater operators I've heard of who provide a reduced volume showing of some popular children's movies or movies that are oriented toward specific age groups of students.
Speaker A:And that's the kind of thing that most people don't realize exists in our community is vendors who want to help, and they do.
Speaker A:By providing these opportunities.
Speaker A:You just have to know about them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Sensory rooms and places like stadiums.
Speaker B:We've got theaters that open our doors to help make sure that students that might be deaf, hard of hearing have the appropriate captioning to help them understand what's happening.
Speaker B:Or you might have a theater that has oriented the space so that different types of students who might not necessarily be comfortable in a traditional theater setting are able to access that theater setting.
Speaker B:There's nothing better than when the community comes together and offers space for students with disabilities recognizing their unique needs.
Speaker B:And the community always comes out to support and pulls it together.
Speaker A:And you just think about how much we adults lean into the fun time activities that we do to just kind of relax our emotions and our state of well being.
Speaker A:Special needs students need that even more, for the most part, is what I've been able to discern.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we.
Speaker B:And the venues that we have in our district to make that happen, we've talked about a couple of them, but we've got things like field day, where you have an opportunity for students across the district to go and have games and activities that really connect to them out in the field.
Speaker B:Or intramural day that happens in the fall that has certain populations able to engage in intramural activities similar to what you would see if you were on a college campus.
Speaker B:So those sorts of activities are always helpful and really connect our community together and even the students as they come from different schools to engage in different activities.
Speaker A:So again, you've shared so much.
Speaker A:Is there anything else you want to add or can offer to parents?
Speaker B:I think parents, we always love feedback.
Speaker B:So one, there's a parent survey that is out there.
Speaker B:We've communicated and the communication will continue to connect people to that survey link.
Speaker B:We do value the survey and we do look at the survey.
Speaker A:I was going to say it does.
Speaker B:Not go into the ether.
Speaker B:It actually is.
Speaker B:We review it and we make changes.
Speaker B:So for all parents to express, you know, the things that we are doing well, the things that we could improve on, I think that's a perfect venue to get your thoughts out there.
Speaker B:And then of course, you've got.
Speaker B:The website that I did identifies all of the different supports that we have throughout the district.
Speaker B:We named a few.
Speaker B:We highlighted the ssa, we highlighted the various related service providers and teachers.
Speaker B:But there are other personnel that we could name within this podcast and you'll see some of those names or resources and programming as you peruse our website.
Speaker B:So if you can go there, you'll find some good information.
Speaker A:It's just, frankly, it's too much to put into one podcast.
Speaker B:I mean, it is.
Speaker B:I mean, you could, we could do this again.
Speaker B:You could give, you know, we can make it 45 minutes if you want to keep it.
Speaker A:Turn this into the George Morgan Show.
Speaker A:Why we do that?
Speaker B:No, we don't like that.
Speaker A:Well, George, thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker A:Really appreciate it.
Speaker A:I resent you for raising the dress code bar.
Speaker A:By the way, if you have found any of this information helpful, please make sure you give us a like subscribe and share it with a friend.
Speaker A:They could use the information, too.
Speaker A:You're not the only one.
Speaker A:Also, the links of things that he's discussed that we've discussed in this podcast will be available in the show notes on the Captivate audio podcast and in the description on YouTube.
Speaker A:Thanks for listening to this edition of the Inside Scoop, a podcast produced by the Cobb County School.
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