Ch. 7 The Child Study Team and Prereferral Strategies
By:Andrew Childers

The Child Study Team:
They are high quality instructional and behavioral supports for all students in the general education setting.

Examples include:

• School personnel conduct universal screening of literacy skills, academic, and behavior.
• Teachers implement a variety of research supported teaching strategies and approaches.
• Ongoing curriculum-based assessment and continuous progress monitoring.
• Students receive differentiated instruction based on data from ongoing assessment.

The teacher may also choose to find more in-depth information on the child that may shed light on the students lack of performance in school.

A teacher may go to their team members based on the referral. This members include the child's classroom teacher, the principal, school psychologist, special ed. teacher, etc.

The Child Study Team Meeting:
Once the referral is made to the CST, personnel involved on the team meeting will gather as much available information as possible. this information may come from a variety of sources, and the presentation of this information at the meeting is crucial in the determination of the most appropriate direction to proceed.

Sources of Student Information

• School records
• Prior academic achievement
• Prior test scores
• Group standardized achievement test results
• Attendance- The # of days absent in the students profile & The pattern of days absent
• Prior teacher reports
• Group IQ test info.
• Prior teacher referrals
• Medical history in the school nurses offics
• Students work

Recommendations by the Child Study Team- Preferral Strategies:
After analyzing all of the information on the student, the CST is most likely to recommend preferral strategies to the teacher. These are techniques and suggestions to attempt and resolve the child's issues without the need for more comprehensive assessments.

What is Prereferral Strategies:
Before a students individualized evaluation for special education placement, a teacher meets with an assistance team to discuss the nature of the problem and what possible modifications to instruction or the classroom might be made.

Preferral Intervention Strategies

• Team meeting with teachers
• Parent interview
• Medical exams
• Hearing test
• Vision test
• Classroom management teachniques
• Help classes
• Remedial reading or math services
• In-school counseling
• Progress reports
• Disciplinary actions
• Change of Program
• Consolidation of Program
• Referral to child protective services
• Informal assessment techniques
• Screening
• These services will help benefit the child and the team to understand what needs are required to be met in the classroom for the student.

Implementation

• Chapter 7 is beneficial for me to work with a future team to solve a child's problem in the classroom. i would like to use the various strategies in the prereferral interventions category to help understand the student and their families. This would create a better response by getting new inputs from my future colleagues about a students difficulties.