Module 5: Roles and Responsibilities—Inclusion and the Educational Team
Who Do You Call?
Like the members of the school-based team, itinerants and specialists bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and experience. This section highlights who you can bring in to collaborate with to address the specific needs of your student. Schools and districts have different processes for accessing these supports, which is not identified in this section.
Itinerants and Specialists
District Inclusion Support Teacher
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Consulting and collaborating with school teams and community agencies
- Providing resources and assisting teachers with instructional planning
- Assisting in the development of Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
- Assisting in designating students to access supplemental funding
- Facilitating staff development for teachers and educational assistants
- Co-ordinating transitions into Kindergarten for students with complex needs
Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Interpreting audiology reports to facilitate understanding of the student’s hearing loss
- Checking the student’s equipment (e.g., hearing aids/cochlear implants/FM)
- Training teachers and classroom staff about the student’s equipment
- Providing recommendation to support student learning (e.g., environmental accommodations)
- Direct support to deaf and hard of hearing students to facilitate development of academic, communication, and social skills
- Providing classroom observations and assessments
- Supporting and maintaining hearing aids and FM communication equipment
- Supporting educational assistants working with students
- Providing Sound Field equipment and teach school staff in its use
- Providing workshops to school staff and students to raise awareness of the implications of hearing loss
Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Direct instruction to students in areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum, a disability specific set of skills that compensate for visual impairment (such as Orientation and Mobility, Assistive Technology)
- Collaborating with the educational team to facilitate access to the B.C. Core Curriculum
- Educating the student’s team regarding the educational implications of visual impairment
- Performing a functional vision assessment
- Providing specialized materials and equipment (such as Braille, text magnifiers)
Speech-Language Pathologist
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Prevention, assessment, identification, and direct intervention for students with communication difficulties
- Consulting on a wide range of communication issues including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
- Providing guidance for safe swallowing during mealtimes
- Training school staff to implement and monitor communication recommendations and goals
- In-service training and information sharing
Occupational Therapist
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Supporting the teacher with recommendations for instructional and environmental accommodations to facilitate learning
- Adapting materials, tools, seating
- Enhancing teacher capacity through collaboration, in-service presentations, and resources
- Supporting the development of self-care skills, motor skills, and regulation skills
- Advising regarding mobility and use of adaptive equipment
- Advising regarding accessibility within the school (e.g., washrooms, desks) and on the playground
Physical Therapist – Physiotherapist
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Supporting students and school staff to optimize mobility and participation
- Summarizing pertinent medical information in plain language to further the school team’s understanding
- Providing and modelling practical strategies
- Providing specific instruction to staff in the use of positioning and mobility equipment
- Providing specific training to staff to safely lift and transfer the student using proper techniques and body mechanics
Nurse
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Providing care for students with complex health care needs requiring the scope of practice of a registered nurse (e.g., tracheostomy care, assisted ventilation, peritoneal dialysis)
- Providing delegated care through teaching and supervising school staff to care for students that require oral suctioning, tube feeding, seizure management, catheterization
- Completing eligibility assessments for the At Home Program through the Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD)
Social Worker
Roles and responsibilities include:
- Guardianship for children in care
- Child protection
- Assisting families with children who have unique and complex health care needs to specialized support in order to access medical benefits, respite care, and specialized services through the At Home Program
- Assisting families to get assistance from registered nurses to help with special care needs
- Assisting families to access specialized development and rehabilitation supports including customized assistive devices and wheelchairs, complex feeding and nutritional assessment, and psychology assessment or consultation
- Collaborating with adult service sector to facilitate a student’s transition from school to adult services
