Wayne County's Special Education Critical Shortage Initiatives
This is a culmination of the WRESA Special Education Critical Shortage Task Force, which consisted of Directors of Special Education and Human Resources, University representatives, and members of Wayne RESA's staff. The large task force broke into three subgroups. Each subgroup focused on one of the three sections (Attract, Prepare, or Retain) of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Leverage Point document.
Each subgroup collaborated around the ideas presented in their section of the OSEP Leverage Documents to identify and explore initiatives and resources that would be valuable to Wayne County PSAs and Member Districts. In addition, each subgroup determined the most efficient and useful way to convey their findings with our constituents across Wayne County.
This page contains each subgroups findings, initiatives, resources, and pilot program opportunities that will assist your district addressing the critical shortage of staff.
Wayne RESA Initiatives
Attract
Grow Your Own: School Psychologist Internship Opportunity
School Psychologist interns who have or are qualified for a Preliminary School Psychologist Certificate in Michigan can help alleviate the Critical Shortage of School Psychologists. Interns are in the third year of their graduate program and may come from in state or out of state. After successful completion of the internship year, interns will be available to hire as School Psychologists in Wayne County.
Wayne County provides internship opportunities with diverse student populations in communities of varying needs, which will be attractive to internship candidates. Additionally, building relationships with graduate programs both locally and regionally and providing a robust internship experience could lead to a continued source of School Psychologists for the county.
Prepare
Prepare Subgroup Discussions
The prepare subgroup discussions were through a discovery lens that focused on the importance of effective personnel for all children with disabilities. Specifically, we explored policies and practices that can be utilized to effectively prepare personnel. From our exploration, we identified the pilot program, opportunities and resources below that we think will support our constituents across the county.
Simulations
Simulation allows candidates to have repeated trials in high-stakes situations without being placed in an actual setting. This gives them an opportunity to make mistakes that they can learn from without risking the loss of valuable resources such as money, time, and people (Dieker, Rodriguez, Lignugaris/Kraft, Hynes, & Hughes, 2014). At Wayne RESA, we have collaborated with Mursion Simulations to provide staff with high stake experiences and low risk consequences such as behavior (which can be set for mild to spicy), parent teacher conference, running IEP etc… The simulations can be customized to the staff members’ specific needs. The simulations provide an opportunity to keep staff up to date on content and relevant opportunities. These simulations can be used with new staff, veteran staff, and staff that might be on a plan.
Retain
