Inclusive Education: IEP Assessment for Functional Academics, and Work-Based Learning with Lisa Huffmaster

🙏 Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors, Specially Designed Education Services, publishers of The Functional Academics Program.

🎙️ Episode Highlights: Breaking Barriers in Special Education

Hey there, educators! Welcome to another inspiring episode of The FAST 15. Today, we're diving into an uplifting conversation with Lisa Huffmaster, an incredible advocate and specialist in inclusive education. Lisa's journey began over two decades ago as a special educator, and her passion for creating meaningful opportunities for students with diverse needs shines through.

✨The Spark of Inspiration
Lisa shares her personal inspiration for entering the world of special education—her twin sister with Down syndrome. This heartfelt connection fueled her commitment to transforming the educational experience for students with unique abilities.

🔍 The Missing Piece: Assessment and Progress Monitoring
Lisa emphasizes the importance of assessments and progress monitoring in creating effective specially designed instruction. Without understanding a student's unique needs, it's like trying to teach algebra without knowing what the number eight is. Let's drill down, find the missing pieces, and empower our students with tailored support.

🤝 Bridging the Gap in General Ed Settings
Discover how functional academics are making waves in general education settings. Lisa shares insights into collaboration, communication, and creating inclusive learning environments. It's about identifying strengths, addressing needs, and ensuring every student's voice is heard at the IEP table.

🌟 Work-Based Learning: Real-World Success Stories
Lisa's involvement in work-based learning programs, like the PEAK (Panther, Employment, Action, and Knowledge) program, showcases the power of hands-on experiences. From running a student-owned coffee business to designing T-shirts, these initiatives provide real-world skills, community inclusion, and job opportunities for young adults.

🚀 Encouragement for New Educators
Lisa's advice for new educators? Take a tour through the entire educational journey, from kindergarten to transition. Witnessing the progress and celebrating small victories can be incredibly motivating. Remember, it's about taking baby steps and making a lasting impact on students' lives.

🌐 Community Connection: Church-Based Initiatives
Explore Lisa's con

Support the show

Barbara Beck is the host of the FAST 15 Podcast. She is a highly dedicated Disability Advocate and Special Education Consultant specializing in IEP Transition Services. Barbara has an extensive background as a special education teacher spanning nearly 30 years. She has dedicated her career to empowering transition-age youth and fostering positive post-school outcomes.

Barbara's expertise lies in providing comprehensive support and guidance to students with disabilities, ensuring their successful transition from school to adult life. She possesses a deep understanding of secondary services and possesses the skills to develop tailored strategies that maximize individual potential.

For more information and resources on special education school-to-adulthood transition planning and independent living, visit www.mykeyplans.com. Join us on social media for updates, behind-the-scenes content, and discussions about special education, inclusion, and disability advocacy. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and use #IEPLaunchpadPodcast to join the conversation. Thank you for tuning in to the IEP Launchpad Podcast! 🎧🎙️#IDD #teaching #specialed #specialneeds #InclusionMatters #DisabilityAd

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So that's been a missing piece.
If you don't have an assessmentand you don't have what's
missing, you can't teach mealgebra if I still don't know
what the number eight is.
Right, right, okay, so we'vegot to drill down, we've got to
drill down, and so having a tool, an assessment tool and
progress monitoring and thosetype of things are what you need
to show up with to discuss.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey everyone, welcome .
This is Barb Beck and if you'reintrigued like me, you will be
happy that you joined us forthis episode of the Fast 15.
Today we launch into aconversation with Lisa
Huffmaster.
Lisa began her career as aspecial educator 26 years ago.
She's taught in just aboutevery setting on the LRE
continuum before serving as adistrict special education

(00:44):
administrator for 14 years.
Over the course of her career,lisa led partnerships with
surrounding school districts,state agencies, community
members and private agencies todevelop two very successful
work-based learning programs forIEP and 504 eligible students.
Lisa currently serves as theInclusive Education Specialist

(01:05):
for the Arkansas Department ofElementary and Secondary
Education in the Office ofSpecial Education.
She stays connected to thiswork by serving as a volunteer
job site coordinator for a paidoff campus internship program
called PEAK Panther Employment,action and Knowledge.
Let's now welcome Lisa to ourFast 15.

(01:25):
All right, lisa Huffmaster,it's a privilege to get a chance
to talk to you today and hearabout your perspective.
What brought you into the fieldof special education really,
your story, who you are, whatyou're doing now in Arkansas and
how you have connected withfunctional academics as well.
What brought you into the fieldof special education?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Sure, so my journey began actually back in 1979.
My parents had a set of twins.
One of those twins happened tobe rocking an extra chromosome
Okay, and she had Down syndrome,and I obviously was very close
to her growing up and justreflecting on her school
experiences, they were herschool experiences were way more

(02:11):
segregated than any other placein her life, her church, our
family, friends.
She spent at school.
She spent her time in aclassroom because we went to a
very small rural school district.
She spent her time in a smallresource room with the little
area in the back where sheworked pretty much in solitude
with a teacher or a parent allday so that was my inspiration.

(02:34):
I felt like this needs to bedone differently.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
More opportunities for your sister or anybody else
who's in that kind of aclassroom setting and needing
additional support but wantingmore for them.
That's amazing.
I think a lot of people whohave family members do end up
going into special education andthat is just such a unique
perspective, I think knowingwhat it must be like for your

(02:58):
parents or for other familymembers coming to the IEP table,
working out the advocacy foryour loved one and wanting a
general ed experience or justbeing really included with
same-aged peers, and how to dothat.
And it gets really personalwhen you have a family member.
How do we do this?
I wanna find out about whatyou're currently doing in your

(03:21):
role in Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, so I was a special education teacher for
nine years, went on to be aspecial education director for
14 years, and now I'm workingwith the Office of Special
Education.
This is a new role for me andmy title is inclusive education
specialist.
Now, that's a littleintimidating.
Anytime you put the wordspecialist one anything, I don't

(03:43):
know that I've earned thattitle, but it's definitely a
different role.
But yeah, so we work veryclosely with teachers training
general ed, special educationand then a focus on
administrators.
We do offer a lot of supportfor scheduling and for assistive
technology a lot of the keys touniversal design for learning,
to help kids be successful inthe general education setting.

(04:05):
But it really happens, like yousaid, at that IEP team meeting
when they're discussing thechild and are they making
progress with what we're doingor is there more that they can
do?
Are we just not giving them theopportunity to do so, really,
how to show up at that IEPmeeting, no matter what role you
have and know what the endresult should be and what you're

(04:27):
advocating?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
for and when we think about accessing curriculum and
having all of the scaffolds thatare needed to get moving.
Like you were saying, progressmonitoring and making sure that
everybody's on the same page andeverybody feels that they have
a voice at the IEP table, butmostly the student.

(04:48):
Hopefully we're inviting astudent to the IEP team to voice
what's happening out there asmuch as possible with whatever
mode of communication that theyhave.
Right, we want to have theirvoice there.
I'm curious in your coachingand just helping I e p teams,
how are you seeing functionalacademics being used in general

(05:09):
settings and bridging that gap?
Can you speak a little bit morespecifically about that?

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, so that specially designed instruction
that they should get whenthey're learning things that
they aren't learning or don'talready have in place, those
foundational or functionalskills that they don't have in
place.
So we really need to know whatthose are.
And we don't know what thingsare if we don't assess them and
we don't have data to discuss.
So that's been missing piece.
If you don't have an assessmentand you don't have what's

(05:37):
missing.
You can't teach me algebra if Istill don't know what the
number eight is.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Right, okay, we've got to drill down.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
we got to drill down and so having a tool, an
assessment tool and progressmonitoring and those type of
things are what you need to showup with to discuss what
especially design instructionneed to address.
That the general ed has alreadyGone past, that doesn't mean
there are things they couldn'tbe learning and benefiting from
in that classroom, but what arethey missing and how do we draw

(06:05):
down and find that and providethat specially designed
instruction to help bring themup to the level that their peers
Are?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
right and that takes people who really know and
understand our young adults,like the student who has the
plan, and those players, thegeneral ed teacher, the para
educator, if there, if that isavailable in the classroom
setting.
What are the solutions thatyou're finding for the
collaboration piece?
I think that's communicationand being clear on how to

(06:34):
deliver instruction, how to dothat assessment.
How do you make sure that allof the team members and
everybody is reallycommunicating and on the same
page with delivering that in ina general ed setting and an
inclusive learning environment?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, that's really a big disconnect.
Sometimes when we get to thosemeetings in Arkansas our IPs
have a page called the Platte iswhat we call the present level
of academic and functionalperformance so that's probably
something similar that all IPshave.
We just have that little actingin forth.
So really instructing teacherson how to assess and write a

(07:09):
good present level statementthat identifies the student
strengths and their needs andthe adverse effects of the
disability that they have andcoming to the table and then
with that gen ed looking at whatstrengths they have, how can we
plug that into the gen ed andthen be successful in those
needs?
That's where specially designedinstruction and really targeted

(07:31):
goals and objectives thatsupport that student making
progress.
So helping the team take thatbig lump of puzzle pieces.
Yes, it were and put themtogether to write an
educationally beneficial IP like.
The IP is actually creatingsomething.
It's creating, it's filling inthose gaps and doing what it's
written to do.

(07:51):
So that's the goal that we'rereally trying to mesh all those
players and data together.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Right, I love it and I did notice when I was
reviewing a little bit moreabout who you are and how you
are participating.
I think you're doing some workbased learning with young adults
.
Is that right?
Yes, it's called a peak program.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, we at the school that I just left, in July
when I went to the Departmentof Education, had started a work
based learning program with agrant that we received for a
rehabilitation department here.
It's called Arkansasrehabilitation services.
Okay, so they have a work basedlearning program here that we
applied for a grant.
They get a start at money andthe students started their own

(08:33):
business.
So within the school they havea coffee business.
We have a local coffee shopthat supports us and they let us
order our supplies from themand teachers go in every morning
or they can order by semesteror by year and they pay for
their coffee.
And what's really exciting isthey own their own company and
now we have them going out intothe community.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Several of the church Churches are interested in
having them the church I go toactually coffee every morning
and the students take theirorders and fill their coffee
orders real world experience inthe community, inclusion that
you're providing and gettingyour young adults ready for
going out and they can go dotheir own thing right, so

(09:14):
they're getting all thosefunctional foundational skills
to be able to do their own thingin the future.
So that so, coffee.
And then are there otherelements to the program.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, they are.
There's a lot of benefits.
So this grant not only get astart up money for the business,
but business owners can host astudent or an intern and they
have an employee that works forthem with no cost to them and at
that time, all they do yeah,they just take care of their
time sheet and their employeerating and if there's any

(09:44):
problem then we as job coaches,we as teachers, special
educators, occupationaltherapists, we jump in and try
to solve that problem.
Okay, maybe it's anaccommodation, maybe they need a
picture, maybe they need thingsbroken down in more of a task
analysis.
Yes, so it's benefiting thecommunity, it's benefiting the
intern and now we have studentsgraduating with Jobs and a lot

(10:05):
of those interns Get hired onthe spot.
they continue working with thatbusiness that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
I love it and I saw some apparel to on the website
when I was taking a look at it.
How is that a different pathwayother than the coffee business?
So you tell a little bit aboutthat too.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, thanks for noticing that.
That's a great thing, becausehow many t-shirts a year does a
school district order?
a lot yeah yes, so they use someof that start up money also to
purchase the vinyl and thedesign software and now they
design t-shirts for thedifferent clubs and sports and
that's organizations we evenhave.

(10:43):
Like I said, the community iscoming in at ordering their
shirts.
So, yeah, every year we designa t-shirt that kind of is our
theme for the year and then thewhole community orders it
because it's the panther greenbar panthers t-shirt of the year
right and and who wouldn't wantto order a t-shirt like that
right, that's made by your youngadults, and I think that's a

(11:04):
brilliant idea.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
so if other people wanted to start something like
that, how would they go aboutdoing that, getting a grant,
doing that, going through thosesteps?
Because people nationwide wouldreally grab on to that idea.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
I think it's fantastic getting getting that
little bit of start up money.
I think it was like twenty fivehundred or something like that.
Just getting that little bit ofstart up money got us going like
really fast once we got started.
I think the last time wechecked and they have over
twenty thousand dollars now intheir account.
They're sustaining their selvesWow, with that t-shirt yeah,

(11:37):
with that t-shirt business andthen the grant pays them.
Like I said, I went throughArkansas rehabilitation services
and but I'm sure that money isallocated by state Nationally,
so there has to be somethingwithin your own state.
I would look at your rehab andsee what grants are available.
They're all probably a littledifferent, but probably
something similar.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, so people across the country, anybody else
that's listening in otherstates could potentially think
about doing A similar thing.
I just love getting ideas frompeople who are really finding
success in this way.
I love all things transitionand really bridging the gap.
I think work based learning andcareer and technical education
and special education we don'tneed to be in silos.

(12:20):
I think that's where, when yousee the crossover, that's just
really powerful and I think it'samazing the things that you're
doing out there.
Let me ask you this we don'thave a lot more time left on our
fast fifteen, but let me askyou what would you say to
somebody just coming into thefield?
You've had a lot of years ofexperience in the field and it

(12:40):
probably worked with just somany different situations.
But we have a lot of teachersthat get in three years and
they're like I can't do this.
What would you say to encouragethem?
From your years of experience,what would you say to a brand
new teacher coming into thefield?

Speaker 1 (12:55):
I think if I were to go back and be a special
education director tomorrow ornext year, the first thing I
would do with those new teachersis I would schedule a day where
they did a tour.
They started in kindergartenand they saw what students look
like and the needs that they hadwhen they came into us.
But I always want them to seethe end and that's something

(13:15):
with me being an elementaryteacher.
I didn't realize abouttransition and about all the
things that we do betweenkindergarten and they're leaving
us, and so for them to see what, what progress they make, if
they can begin and see the endin mind, I think that would be a
great thing for them to see andto be motivated and see that
it's baby steps.
But it is steps in the rightdirection.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I think that's a really good suggestion for
anybody coming into the field,or even if you're 10 years in or
even more, to be able to seethe whole continuum from early
childhood all the way up throughtransition and knowing what to
do for students.
Wonderful, lisa, thank you somuch for the time that you spent
with us on the fast 15 and Iwould love to meet you in person

(14:00):
someday.
You're just so much fun to talkwith and I know I could learn
so much from you and yourexperience and I just really
appreciate you and spending thetime with us.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Barb, I may see you at some conference or something,
or I may just have to come backout there.
It was such a beautiful placefor me.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
I enjoyed it.
Good, all right, take care.
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(14:38):
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