Advocating for Students: The Special Education Process and Beyond

3 Salary Points | 112.5 Hours

$149.00
$149.00
$149.00
Course Only
Download Syllabus
  • Exceptional Students
  • Instructional Strategies
Advocating for Students: The Special Education Process and Beyond K-12 teachers professional development course

This professional development course is for LAUSD teachers and is available for salary advancement and recertification. As a special education teacher, general educator, school counselor or administrator, your role is to ensure that the needs of your students (or clients) are met. Working with students who are not performing to their potential can be tricky. An understanding of student strengths and needs, along with the knowledge of the special education process, are key to ensuring that you are providing those students with what they need in order to be successful.

The purpose of this online professional development course is to better prepare you with the necessary skills to identify students with a disability as well as implement child-specific interventions and accommodations to support those not performing to their potential. But what do you do to ensure a student’s needs are met? How do you ensure that you are successfully advocating for your students? How do you utilize your school or community’s resources to best meet diverse learners? Students with disabilities/learning disabilities? Gifted students? No matter what your role is in the school system or outside of the school system it’s important that you understand why special needs identification and planning works the way that it does.

This professional learning course will provide you with a strong foundation in the principles of special needs advocacy, with an emphasis on practical application of the fundamental legal requirements that drive special needs education. You will learn about the IEP process and about 504 Plans and use your knowledge of the rights and entitlements granted by the aforementioned special education laws to create effective plans for student success. Through learning the differences between IDEA and Section 504, you will be better equipped at determining which plan is best for a particular student. Once a plan has been created, you will learn tips and be given tools to implement that plan and monitor the plan’s effectiveness and the child’s progress.

This professional learning course will also focus on exploring how to maximize effectiveness by writing S.M.A.R.T. goals and choosing appropriate accommodations and adaptations. By the end of this course, you will be able to feel confident in their ability to successfully advocate for struggling students and understand the process necessary to ensure their needs are met.

Get your LAUSD salary points today!

View: LAUSD Salary Allocation Table

Enrolling in a Course:

  • Add the course to your cart.
  • When you are ready to check out, go to your cart, and click “Check Out”.
  • You will be asked to log into your account or create a new account.
  • Follow the enrollment and payment prompts. If you have a gift card or discount code, you will enter it at the end of the enrollment process.
  • Upon purchase, you will receive an email receipt and be able to log in to your course at eClassroom Sign in. You have 180 days (about 6 months) from your purchase to complete your course.
  • If you haven’t already done so, please be sure to add your LAUSD Employee ID number and School Name on your “My Account” page. This only needs to be done once.

If you have any questions, check out our FAQs or email support@cecreditsonline.org.

LAUSD teachers are able to submit up to 12 credits/salary points from CE Credits Online per trimester (Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sept-Dec).

Receiving Salary Points

  • Upon completion, your completion paperwork will be submitted directly to the LAUSD Professional Development Unit by CE Credits Online along with the NA Claim for Staff Development Point Project form at the beginning of the following month.
  • PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ADDITIONAL PAPERWORK If you decide to request graduate credits for your completed course, the official transcript you receive from the university will be for your own personal records. Each course can only be submitted once, and we will provide all necessary paperwork to LAUSD.
  • Salary point credit approval for NA Forms is done by the Professional Development Unit and may take up to 3 months to process. The delay in processing your salary points will not affect the eligibility date of your schedule advancement, as they are backdated to the date of completion. If the points from your NA Form have not been posted to your account on the LAUSD website at the end of 3 months, please contact the Salary Allocation Unit at 213-241-5100.
  • We highly recommend that you check the number of salary points you have in your account before you complete your CE Credits Online course(s). Then check again eight weeks after receiving notification on your Student Homepage that your completion paperwork has been processed and submitted to the Salary Point Committee by CE Credits Online. Since the new salary points are added to your account without identifying the coursework for which you earned the Salary Points this will help you to identify receiving the additional salary point(s).
  • You may check the status of your Salary Points.

Receiving Graduate-Level Professional Development Credits

  • Upon completion, email support@cecreditsonline.org and let us know you have completed the course, which university you have selected (see University Partners).
  • CE Credits Online will email you instructions on how to pay for and obtain the credits.
  • CE Credits Online will forward all necessary documentation to the university you selected enabling you to receive an official transcript.   
  • You must check with your district to ensure the credits received will meet your specific requirements. We will not be held responsible if your school, district or state does not accept the credits issued.