The HELPS/SProUTS Process...
Oh no! I have a concern about a student…. What should I do?
STEP 1: When a teacher has a concern about a student the very first question they must ask is, “Does this student have an IEP already in place?”
If YES – STOP! **You can still put the student into the SProUTS process** Please first contact the special education teacher/provider for the student. (This does not mean you cannot proceed through the HELPS/SProUTS process. It simply means we would like the team approach to include the special education case manager from the very beginning. The case manager may have some suggestions to try to address the issue before proceeding into the HELPS/SProUTS process.)
If NO – Proceed to STEP 2.
STEP 2: Start (or continue) contact with the students parents. A minimum of 3 attempted parent contacts must be documented before placing a student into the HELPS process. A good progression to follow would be. 1st call to identify the problem and suggest how you can work together to fix it; 2nd call explain that what you are trying is/is not working and how you are adjusting it; 3rd call explain the HELPS process and let parents know that you are referring child. After 3 (or more) parent contacts move to the next step.
STEP 3: Fill out the HELPS form online. This form will immediately put the student into the HELPS system. You will also now be able to schedule a HELPS meeting time. Please see the “What to bring” page for more information about what to bring to a HELPS meeting. Once you have submitted a HELPS form online, within 2 school days you will receive confirmation from Noah or Chris that the student is in the system and you can proceed to step 4.
STEP 4: When you receive your conformation email it will contain a password to sign up for a HELPS meeting time slot. It will be up to you to choose a time that works for you. If there are no times that work for you available, please contact Noah or Chris so that we can make arrangements. Once you choose your time slot, you have successfully started the HELPS process. Congratulations! You are now a HELPS team member for the child we are now trying to help.
NEXT STEPS
At the HELPS meeting…
On the day of the HELPS meeting, please plan to arrive 5-10 minutes early with all of your information (pertinent student info, historical information, moving around, data sheet, notes, etc.) in hand. In the HELPS meeting a group of teachers will spend 15 minutes attempting to determine the root cause of the students issue and come up with some measurable ways to monitor and address it. Please see the “Information” page to review why it is so important for the team to be able to measure and track the interventions we put in place. It may be helpful to view the meeting agendas on the “agendas” page.
After deciding on the issue to target, a measurable intervention, and a time frame, you will now have a plan to work from. You will go out and carry out the plan for a set amount of time (usually 2 weeks) before reconvening with your HELPS team to monitor progress. This 2nd HELPS meeting will be scheduled at the end of the first meeting. Decisions about how to proceed will be made at the second HELPS meeting based on the data collected. From the second HELPS meeting a student can receive further Tier 1 interventions, more intense Tier 2 interventions, or further study and more intensive interventions through the SProUTS process.
STEP 1: When a teacher has a concern about a student the very first question they must ask is, “Does this student have an IEP already in place?”
If YES – STOP! **You can still put the student into the SProUTS process** Please first contact the special education teacher/provider for the student. (This does not mean you cannot proceed through the HELPS/SProUTS process. It simply means we would like the team approach to include the special education case manager from the very beginning. The case manager may have some suggestions to try to address the issue before proceeding into the HELPS/SProUTS process.)
If NO – Proceed to STEP 2.
STEP 2: Start (or continue) contact with the students parents. A minimum of 3 attempted parent contacts must be documented before placing a student into the HELPS process. A good progression to follow would be. 1st call to identify the problem and suggest how you can work together to fix it; 2nd call explain that what you are trying is/is not working and how you are adjusting it; 3rd call explain the HELPS process and let parents know that you are referring child. After 3 (or more) parent contacts move to the next step.
STEP 3: Fill out the HELPS form online. This form will immediately put the student into the HELPS system. You will also now be able to schedule a HELPS meeting time. Please see the “What to bring” page for more information about what to bring to a HELPS meeting. Once you have submitted a HELPS form online, within 2 school days you will receive confirmation from Noah or Chris that the student is in the system and you can proceed to step 4.
STEP 4: When you receive your conformation email it will contain a password to sign up for a HELPS meeting time slot. It will be up to you to choose a time that works for you. If there are no times that work for you available, please contact Noah or Chris so that we can make arrangements. Once you choose your time slot, you have successfully started the HELPS process. Congratulations! You are now a HELPS team member for the child we are now trying to help.
NEXT STEPS
At the HELPS meeting…
On the day of the HELPS meeting, please plan to arrive 5-10 minutes early with all of your information (pertinent student info, historical information, moving around, data sheet, notes, etc.) in hand. In the HELPS meeting a group of teachers will spend 15 minutes attempting to determine the root cause of the students issue and come up with some measurable ways to monitor and address it. Please see the “Information” page to review why it is so important for the team to be able to measure and track the interventions we put in place. It may be helpful to view the meeting agendas on the “agendas” page.
After deciding on the issue to target, a measurable intervention, and a time frame, you will now have a plan to work from. You will go out and carry out the plan for a set amount of time (usually 2 weeks) before reconvening with your HELPS team to monitor progress. This 2nd HELPS meeting will be scheduled at the end of the first meeting. Decisions about how to proceed will be made at the second HELPS meeting based on the data collected. From the second HELPS meeting a student can receive further Tier 1 interventions, more intense Tier 2 interventions, or further study and more intensive interventions through the SProUTS process.
The SProUTS process....
Sometimes there will be students who do not respond to the HELPS process. These are the students who require deeper, more intense support. The students whose data does not show growth using classroom interventions will be moved on to the SProUTS system. These students have most likely not responded to 3-5 classroom interventions (possibly more) and need further investigation and support.
When a student does not respond to HELPS process interventions, the HELPS team will determine that we need further, deeper intervention. At this point we will ask the teacher to again contact the parent/guardian to set up a time where we can meet to discuss further intervention as a unified team. At the SProUTS meeting we will write a formal behavior/academic plan for the student. This will allow us to have a formal document that can assist the student. This will be 30 minute meeting.
The SPROUT meeting will look and feel very different from the current SAT and BIT meetings. A SProUTS meeting will consist of 2 or 3 SPROUT team members, the parents and the teacher. We will meet in a nonthreatening environment around a table. The smaller group size and location are purposeful to promote the feeling that the parent is part of the team. At the meeting we will discuss the data gained during the HELPS process and find positive areas for that student to build on. We then, as a team, will come up with 1 or 2 more intensive interventions to attempt to make the student successful. These interventions will be written into the students Behavior/Academic Plan.
These interventions will be allowed to play out for a longer, set period of time (typically 4 weeks) and a 2nd SPROUT meeting will be held to discuss progress and make adjustments. At the 2nd SProUTS meeting we will decide to alter the current plan. Stick with it, or try a different approach. We will base that decision around the data gained from the previous week’s worth of data. At this point we should have at least 6 interventions attempted, 1 or 2 of which should be fairly intensive.
If the student is still not responding (making growth/gains) to any of our HELPS/SPROUT interventions, we may choose to, based upon all of our data, explore special education testing. The whole process is set up to put all the supports possible, decided by the most informed stake holders, for the benefit of the student, in place before jumping to special education testing. Any student who is referred for special education testing now should have at least 6 (probably more) interventions that have been attempted, monitored and proven unsuccessful. This allows our whole system to run off of student data rather than hunches and thoughts.
When a student does not respond to HELPS process interventions, the HELPS team will determine that we need further, deeper intervention. At this point we will ask the teacher to again contact the parent/guardian to set up a time where we can meet to discuss further intervention as a unified team. At the SProUTS meeting we will write a formal behavior/academic plan for the student. This will allow us to have a formal document that can assist the student. This will be 30 minute meeting.
The SPROUT meeting will look and feel very different from the current SAT and BIT meetings. A SProUTS meeting will consist of 2 or 3 SPROUT team members, the parents and the teacher. We will meet in a nonthreatening environment around a table. The smaller group size and location are purposeful to promote the feeling that the parent is part of the team. At the meeting we will discuss the data gained during the HELPS process and find positive areas for that student to build on. We then, as a team, will come up with 1 or 2 more intensive interventions to attempt to make the student successful. These interventions will be written into the students Behavior/Academic Plan.
These interventions will be allowed to play out for a longer, set period of time (typically 4 weeks) and a 2nd SPROUT meeting will be held to discuss progress and make adjustments. At the 2nd SProUTS meeting we will decide to alter the current plan. Stick with it, or try a different approach. We will base that decision around the data gained from the previous week’s worth of data. At this point we should have at least 6 interventions attempted, 1 or 2 of which should be fairly intensive.
If the student is still not responding (making growth/gains) to any of our HELPS/SPROUT interventions, we may choose to, based upon all of our data, explore special education testing. The whole process is set up to put all the supports possible, decided by the most informed stake holders, for the benefit of the student, in place before jumping to special education testing. Any student who is referred for special education testing now should have at least 6 (probably more) interventions that have been attempted, monitored and proven unsuccessful. This allows our whole system to run off of student data rather than hunches and thoughts.