One of the excuses some administrators use to delay offering additional services or assessment is that they are “following best practices.”  They might loosely define what that means if pushed, but the reasoning is almost synonymous with “because I said so” and site special educators are just supposed to accept it.

This is the part of special education that is most difficult for the site special education team. 

No one wants to go against “best practices.” 

No one wants to be insubordinate.

And yet, the reason of “best practices” for delay or denial often feels like the “worst practices” to those trying to provide support for the child.

Early in my career, a wise colleague told me, “All best practices start with observing the child. All of them.  The biggest mistakes are made when the child is not observed first.”

She was right.

The biggest mistakes in assessment decisions occur because the child has not been observed first. 

The biggest mistakes in services decisions occur because the child has not been observed first.

The biggest mistakes in placement decisions occur because the child has not been observed first.

So, what can be done?

If the administrator is making the decision (and really that’s what the IEP team decision means for many districts), ask the administrator to do an observation of the child.

Insist on it.

Use whatever powers of persuasion available to make it happen.

And often times, those previous “best practices” will change to actual “best practices” after the administrator sees the real child.

“Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.” Wallace Stevens