Download OASNP Issues Report July 2020

The Ohio Association of Special Needs Professionals (OASNP) is a Department of OEA focused on the needs of OEA members serving children and adults with special needs.  The OASNP Executive Board is pleased to present their OASNP Issues Report, July 2020.  It is the culmination of work begun in April by the OASNP Executive Board and OASNP members serving on OEA Standing Committees.  OASNP has prepared this report to inform the OEA Officers and Board of Directors of issues identified by OEA members associated with our group.  Concerns fell into four broad areas: Classroom/Worksite Issues, Workload/Caseload, Professional Development, and Student/Adult Client Behavior.

The report is the result of concerns expressed at our annual special education conferences, surveys of the attendees and other members, and surveys of delegates at OEA and District Representative Assemblies in Spring 2016, Fall 2016, and Spring 2017.  Those concerns lead to the Fall 2017 OEA RA passing a NBI to ”Create an OEA Special Education Work Group to develop recommendations for professional development programs, sample contract language, OEA Resolutions, and OEA Legislative Policies that would address the needs of OEA members involved in or supporting education programs for students with special needs.”

The issues identified in this report are perennial concerns of OEA members working with students and adults with special needs.  They were expressed by members working at county boards of DD as far back as 1983 when the forerunner of OASNP was formed.  Now with county board programs being eliminated or downsized, students served by those programs have been transferred to their local school districts.  However, the problems of appropriately serving those students have followed them to their local schools, but without the funding.  Estimates are that some 15% of OEA members are directly involved in serving students with special needs.  Virtually every staff member of every local district is indirectly affected.  Additionally, significant numbers of OEA members continue to do the work of serving children and adults with special needs in county boards of developmental disabilities facilities and in the community.

Please share with your colleagues and submit any questions or comments to OASNP on our Contact Us page or at oasnp@oasnp.org.