Faculty and Staff Standards
Faculty and Staff Standard 1:
Staff and other professionals that work directly for the program have education and training commensurate with their roles and responsibilities and participate in ongoing professional development and training.
Guidance
This standard does not refer to IHE faculty who teach college catalogue courses that the students attend. It refers to the staff and other professionals who work directly for the program, such as a director, academic support staff, administrative and support staff, job specialist, job developer, or job coach.
Professional development and training must include information about intellectual disability (ID) and how ID may impact students’ learning, communication, written and oral language, and behavior. It must also include strategies for effectively supporting students, such as positive behavior supports, communication strategies, effective use of technology tools, universal design for instruction, and more.
Required for Review
Provide an organizational chart that illustrates your program staffing.
Provide resumes or CVs for all staff.
Provide a maximum of two pages per staff with relevant educational background, experience
Share information on professional development and training provided including materials, schedules, and evaluations of the training.
Provide documentation of staff participation in professional development and training
Faculty and Staff Standard 2:
The program must ensure coordination of services and supports between the program and staff and other professionals who do not work directly for the institution, but who serve in a support or instructional capacity for the students.
Guidance
It is essential that meaningful coordination occurs. This standard refers to those programs that have agreements with non-institution agencies, organizations, school districts, or individuals to instruct or support students in the program. Examples are school district employees who act as educational coaches, personnel that provide assistance in activities of daily living, or job specialists who work for an outside agency. This standard does not apply to individual therapists, for example, who work with an individual student at the student’s request.
Required for Review
Indicate if any staff or professionals or outside agencies work directly with the students as part of the program.
If so, describe the coordination that takes place between the agency and the program.
Share Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) (if they have been established) between agencies and the program.
Provide documentation that the outside agencies are fulfilling their MOUs or other written agreements (e.g., the number of students receiving support and the type of support received).
Faculty and Staff Standard 3:
Program staff receive a job description that lists roles and responsibilities. Performance criteria are clear, and evaluation is conducted on a regular basis, consistent with the policies of the institution.
Guidance
The program must provide a clear job description in writing, and performance criteria and procedures for evaluation at the onset of the evaluation period. Evaluations must be regular, fair, and objective and the results shared with staff in writing in a timely manner.
Required for Review
For each position, provide the following:
A job description that includes roles and responsibilities
A description of the education and training required for this position
The process for regular evaluation of this position.
Faculty and Staff Standard 4:
Program management and leadership are retained for a reasonable period of time.
Guidance
Retaining program management and leadership is one of the hallmarks of a quality program. It is recognized that graduate teaching assistants serving in management or leadership roles may leave for other positions upon receiving their graduate degree, so they are not necessarily expected to remain with the program. The program plans for and manages staff turnover and succession.
Required for Review
Indicate the program management and leadership positions (such as Director, Program Coordinator) and indicate how long the person in that position has been serving in that role.
Faculty and Staff Standard 5:
Other individuals who work with students, such as peer mentors and pre-professionals or professionals-in-training (i.e., individuals training to become educators, counselors, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, or physical therapists) are trained and supervised.
Guidance
Peer mentors, pre-professionals, and professionals-in-training provide a variety of important supports and activities in programs and may be paid or volunteer. This standard is intended to address the need for appropriate roles, training, and supervision of such individuals. While these peers and professionals-in-training often play a critical and meaningful role within programs, it is important that they are assigned responsibilities that take their current level of experience and knowledge into account. Professional staff must regularly supervise all such students working directly with students in the program. For instance, while a peer mentor may be a good academic coach, a professional must develop meaningful learning strategies, accommodations, and modifications for students.
Required for Review
Provide training schedules and agendas, roles and responsibilities, job postings, and recruitment materials. Indicate who is responsible for providing the training and supervision.
Provide supervision practices and schedules.
Provide information about the process that mentors and support personnel can use to request additional support from professional staff, and state how your program effectively conveys that process to mentors and support personnel.
Provide information about the process that students in the program can use if they believe they are not receiving appropriate support or guidance from peer mentors or support personnel, and state how your program effectively conveys that process to students in the program.
Faculty and Staff Standard 6:
Training and technical assistance are provided to the institution’s faculty and staff to develop learning environments, courses, and instruction according to the principles of universal design for learning (UDL).
Guidance
While programs are not in a position to require higher education faculty to deliver instruction in any particular manner, to meet this standard, individuals knowledgeable about UDL must provide training and technical assistance about UDL and how it can support the learning of students with ID. The program, the IHE, an outside agency, or individuals may provide this UDL training and technical assistance. For information on the principles of universal design for learning (UDL) see the UDL Center website or the UDL on Campus website.
Required for Review
Indicate who is providing the training and technical assistance.
Provide training agendas, schedules, and evaluations.
If provided by the program, indicate how many faculty/staff are trained or provided technical assistance per year.
Provide documentation of the process that faculty and staff can use if they need technical assistance or training.
Faculty and Staff Standard 7:
Information and support about the impact of an individual student’s disability on learning, and strategies to support, instruct, and assess the student, are offered to the institution’s faculty and staff to improve and optimize the student’s learning in courses taught by that faculty or staff.
Guidance
Faculty and Staff Standard 1 addresses general UDL training. Standard 7 addresses information and technical assistance regarding individual students, and it may include UDL as well as other areas. Information regarding “what works” for individual students is developed with student input and the student must agree to the information being shared prior to the information being provided to others. This is part of the person-centered planning that is conducted for each student and is designed to ensure that the student is well-supported by all campus faculty and staff and not just program staff. This kind of respectful and positive information about students will allow them to become full members of the campus community and be understood by a wide range of people on campus.
Information and technical assistance may be provided by the program, the disabilities services office, or by other trained professionals. Such information and technical assistance may involve academic, behavioral, communication, technology, or other types of support. It is not appropriate for undergraduate students to provide technical assistance to faculty and staff.
While the program or institution shall offer information and technical assistance, it is recognized that a program is not in a position to require faculty and non-program staff to utilize it.
Required for Review
Describe the process the program uses to ensure that faculty and staff are provided such information and technical assistance.
Indicate the professionals who provide the information and technical assistance, including their titles and qualifications to do so.
Provide information about the type of information and technical assistance that is provided.
Describe how the student is involved in developing the information relevant to themself that is shared with the faculty.
Explain the process for providing job performance feedback to students from the job/internship supervisor, and provide documentation that students receive regular performance reviews for all work-based experiences.
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