A Broken System

Our school requires us to fill out an SST form before any special/extra services can be given to our struggling students. Each year we have a professional development focused on how to fill out an SST, when to submit an SST, why we should submit an SST, and examples of SST's are given to teachers. They talk about how successful this program is for the students it services and they stress the importance of following the procedure- ie. observe the student, write an anecdotal, fill out the form, attach the necessary paperwork (anecdotal,school work, parent meetings, etc), then submit the SST form to your SST coordinator.



I have been a part of this system for almost 2 years and I can say it does not work. By the time the coordinator reviews the SST and arranges for the SST meeting, weeks have gone by. My struggling student is now frustrated and acting out more than before, grades are declining, and everyday seems to last forever for me and the student because he is not being serviced. Once the SST meeting is held with the parent, usually the least amount of services are provided- ie. a behavior management plan, once a week counseling. A follow up SST meeting is then scheduled for 6 weeks later. I have seen this follow meeting happen, but never after 6 weeks. Usually the six weeks pass and I have to email and hunt down the SST coordinator (because she is assigned to more than one school) to remind her about the follow up meeting. By the time the second meeting happens, the student has spent at least 2 months struggling to work with their plans when they clearly need more and the SST process is "all good" because a "plan" has been implemented and the meetings have happened.



It is now February 18th and on December 7th I was required to submit SSTs for the students that were below grade level in my class. I spent my time filling out and submitting 8 SST forms and hoping that my struggling students would be serviced. I have not had one meeting and one has been scheduled but fell through. How is the SST process helping my students? They need interventions and in order to get them, the SST process must be respected, but I don't have respect for the process. The system is broken and there needs to be a better way to help meet the needs of my students.