Using the CIP as a Tool
in the Special Education Prereferral Process

by Mittie Quinn

2004

You may find that your puzzlement is about a student whom you, or others at your school, believe may need special education support services. Many teacher researchers using the CIP have discovered that puzzling behaviors diminished when they addressed the cultural factors that were contributing to them. For example, behaviors that initially appeared to be linked to a learning disability (Cox, 2001; Jeffress, 2004) or an emotional problem (Hahn, 2001 ; Zink, 2001) were found to be related to cultural mismatches or cultural identity issues.

In most schools the determination of eligibility for special education is a fairly elaborate process. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which guides decisions made about special education, requires that the educational difficulties may not be the result of cultural or linguistic differences between the child and the instruction. The CIP provides a scaffold for investigating precisely these potential differences. By collecting data and developing interventions using the CIP prior to referral, you may be more certain that the problems are related to true learning deficiencies rather than environmental, cultural, or language differences.

Furthermore, recent special education recommendations require that identified problems are ones that are resistant to interventions. Whether or not the student is from an ethnic, racial, or cultural background different from your own or from that which is predominant in your school, it is possible that there are cultural issues contributing to your student's puzzling behaviors. The CIP can help you systematically consider possible cultural influences that affect the student and your classroom and it can be used as a guide to your prereferral interventions.