Why do you need an AT Team?

Having a defined Assistive Technology Specialist employed by your school division is a rarity in the Commonwealth of Virginia and across the country. While these professionals certainly bring tremendous value to the schools they serve, the trend in education has assistive technology provision in schools moving away from this specialist or “expert” model, with one person in charge of AT services, to a more collaborative, capacity building model for all staff. Some of the reasons for this are:

1. The limited number of assistive technology specialists available for employment in the Commonwealth.
2. The extremely high caseload of potential students for a single AT specialist in a school division. Consider that 13% (the average percentage of students being served under IDEA nationwide) of your total student census in your division could be the potential student caseload of a single division AT specialist. Even if only a fraction of that initial percentage is determined to need AT services, it would be difficult for a single professional to provide quality services to that number of students, regardless of division size.
3. Hiring outside AT assessment and training specialists can be expensive, take long periods of time, be difficult to identify, and frequently lack the background knowledge of the students and families that are available to school personnel.
4. An understanding by school divisions of the overall "cost" of students with disabilities missing out on potential AT services that they may benefit from and be eligible for. The use of assistive and instructional technology has been directly identified as a high-leverage practice in special education (HLP 19) and is related to HLP 18 (strategies to promote student engagement), HLP 15 (providing scaffolded supports), and HLP 13 (adapting curriculum tasks and materials), among others.
5. With staff turnover considered a common challenge for school divisions, having AT devices and services provided by a team, rather than a single individual, prevents gaps in services from occurring if an AT specialist leaves your division.

At the heart of the capacity building model of assistive technology provision in schools is the assistive technology or "AT" team.

AT teams are generally volunteers made up of some combination of current school division staff:

• special and general education teachers,
• related service providers, and
• administrators who have an interest in AT and want to help move the quality of AT services forward in their schools.

Administrators play a critical role in establishing and supporting AT teams. AT team members may or may not have particular expertise in assistive technology, but work collaboratively together. They are committed to building the capacity of their colleagues in the field of AT through the development of policies and procedures, and providing professional learning opportunities, informal consultations, and sharing resources - thereby reaching many more students than a single AT Specialist. With coaching from regional T/TACs, emerging AT teams can provide AT consideration and assessment support as needed within divisions, saving time, money, and getting supportive tools in the hands of students with disabilities more efficiently.

Testimonials from Virginia Administrators who Support their division’s AT Teams:

"Some of the benefits of having the Cumberland County AT Team are having consistency in AT policies, procedures and practices. Our team also supports consistent implementation of the AT Consideration process to assist with identifying assistive technology devices and services to benefit students with disabilities."

"We are a large school division with a large AT team with membership that represents special education, general education, related services, administration and instructional technology. Our AT Team benefits from establishing annual goals and we review them frequently for progress. We utilize subcommittees who meet outside of our monthly team meetings to accomplish these goals."

"An important part of our success is maintaining communication with our division leadership. Our leadership is very supportive of the AT needs of our students and we maintain monthly communication with them to provide updates on each AT initiative and ongoing funding needs. We work to collaborate in embedding AT into other division initiatives as well. Acquiring assistive technology to meet the individual needs of students is a priority."