Butler’s Alternative Special Education-Mild Intervention Certificate program is a year-long, 18-credit hour post-baccalaureate licensure program aligned with the 2020 Council for Exceptional Children’s Initial K-12 Practice-Based Professional Preparation Standards for Special Educators. It is available as an initial licensure program or as a licensure add-on for educators. Courses are offered online with one full-day on-campus session in each semester. Graduates of the program will be prepared for licensure in K-12 Special Education Mild Intervention. Our program is specifically for:

• Current educators looking to add Special Education-Mild Intervention to an existing license

• Special education teachers who are currently working on a temporary permit and seeking initial licensure in Indiana

• Recent college graduates with degrees in Psychology, Sociology, Educational Studies, Child/Human Development, or Communication Sciences and Disorders wanting to transition into teaching

• Career changers, especially people working in professions related to special education who do not already have a special education teaching license such as instructional assistants, youth workers, and people who work in disability services

Alternative Special Education Student Learning Outcomes

• Work with others to create safe, equitable, inclusive, culturally responsive learning environments that support the development of emotional well being, positive social interactions, and self-determination of learners with exceptionalities.

• Apply knowledge of typical and atypical growth and development to select, adapt, and use a variety of evidence-based instructional strategies and specialized curricula to individualize the education for learners with exceptionalities and support active engagement in learning.

• Develop a comprehensive approach to assessment using multiple forms of informal and formal assessments that are reliable and valid to minimize assessment bias, meaningfully engage learners in their own growth, monitor learning progress, and inform educational decisions.

• Collaborate with families, colleagues, other school professionals, learners with exceptionalities, and personnel from community organizations in culturally responsive ways to facilitate the growth of learners with exceptionalities and advance the profession.

• Use professional ethical principles, practice standards, and legal rights and protections of students with exceptionalities to inform and evaluate special education practice, engage in continual professional learning, advocate for and advance the profession.