Requests for Services
Requests made by phone are our most frequent means of contact with individuals; however, we welcome requests via e-mail. If you are requesting on-site assistance, we will mail you an on-site consultation request packet that the educational team will need to complete and return. We address all requests at weekly staff meetings to determine who may best answer your specific questions or needs.
T/TAC services are generally free of charge (there is sometimes a registration fee for workshops). Anyone in southwest Virginia working to support students with disabilities may request our services.
Consultations
On-site consultations are tailored to meet the specific needs of the team members who submit the request. The main purpose of an on-site consultation is to provide professionals with ideas, strategies, and suggestions related to their identified area of concern. T/TAC consultants work with teams of professionals to jointly develop workable solutions that the team believes can be implemented. The T/TAC does not attend IEP or eligibility meetings, provide diagnostic services, conduct evaluations or assessments of individual students, nor does it evaluate the skills of professionals who request a consultation.
Consultations take many forms. They may include observing a student, reviewing data and other documents, demonstrating specific teaching techniques, demonstrating the use of technology, conducting individual meetings with school personnel, and participating in team meetings. The consultant and the school personnel initiating the request will determine the format of the consultation prior to the site visit. Follow-up activities and support are encouraged.
If T/TAC staff or consultant observes the student as part of their assistance to the teacher, they must have documentation that the school personnel provided prior notice to the parent and received written consent. The TTAC will provide the consent form.
Workshops and Inservices
Professional development activities address varied topics based on state and regional needs and interests. T/TAC also offers on-site workshops to individual schools or school divisions using the state's Highly Objective Uniform State Standards for Evaluation (HOUSSE) as guidelines.
High quality professional development should:
- Improve and increase knowledge of the academic subjects and enable teachers to become "highly qualified" if they are teaching in a core content area, as well as improve and increase knowledge and skills of personnel who teach and reinforce independence and access skills for students with disabilities;
- Be sustained over sufficient time and focused on the classroom or setting needed for the high expectations for students;
- Be based on, aligned with, Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and/or post-secondary goals of the teachers' students;
- Be structured on scientifically-based research demonstrated to improve student achievement and/or increase the knowledge and teaching skills of personnel;
- Be delivered by individuals who have demonstrated qualifications and credentials in the focus area of the professional development;
- Support success of students with disabilities;
- Provide for training in the use of technology so that technology, including assistive technology and technology applications are effectively used in the classroom/setting to improve teaching and learning;
- Promote the use of data and assessments to improve instruction; and
- Be reviewed for high quality and evaluated after completion to determine if the intended results were achieved.
To request services from the T/TAC at Virginia Tech, please fill out our online form.