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Special Education

OUR VISION

The Special Education Services team is committed to beliefs and practices that meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of every student. We believe that all students should have equitable access to inclusive environments that provide high-quality educational opportunities and that each student be given the individualized support and resources needed to develop, achieve, and thrive as they create a pathway to long term success in school and life.

 

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to ensure quality leadership and guidance through ongoing collaboration and comprehensive professional development for all Special Education staff and to provide student-friendly, culturally responsive practices with fidelity to all students. We will provide family support through community resource linkage, training, and networking opportunities that prepare students for long-term success in school and life.

 

OUR GOALS

To provide students with the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral supports necessary to allow them to reach their greatest growth potential.

To invest in our Special Education teachers and paraprofessionals by providing ongoing guidance and support, professional learning opportunities, flexible curriculum, and behavioral resources that cultivate a skilled, valued, and supported team that will foster teacher confidence in the classroom.

To welcome and engage with our families in collective partnerships to share feedback needed to build exceptional experiences for our students.

To partner with our community to provide intentional learning opportunities that are fun, hands-on, and provide students with real-life experiences.

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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to provide special education and related services to eligible students. But not every child with learning  and/or attention issues qualifies. To be covered, a child’s school performance must be “adversely affected” by one of the 13 conditions below.

  • The umbrella term “SLD” covers a specific group of learning issues. The conditions in this group affect a child’s ability to read, write, listen, speak, reason or do math.

  • The umbrella term “other health impairment” covers conditions that limit a child’s strength, energy or alertness.

  • ASD is a developmental disability. It covers a wide range of symptoms and skills, but mainly affects a child’s social and communication skills. It can also impact behavior.

  • Children covered under the term “emotional disturbance” can have a number of mental disorders. They may include anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. (Some of these issues may also be covered under “other health impairment.”)

  • The umbrella term “speech or language impairment” covers a number of communication problems. Those include fluency, impaired articulation, language impairment or voice impairment.

  • A child who has vision problems is considered to have a visual impairment. This condition includes both partial sight and blindness. If eyewear can correct a vision problem, then it doesn’t qualify.

  • Children with a diagnosis of deafness have a severe hearing impairment. They aren’t able to process language through hearing.

  • The term “hearing impairment” refers to a hearing loss not covered by the definition of deafness. This type of loss can change or fluctuate over time.

  • Children with a diagnosis of deaf-blindness have both hearing and visual impairments.

  • Any impairment to a child’s body.

  • Children with this type of disability have below-average intellectual ability. They may also have poor communication, self-care and social skills.

  • This is a brain injury is caused by an accident or some kind of physical force.

  • A child with multiple disabilities has more than one condition covered by IDEA. Having multiple issues creates educational needs that can’t be met in a program for any one condition.

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