EGUSD Special Education Programs/Services

EGUSD Special Education provides the continuum of special education support as outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA ‘04). Students receive support from Special Education as delineated on their Individual Education Plan (IEP). Programs include services and support for Autism (Aut), Deaf/Blind (DB), Deaf, Hard of Hearing (DHOH), Emotional Disturbance (ED), Intellectual Delay (ID), Orthopedic Impairment (OI), Other Health Impairment (OHI), Multiple Disabilities (MD), Speech and Language Impairment (SLI), Specific Learning Disability (SLD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Visually Impairment (VI). The District annually notifies parents of the rights related to special education identification, referral, assessment, instructional planning, implementation and review and procedures for initiating a referral for assessment. Parents receive this special education information at their child’s annual IEP meeting. For more information about special education services, please call (916) 686-7780.

Academic, Behavior, and Social Supports (ABSS)

The Academic, Behavior, Social Supports Self-Contained Classes (ABSS SCC) are designed to assist students whose behaviors have adversely affected some aspect of their educational performance that they are unable to function or make acceptable progress with services and/or program options available in less restrictive environments. Most of the students have social-emotional and behavioral challenges which are demonstrated in significant interpersonal and social skills deficits as well as some students with poor academic work habits. The goal of each program is to work collaboratively with students, their families, and community agencies to promote self-awareness and self-control, along with the development of productive interpersonal/social skills and necessary coping strategies.

Adult Transition Program (ATP)

The focus of the Elk Grove Unified School District Adult Transition Program (ATP) is to provide for maximum independence for young adults with differing intellectual abilities (ages of 18-22) in the areas of independent living, vocational experiences, community integration, and recreation/leisure. Additionally, it is within these areas that the young adults and their families work collaboratively with district staff and community stakeholders in determining individual needs, personal interests, and required skills. The team also develops strategic plans for leading independent, productive lives.

Curricular and instructional methodologies are congruent with activities of age appropriate adults and are in line with individual student goals. A variety of instructional strategies are used that promote skills used in adult life. Classroom instruction culminates in real world experiences. Students participate in community based instruction and are provided opportunities for contact, interaction, and integration with a variety of community resources and local businesses.

Instruction covers: 

Through classroom project-based learning, students design, create, promote, market and sell items to better prepare themselves for a productive future once they leave the educational system. 

Adapted Physical Education (AdPE)

Coming Soon


Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program and Services

The EGUSD provides services to students identified as deaf or hard of hearing through a total communication services delivery.  Students who use sign language use interpreters to help them access the core curriculum in general education classes and in the Learning Center DHOH program with a teacher of the deaf.  Students who voice and sign are supported by interpreters and teachers and in the Learning Center.

 Appropriate support equipment may be necessary to additionally help with amplification for some students.

The EGUSD also utilizes placements for students such as Fremont School for the Deaf and more intensive placements, if appropriate.

Elk Grove Unified School District continues to collaborate with Regional Service Delivery model for Deaf children in the greater Sacramento area where children’s needs are monitored and supported amongst the Sacramento area districts.

Language, Speech, and Hearing Services

The EGUSD provides speech and language services to students who present with mild to severe speech/language disabilities.  Disabilities in oral language range from articulation, apraxia, fluency, syntax, morphology and language processing to pragmatics and hard of hearing.

Each comprehensive Elementary, Middle and High School sites provides speech and language services to eligible students. PreK students who present with severe speech disabilities are served through the district’s intense autism program, language development programs and integrated preschool classes. Young students who present with mild speech and language concerns are generally served by the therapist at their neighborhood school.

Students who may be in need of strategies that will assist them in the classroom may receive Response to Intervention support from the LSH specialist to address general speech and language concerns for the parent and classroom teacher.

 Students’ needs are also served through a collaboration service delivery model with other site service providers to meet the special language needs in the least restrictive environment.

Level 1

Co-teaching is an initiative option designed to provide the support necessary to meet the academic, social/emotional and behavioral needs of students with disabilities in the least restrictive learning environment.

What is Co-Teaching?

Two or more professionals who deliver high quality instruction to students with and without disabilities in the same classroom (Friend and Cook, 2007).

When two or more educators co-plan, co-instruct, and co-assess a group of students with diverse needs in the same general education classroom (Murawski, 2003).

Co-teaching is becoming one of the fastest growing inclusive practices in school. Despite this rapid increase in popularity, co-teaching remains one of the most commonly misunderstood practices in education (Steele, Bell, & George, 2005).

As co-teachers, the special education teacher and the general education teacher share the responsibility of educating all students in the class.  Together, they understand the needs of each student, plan effective instruction, exchange roles and responsibilities, and employ flexible teaching practices to create opportunities for student learning (Wilson and Blednick, 2011).

Why Co-Teach?

As compared with typically achieving students, students with special needs are more likely to be retained for at least one year (26%), have a lower graduation rate (41% drop-out rate), are less likely to go to college, have less earning potential, and are more likely to be involved in our penal system (Bowe, 2006).

Levels, 2, 3, and 4 Self-Contained Programs

Coming Soon

Multiple Strategies for Academics and Transition (MSAT)

MSAT is an initiative option designed to provide the support necessary to meet the academic, social/emotional and behavioral needs of students with disabilities in the least restrictive learning environment. Debra Herburger, K-12 CPL/Special Education Instructional Coach (see below) is providing MSAT training  and implementation throughout the district.

What is MSAT?

A curriculum and instructional sequence that directly teaches and consistently reinforces the hidden curriculum of student academic and behavior success skills specifically for students with disabilities in the secondary setting.

MSAT is a class designed to reinforce the academic skills required for students to be able to access the curriculum in the least restrictive environment.  In the MSAT classes, students are taught organization skills, time management and priority-setting skills, planning for post-secondary transition, as well as social/emotional and behavioral skills.

The goal of the MSAT class is to provide the support students need to be in the least restrictive learning environment that will meet each student’s individual learning goals.

The curriculum addresses Executive Functioning Skill including Impaired Executive Functioning:  an inability to engage in goal-directed, future-oriented behaviors including: planning, flexibility, organized search, self-monitoring, and use of working memory.

MSAT

Essential Learning Goals (Strands)

Occupational Therapy (OT)

Occupational Therapy in a Public School Setting

In a school-based practice, OTs view disability in terms of the ways in which a child is faced with activity limitations and participation restrictions instead of a focus on projected limitations of a singular diagnosis, disease or disorder.

In a school-based practice, the OT staff support a child’s ability to gain access to and make progress in the school curriculum vs. rehabilitating to maximum potential a singular diagnosis, disease or disorder.

OTs are health professionals whose purpose in a public school setting is to support a child’s engagement and participation in daily goal-directed activities (“occupations”) which engage the student in meaningful, organized and self-directed actions that create independence, prevent or minimize disability and maintain health.

Areas of need which can be addressed by OT can include: refining motor skills, spatial relationships, visual perceptual skills, sensory motor function and environmental adaptations.

If you have questions about occupational therapy services, please contact your child’s site-based case manager.

PBIS - Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is part of a Multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and an integral part of EGUSD’s commitment to student learning and behavioral health.  This Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) focuses on creating and sustaining universal/ school-wide (all students), targeted (small group), and intensive (individual) systems of support that improve the academic and social/emotional outcomes for all children and youth by making targeted behaviors less effective, and desired behaviors more functional. School sites utilize a proactive approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture needed for all students on a school site to achieve social, emotional and academic success.

PBIS supports students from both a behavioral and an academic perspective and encourages the social and emotional well-being of our students and staff. We appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of our staff and our families as we continue to create a more inclusive and supportive environment throughout our district.

Schools that effectively implement PBIS demonstrate:

Link to PBIS Website

Physical Therapy (PT)

Physical Therapy in a Public School Setting

In a school-based practice, Physical Therapists (PTs) view disability in terms of the ways in which a child is faced with activity limitations and participation restrictions instead of a focus on projected limitations of a singular diagnosis, disease or disorder.

In a school-based practice, the PT staff support a child’s ability to gain access to and make progress in the school curriculum vs. rehabilitating to maximum potential a singular diagnosis, disease or disorder.

PTs are health professionals whose purpose is to correct, facilitate or adapt the student’s functional mobility, accessibility and use of assistive devices for the listed issues.

Areas of need which can be addressed by a PT can include: management of orthopedic problems in the trunk and lower extremities, gait training, mobility skills, positioning, range of motion, use of equipment and specific muscle strength and endurance.

If you have questions about physical therapy services, please contact your child’s site-based case manager.

Transitional Academic Class (TAC) and Pathways

Coming Soon

Transition Services

The Elk Grove Unified School District’s Transition Services program is funded through State and Federal funds (WorkAbility I Grant through California Department of Education; Department of Rehabilitation Transition Partnership Program) to provide services to secondary students with IEPs.

Ten Transition Specialists provide regional services to nine comprehensive high schools and middle schools, three alternative schools, Adult Transition Programs, and Jessie Baker School. Middle school student services include but may not be limited to career assessment and exploration lessons/activities, transition orientations, and tours to high school. High school students participate in career assessments and exploration; work-based learning, paid and un-paid training placements, and field explorations. Students who are preparing to transition out of high school are provided with post-secondary education and training options as well as linkages to programs, services, and supports. Students may participate in the Transition Partnership Program while in high school which is a collaborative partnership between EGUSD and the Department of Rehabilitation.

Transition Resources for Elementary Students, Families, and Staff

EGUSD Transition Services is one of two WorkAbility I Programs in California tasked with identifying and/or developing targeted transition resources for elementary-aged students and their families and staff. Use the link above to access.

To reach Transition Services please call (916) 686-7758.