Rebecca Sears, Special Education Director, 765-734-1261, rsears@flcs.k12.in.us
Beth Hartley, Teacher: Early Childhood, 765-754-7545, bhartley@flcs.k12.in.us
Lindsay Gilbert, ECAT Director (Hamilton Heights), 317-984-1653 ex. 4074
Check out the EC Website! The link is below!
https://sites.google.com/flcs.k12.in.us/fes-early-childhood/early-childhood
Our Philosophy:
We understand that your child comes to us with unique experiences, interests, learning styles and needs. Our goal is to truly know your child well and use this knowledge to guide, support and motivate him or her. Instruction revolves around each student’s IEP Goals. We believe that good teaching requires continual professional development, personal reflection and collaboration. We value parent involvement at every level and encourage you to partner with us to give your child the most powerful and joyous learning experience possible.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT A DISABILITY/CHILD FIND
Indiana State Law (Article 7) provides FLCS with guidelines for identifying and providing comprehensive services for students with special needs in our community. Child Find is a state and local effort to find children, ages 3-21, who are not receiving a free public education and who may have disabilities that interfere with learning. Child Find also seeks to create a greater awareness of the special needs of these children.
If a parent, doctor, therapist, teacher or First Steps provider suspects that a child (ages 3-5) has an educational disability, then a referral request via email or phone may be sent to our Director of Special Education, Debbie Johnson. Her contact info can be found at the end of this document. The assessment team will document initial contact and will send the referral packet and Procedural Safeguards (parental rights) to the parent to obtain consent within 10 instructional days. The referral is then assigned to the multi-disciplinary ECAT team who will schedule an evaluation for the child. To contact the ECAT Assessment team please call or email using the following information Early Childhood Assessment Team- Hamilton Heights Primary School 25350 State Rd. 19 Arcadia, IN 46030 (317) 984 -1653 For more info, see their website: http://www.noblesvilleschools.org/domain/1455
Children who are placed in the early childhood program and are receiving special education services pay a yearly supply fee around $120. This is a one-time fee generally requested at the beginning of the school year. The supply fee covers classroom materials, curriculum fees, and consumable materials used in the classroom such as paint, workbooks, paper, etc. Peer Students enrolled in the EC program also pay the supply fee but there is no monthly fee for either the EC students or the Peer students. Parents will be asked to supply snacks and juice as needed.
Early Childhood Walk In Speech services are located at Frankton Elementary and Lapel Elementary. These small group speech sessions are taught by a certified speech and language pathologist.
Early Childhood Developmental Classroom- The EC classroom for FLCS is located at Frankton Elementary. Developmental classrooms are staffed with a licensed teacher and instructional assistants as needed. Speech therapy, Physical and Occupational therapy services are typically integrated into the classroom in order to provide children with services in a natural setting. Occasionally, children are pulled out of the classroom to work more one-on-one with the therapist. The Developmental Early Childhood Classroom meets 4-5 half days a week. Children receiving special education services focus on individual student goals and objectives set forth in the IEP. These students also focus on learning basic adaptive routines, building basic communication skills and building table ready skills in a small group setting.
Students in this classroom participate in general education curriculum just the same as the general education preschool classrooms located at both elementary schools in our district.. The EC curriculum includes: Math--Saxon PreK Math/Touch Math, Reading/Language Arts-Little Treasures PreK (Macmillian/McGraw Hill) and Reading Street PreK by Scott Foresman. Letter Learning/Handwriting-Handwriting without Tears
Early Childhood Developmental Classroom Peer Program- These students should not be receiving speech, occupational or physical therapy to address any of their own needs. The classroom creates an environment that affords all children the opportunity to develop friendships while becoming leaders and role models. Throughout the educational experience, children will learn about acceptance and diversity. Children enrolled in the classroom will experience a preschool curriculum enriched with social skills, language skills and readiness activities. All of the skills and activities are linked to the Indiana State Standards for preschool which are precursor skills designed to promote kindergarten readiness. The curriculum in this class, which is part of our EC class, is the same as the general education preschool classrooms located at FES.
If you suspect your child has a delay in any area (speech, language, developmental, fine motor gross motor, vision) they can be referred to the EC program. Further testing by a school psychologist, speech, occupational or physical therapists will take place. After the testing, you will be contacted for a Case Conference Meeting concerning the results. At that time, placement in the EC program will be discussed with you and a decision made concerning possible placement.
If you have further questions concerning the qualification of your child or placement, please contact Rebecca Sears, Special Education Director, at the Frankton Lapel Central Office 765-734-1261 ex. 7021
We have high expectations for the students in our room. We expect the students to achieve academically to their fullest potential. We expect students to contribute in a positive manner to our
classroom. The following is a list of rules for our room.
Looking Eyes
Listening Ears
Quiet Feet
Gentle Hands
Inside Voices
Show Respect and Care
We will be using the “stop light” system to help monitor these behaviors. You will receive information about your child’s behavior each day. See further information in Parent Packet.
While each student’s program is based on his/her Individual Education Plan goals, several general education curriculums are used in the Early Childhood classroom. They are as follows:
Math-Saxon Pre-K Math/Touch Math
Reading/Language Arts- Big Day PreK by Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt
Letter Learning/Handwriting- Handwriting without Tears
The STAR Program
Each piece of the curriculum is crafted specifically for each student’s needs and abilities.
Please send the following supplies to school. The only items that need to be labeled with your child’s name are the back pack and extra clothes to be kept here at school. We do have a small snack every day and a snack list will come home occasionally. An item will be circled on the list and that is the item that your child needs to bring in to school for snack.
4- Try Rex B23 Pencils (available at school)
2- dry erase markers
4- glue sticks
1 pkg. paper towels
2 facial Tissue boxes
1 box Quart Zip Lock bags (girls)
1 box Gallon Zip Lock bags (boys)
1-24 pack crayons
1 blunt scissors
1 box fat Crayola Markers
1 box thin Crayola Markers
1 Extra set of clothes to keep at school
1 pkg. 9 oz. plastic cups
1 pkg baby wipes or refill pkg
1 backpack w/out wheels
1 pkg napkins
Your child will have very little homework in Early Childhood. Our main focus is on our Friday Sharing Day. Each Friday, students are allowed to bring in an item from home to share. Each item will have a ‘qualifier’ listed on the monthly calendar and each item should fit that qualifier. An example would be: Bring in something that begins with the letter Ss. These items are often tied in to our letter or theme of the week. Occasionally, practice sheets will be sent home. All items to be returned to school will be marked with HOMEWORK at the top. Other sheets sent home are just for extra practice.