Special Education FAQ

What is Special Education?

Special Education is education designed for the individual needs of students who need support for a documented disability. Many people have heard about someone who has attention deficit, a learning disability, or autism. These are just a few of many disabilities that students who are served in our public schools have. In Greenville County we serve students with learning disabilities, speech/language impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments (including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, arthrogryposis, and others), and other health impairments (including attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, epidermolysis bullosa, and others). Each student served in special education has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This document has been developed by a team of individuals including at least an administrator, a regular education teacher, a special education teacher, and the parent. As the individual gets older, the student is also invited to the IEP and can participate in the meeting. When the student is 13 years and older a transition representative will also be invited to the meeting to assist with transitions. At age 18, students obtain the decision making rights and replace the parent as a required participant. Parents my still attend meetings as well though. Any service provider is also invited to the meeting and may attend. These may include physical therapists, occupational therapists, orientation and mobility personnel, and others.

What does Special Education look like?

This is a question that has an answer that can be difficult to explain clearly. Special Education can be a simple as a student regularly checking in and working with a Special Education teacher. Special Education can also be as different as pull out classes where the student learns a modified curriculum with little to no interaction with students without disabilities. There are all sorts of settings and varieties of services, but some settings are not available in all schools in all school districts. Some students are served in the regular classes by a special education teacher in combination with the regular education teacher. Other students are served in one or two tutorial/resource/educational support classes by a special education teacher and are in all regular education classes otherwise. The placement (where the student is served) and the services (by whom and how much the student is served) should be discussed and finalized during an IEP meeting.

What are accommodations?

Accommodations are changes that a student may need in environment, setting, and mode of responses or administration of tests, quizzes, assignments, etc due to the student having a disability. Accommodations are provided to the student so that they can demonstrate how well they would do if they didn't have their disability. These changes cannot effect the required information to meet state standards. They can reduce length of assignments (as long as required information is not being eliminated). The team must discuss the student's need for each accommodation and it must be documented in the present levels of the IEP. Note: an accommodation is not an accommodation if the entire class has the "option" (For example: If all students can have an extra 5 minutes to complete work and a student has the accommodation of an extra 5 minutes to complete work, the student with the disability should receive an additional 5 minutes to finish...meaning an additional 10 minutes since 5 is an option for the whole class.)

What are modifications?

Modifications are changes that a student may need to participate in education environment. For some students accommodations are not enough and they need more drastic changes. These changes DO effect the required information that is required in the state standards. Students that require modifications to classes in high school will not meet the requirements for Carnegie Units that have to be earned for a regular high school diploma, however in Greenville County students can earn an occupational diploma which many businesses in the local area recognize. Some businesses do require employees to earn GED in addition to their occupational diploma.