Graciela Garcia Elementary School Special Education Needs Policy

Mission

The mission of PSJA's Special Education Program is to ensure students with disabilities are educated with non-disabled peers in the least restrictive environment determined under each of their Individual Education Plans.

Students who need special education services to progress in school include those with learning disabilities, speech impairments, physical and intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, autism, traumatic brain injury and visual & hearing impairments.

Services are available to students beginning on their 3rd birthday, and to students who have not reached their 22nd birthday as of September 1st of the current school year. Students with visual or hearing impairments may receive special education services starting at birth, up through their 22nd birthday.

Purpose

· To maintain open access to the Primary Years Program for all students

· To validate and enhance the efforts of our learning community to meet the educational needs of all students

· To define the roles and shared responsibility of each stakeholder (staff, students and parents)

· To define the structures and systems needed to support all students

· To align resources

Practice Differentiation:

At Graciela Garcia Elementary, all students receive instruction that enables them to succeed within the range of their approaches to learning, abilities and interests. Differentiation is seen as the process of identifying, with each learner, the most effective strategies for achieving

agreed goals. Groupings within classrooms, tiered lessons, use of pre-assessments and formative assessments to discover students’ strengths and areas to focus targeted instruction on, open-ended learning engagements, and provision of materials (such as leveled reading

materials, enrichment packets, choice menus, and online reading/math programs) designed to address students’ level of readiness are some examples.

Affirming Identify and Building Self Esteem:

We provide a variety of opportunities to affirm and support the diverse affective needs of students:

· School wide celebration assemblies focused on demonstration of the IB learner profile and PYP attitudes

· Tickets given for individual excellence in demonstration the IB learner profile traits; paired with school-wide rewards, and other forms of recognition

Support for students through the RTI process and special education services:

We are required to use the Response to Intervention (RTI) model as the starting point to identify and serve students who need additional academic or behavioral support to make satisfactory progress towards meeting grade level expectations. Classroom interventions based on recommendations provided by the school Student Support Team are implemented and data collected weekly to determine student progress. If a student does not show growth after several interventions have been tried, he/she is referred for a special needs evaluation. An evaluation always includes cognitive and academic testing. Testing for speech, behavior and physical/motor skills are also conducted if determined to be appropriate.

Students who qualify for special education services receive daily or weekly support from the school special education resource staff. The majority of Graciela Garcia students receiving special education support have a specific learning disability. The special education staff collaborates with classroom teachers to help provide modifications in the classroom so a student can participate in the general/PYP curriculum.

Support for Staff:

The Response to Intervention (RTI) process includes support for students, parents and teachers. Teachers or parents can refer a child who is not making adequate progress. Our Student Support Team, comprised of the counselor, classroom teachers, and special education staff, provide/brainstorm ideas for teachers to implement in the classroom. While these interventions take place, nationally-normed progress monitoring may be initiated to check the student’s progress with the interventions in place. If the student shows adequate progress with the provided interventions then these interventions will continue. If not, the student may be referred for further assessments or new interventions may be used.

Revised Oct 2021