Special Education Vision and Mission
Vision:
The Special Education Division will strive to:
- Assist students to choose opportunities for success and development of self advocacy.
- Commit to continued enrichment of skills and knowledge by special education personnel.
- Adapt as needed to serve an expanding and identified special education population.
- Expand inclusionary opportunities as appropriate.
Mission:
- Provide support services per IEP for students with identified disabilities, enabling them opportunities for success in high school.
- Satisfy legal mandates set by state and deferal law (per IDEA) regarding identified students with disabilities.
I. Climate of Teaching and Learning
The Special Education Division strives to understand students as individual learners with special needs and learning styles. Through that understanding and sensitivity for special needs students, the faculty and staff work to guide the students toward academic success and self advocacy. Special Education faculty and staff focus on teaching appropriate strategies based on individual needs of special education students.
The Special Education Division:
A. Assists students to choose opportunities for success.
1. Individualized case management
a. Monitoring of grades and behaviors in mainstream classes.
b. Tutorial support for mainstream classes.
c. Instructional classes available to optimize opportunities for success.
d. Pupil to teacher ratio enables personalized attention and caring.
e. Support services based on individual needs - Social Work, Speech/Language, OT, etc.
2. Maximizes opportunities for inclusion in mainstream curriculum.
a. REI Process facilitates communication between students, teachers, and parents.
b. Division fosters respect and consideration for students with disabilities.
B. Assists students to develop self advocacy and independence.
1. Developing awareness of individual students disabilities and teaching strategies for academic and social success.
2. Encouraging participation in extra-curricular activities.
3. Assisting with post secondary planning.
II. Personnel-Working within a Professional Learning Community
The Special Education Division considers itself exemplary based on the school philosophy that a division can only been as good as the personnel it employs. The division is committed to recruiting and retaining individuals with outstanding expertise in the field of special education. The faculty and staff of the division provide a unique diversity of skills in specialty areas for the benefit of special needs students. Furthermore, the Special Education Division supports and executes the school's vision and values of success for all students.
The Special Education Division:
A. Commits to continued enrichment of skills and knowledge of special education personnel.
1. Shared mission, vision, and values throughout the division.
2. Engagement in collective inquiry regarding best practices through participation in conferences, seminars, workshops, and graduate classes.
3. Continual learning in order to best serve an increasingly diverse special education population.
a. Increased program options-Resource support, instructional classes, assistance in mainstream, etc.
b. Additional training of teachers in additional specific disabilites areas.
c. Meet and exceed Illinois State Teaching Certification Standards.
d. Presentations at national, state, and local conferences.
4. Assumes leadership roles within Stevenson community through training and education of mainstream faculty and staff.
B. Commits to on going working relationships with paraprofessionals, speech therapists, social workers and regular education colleagues.
1. Unique contributions of each team member valued for student success.
2. Regular communication and exchange regarding individual students between case manager and other special education team members.
3. Commitment to value and respect each others specific skills and contributions in students individual education program.
4. Formal and informal collaborative opportunities between regular education and special education colleagues.
III. Curriculum/Assessment-Attention to Individual Students
The Special Education Division provides special needs students with support for the regular education curriculum, adapted curriculum through smaller, special education classes that parallel the regular education curriculum and ancillary services that are appropriate for special needs students as dictated by the student's Individual Education Plan (IEP). The faculty and staff monitor student progress and provide appropriate support for students, regular education teachers and parents. It is the goal of the Special Education Division to enable students to become productive and effective citizens.
The Special Education Division:
A. Maintains equity and access to mainstream curriculum.
1. Expand inclusionary opportunities as appropriate.
2. Stimulate active engagement of special needs students enrolled in regular education curriculum.
B. Develops curriculum as needed to serve an expanding identigied special education population.
1. Instructional classes are available to meet individual goals.
a. Offers more individualized instruction than mainstream classes.
b. Parallels mainstream curriculum with appropriate modifications.
2. Adapts curriculum appropriately with cooperation of mainstream teacher.
a. Collaboration between mainstream teacher and SEC.
b. Modifications focused for student success.
c. Grades recorded as modified on transcript.
IV. Community Partnerships
The Special Education Division strives to establish and maintain effective partnerships with regular education, parents, social service agencies, private practice professionals (doctors, psychologists, social workers, etc.), and the larger community.
The Special Education Division:
A. Continues to involve parent(s)/guardian in the decision making process regarding student's Individual Education Plan (IEP).
B. Provides post secondary transition planning for all special education students with respect to their individual needs.
C. Completes sender school articulation to ease transition to high school.
1. Begins the process early in the special needs students 8th grade school year.
2. Works closely with the appropriate sender school personnel (case managers, administrators, regular education staff, speech and language therapists, school psychologists and social workers).
3. Attends all meetings-annual reviews, reevaluations, etc.-as appropriate for the incoming special needs students.
4. Begins the IEP Process for high school.
5. Introduces parents and students to programs, procedure and curriculum for high school.