Special Education

Special education means specially designed instruction that meets the unique needs of a child with a disability. It could involve adapting the content, methods, or delivery of instruction. It might involve speech or language, occupational or physical therapy, counseling or social skills development, or academic support of one kind or another.

A student is considered to have an educational disability if he/she is unable to learn successfully in the general curriculum or meet the educational standards of the grade level/school and needs special education and/or related services to learn. In order to determine whether a student is in need of special education and /or related services, the team must follow a process outlined by State Standards. This involves a variety of professionals as well as the parents, who are key participants all along the way. Children between the ages of 3 and 21 years fall under these standards.

Disabilities may include: hearing impairment ( including deafness), speech and language impairment, visual impairment ( including blindness), a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, mental retardation, other health impairment, or multiple disabilities.