Staff:
Carrie Doyle – Support Service Director / Teacher
Kelly Day - Support Service Teacher
Angela Basalla - Support Service Teacher
Kristi Bechdel - Support Service Teacher
Karen Sanders - Support Services Teacher
Lynette Kramer- Support Services Teacher
Laura Crawford - Support Services Teacher
Kaylin Smith - Support Services Teacher
Christine Hill - Support Services Teacher
Justine Shady - Support Services Teacher
Shirley Woika, Jenna Marzin – School Psychologist Services
Barb Roberts – Speech / Language Pathologist
Tim McDonnell – Occupational Therapist
Holly Montarsi – COTA
Melody Latsha - Social Worker
Paraprofessional
Staff:Shirene Bolink, Cheryl Calzada, Alicia Culvey, Rhonda Geisewite, Stacy Hunt, Hope Lamey, Patricia Leigey, Patsy Quay, Tanya Miller-Mitchell, Wendy Kerstetter, Shaylin Rossman, Tara Tressler, Chuck Walizer , Shannon Sycz, Kim Bohartz, Michelle Stahl, Jen Miller, Oliva Oechler, Brittany Delaney, Bobbi Calhoun, Joann Temans, Ashley Rae, Katie Lamey
The Special Education Department provides programs and services in accord
with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and PA Chapter
14 Special Education Programs for students with disabilities. A child with
a disability means a child who as the result of a multidisciplinary evaluation
is determined to meet the criteria in one or more of the following categories:
mental retardation, a hearing impairment including deafness, a speech or language
impairment, a visual impairment including blindness, serious emotional disturbance,
an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health
impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities
and who is determined to need special education and related services.
Related services are designed to enable the child to participate
in or access his or her program of special education. Examples of related
services are speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy,
nursing services, audiologist services, counseling, and family training.
The following definitions apply to the 13 categories of exceptionality
as defined by IDEA:
Autism means a developmental
disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and
social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects
a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated
with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements,
resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual
responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a child's educational
performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional
disturbance.
Deaf-blindness means
concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes
such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that
they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children
with deafness or children with blindness.
Deafness means a hearing
impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic
information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely
affects a child's educational performance.
Emotional disturbance
means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics
over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a
child's educational performance:
(i) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory,
or health factors.
(ii) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships
with peers and teachers.
(iii) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
(iv) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
(v) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal
or school problems. The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply
to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they
have an emotional disturbance.
Hearing impairment
means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely
affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the
definition of deafness in this section.
Intellectual Disability
means significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing
concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the
developmental period that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Multiple disabilities
means concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental
retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes
such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special
education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include
deaf-blindness.
Orthopedic impairment
means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational
performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g.,
clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g.,
poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and impairments from other causes
(e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).
Other health impairment
means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened
alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with
respect to the educational environment, that-
(i) Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit
disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy,
a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic
fever, and sickle cell anemia; and
(ii) Adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Specific learning disability
means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved
in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest
itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell,
or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual
disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental
aphasia.
(i) Disorders not included. The term does not include learning problems that
are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental
retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic
disadvantage.
Speech or language impairment
means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation,
a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child's
educational performance.
Traumatic brain injury
means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force,
resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment,
or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term
applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or
more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract
thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities;
psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech.
The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative,
or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
Visual impairment including
blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely
affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial
sight and blindness.
Special education services are provided according to the primary
educational needs of the child, not the category of disability. The types
of services available are (1) learning support, for students who primarily
need assistance with the acquisition of academic skills; (2) life skills support,
for students who primarily need assistance with development of skills for
independent living; (3) emotional support, for students who primarily need
assistance with social or emotional development; (4) deaf or hearing impaired
support, for students who primarily need assistance with deafness; (5) blind
or visually impaired support, for students who primarily need assistance with
blindness: (6) physical support, for students who primarily require physical
assistance in the learning environment; (7) autistic support, for students
who primarily need assistance in the areas affected by autism spectrum disorders;
and (8) multiple disabilities support, for student who primarily need assistance
in multiple areas affected by their disabilities.
Related services are designed to enable the child to participate
in or access his or her program of special education. Examples of related
services are speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy,
nursing services, audiologist services, counseling, and family training.
Annual Notice for Special Education Services
Procedural
Safeguards Notice
Request
for Evaluation of a Student
For additional information please contact the Special Education
Director, Carrie Nixon at (570) 725 -7822