Special Announcements
Continuum of Services
To be eligible for special education services, students must meet certain criteria requirements. If they also demonstrate an educational need, students may be eligible as having or being a student with a learning disability, an orthopedic impairment, a visual impairment, an auditory impairment, a deaf/blind impairment, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, autism, a speech impairment, a traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment or multiple impairments. The Northside Independent School District provides a continuum of special education offerings and settings ranging from full inclusion with non-disabled students and only minimal special education support to full-time special school instruction. These educational services include, but are not limited to:
Inclusion
To the extent that they will benefit, eligible special education students are included with their age-appropriate peers in regular classes and schools. Many programs are available to these students. Both general education and special education teaching staff have received extensive training in making modifications and adaptations for learning differences.
The Learning Continuum
Students may remain in the general education classroom all day with assistance as needed from a special education teacher/instructional assistant. - Students may go to a content mastery center or learning lab (part special education, part general education students) taught cooperatively by special and general education teachers.
- Students identified as having a language or speech impairment are served by a speech/language pathologist.
- Students may report to a special education classroom on the general education campus less than 50 % of the time or be served by one or more special education teachers for more than 50% of the time, if needed.
- Students 14 years or older may participate in on/off campus Community-Based Vocational Training (CBVT) and/or Community-Based Instruction (CBI) opportunities.
- Students 16 years or older may receive on-the-job training under the supervision of an employment teacher, job coach or community-based teacher.
- Students with visual impairments receive instruction in the use of advanced technology and in social skills while attending general education or special education classes.
- Students with auditory impairments may receive instruction in the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf (RDSPD) classrooms, inclusive general education classrooms with interpreters and/or their RDSPD teacher, or fully mainstreamed with an interpreter.
- Students may require the need for full time services at a separate special education school if they are having significant behavioral challenges.
- Students with severe medical problems may attend the Northside Habilitation Program at the Nellie Reddix Center . This state-of-the-art facility is staffed with highly trained teachers and nurses who understand the needs of medically fragile students.
- Post secondary students who have completed four years of high school, but are still in need of services for functional academics, behaviors or independence, may attend the Northside Vocational Transition Program at the Nellie Reddix Center or may continue receiving services at the high school. The ARD committee develops goals and determines placement.