Resource and Support Services

Teachers:
Claudia Burdett-Lerner, Craig Charles, Cathy Collins, Donna Kidd, Tara MacIntyre, Renee Stout
Nancy O'Brien, Sandra Stockton, Katie Cousins, Barbara Kaufmann and Kim Fuller

Instructional Associates and Tutors:
Virginia Beaudoin, Susan Flagler, Cathy Jacobs, JoAnn Maynard, Paula Pitz, and Melissa Stewart

Typical resource room responsibilities, as you have known them, have evolved at KHS. What remains most important is that these services are driven by the needs of the students as designated at the LEPT (Local Educational Placement Team) meeting and expressed in their IEP (Individual Education Plan) or 504 plan, which becomes a legal, federal, and state document. The above mentioned teachers and instructional associates serve about 2/3 of the KHS special education population. Duties and responsibilities include: supplemental help, small group tutoring, resource room classes in general English, math, and reading; team teaching, departmental connections, educational evaluations, and case management. A few one-to-one tutors travel with individual students.

Supplemental Help:
Many of you have students in your classes that have IEPs or 504 plans that specify supplemental help. The supplemental help class size ranges from 6-10 students with a special ed teacher. Supplemental help students are enrolled in Foundation and/or Comprehensive level classes. Many of these special ed students need help with personal responsibility issues and organization. Goals of these classes are to facilitate students' success in their classes, monitor the IEP and its specific modifications, and notify teachers and/or parents of changing situations.

Small-group Tutoring:
The resource staff performing tutorial services are generally instructional associates. These full-time staff members work with small groups of educationally handicapped students. This support is similar to supplemental help, but it is more individualized and intense. Teacher and parent contact is continuous. Many of these students take comprehensive level courses and require daily follow through with study, projects, tests and organizational skills. Sometimes this staff reads and acts as secretary for students whose language skills are far below the level of the class. For others, direct instruction in reading and math is provided.

Resource Room Classes in General English and Math:
If it is decided at the LEPT meeting that a student's needs cannot be met within a Foundations level class, the typical placement would then be the general English or math curriculum within the Resource Room setting. Most of these classes take place in room 14, consist of 6-8 students, are taught for credit, and are group-oriented with individualized pacing.

Team Teaching:
The common goals of maintaining the curriculum's integrity, quality control of the students' output, and classroom management require a coordinated effort between the team teachers. The primary responsibility of the special educator in a team teaching situation is to complement the curriculum with a variety of methods and strategies to better meet the learning styles of all the students. Also, the special education teacher is the main liaison with tutors and supplemental help teachers for these students.

Departmental Connections:
Special Ed teachers attend meetings and make connections with different departments. The purpose of this collaboration is to develop communication between departments and to facilitate team teaching. Some departments have more than one special ed teacher as a liaison.

Educational Evaluations:
Every three years a re-evaluation of each coded student must be administered per state and federal mandate. This assessment, which includes a classroom observation, determines continued eligibility for the next three-year period. At KHS this date is determined by the previous evaluation date. This date appears in the upper right corner of the IEP. New referrals for at-risk students are available upon request to the student's guidance counselor. Upon completion of the psycho-educational assessment, an educational placement team determines eligibility for services.

Case Management:
Sometimes, students only need to be monitored and do not receive support services. Student progress is tracked and parents or teachers are contacted when necessary through this monitoring system. Services might be reinstated when students are not independently successful.

One-to-One Tutors:
This service is initially provided for students who cannot participate in regular classes without assistance. This could be due to severe ADHD and behavior management issues, transitions from out of school placement, physical disabilities, etc. Generally, these few students do not participate in a full day program. These one-to-one tutors may not be needed for the complete school year depending upon the success of the student.

Reading Assessments:
Prior to being admitted into a reading class, students are given a battery of standardized reading and spelling tests. Eligibility is determined by assessing the students skills in the three areas of reading which research has found important; phonology, orthography and semantics. Reading Classes:
Reading classes are designed to meet the individual needs of students identified with a specific reading disorder. Skills are taught through tailored programs therefore classes must remain small