The Special
Education Program in the District continues to grow. We currently
serve over 1800 students. Our per pupil expenditure rate is second
highest within the SELPA. The District is committed to serving the
diverse needs of its students. To this end we have added a new psychologist
and hired another assistant to support the language and speech program.
Several teachers were
sent to be trained in a new reading program which helps students who
are experiencing difficulty in this area. We trained a new staff member
for assistive technology and plan to continue training in this area.
As a result of a summer workshop, an assistive technologist expert
will be sharing with our staff the latest developments in this area.
There will be a SELPA (special education local plan area) Autism project
that will be ongoing for the next two year. The goal of the project
is for each district to train a team of individuals who can specialize
in the needs of this population and offer support to other teachers.
We are proud that our program specialist was instrumental in developing
this training that will bring in teams from the entire County of Los
Angeles. We will also send a team to the legal issues consortium to
learn about the newest legislation that affects our program. Our district
will also lend our support to the community advisory council which
meets quarterly.
This year our District
will be participating in several specialized projects. WESTAT is a
federal project that is investigating the current teacher shortage
in special education. The project is designed to look at training
needs of special education personnel and ameliorate the current shortage
of qualified teachers. The University of Oregon will be conducting
a computerized learning study for students with learning disabilities.
Sierra Vista Junior High will take the lead on this project which
has a success rate of reducing learning difficulties by forty-seven
percent. The entire District will participate in focus monitoring
by the State Department of Education -- special education division.
This study will allow us to examine our service delivery to special
education students and develop solutions for any areas that need improvement,
such as increasing the number of students taking the statewide exams.