Special Education Services

Students with Disabilities are General Education Students First

The Rebuilding Stronger plan strives to increase equity and access to opportunity for all students. Just over 4,000 IPS students are identified as having a disability that has an adverse effect on the student’s educational or functional performance. Ninety percent (90%) of these students with an individualized educational program (IEP) are able to access the general education curriculum and achieve all IEP services in a typical classroom environment. This fact underscores the notion that students with disabilities are general education students first but should receive special services in conjunction with the general education curriculum in order to thrive. Students with an IEP will experience the same benefits from Rebuilding Stronger as their peers:

• More academic and enrichment offerings
• More access to higher-demand, higher-performing school models closer to home

Additionally, the continuum of services offered across the district, specifically in service to children with disabilities, will continue to be offered to make the vision of the Rebuilding Stronger student experience more accessible.

• Every school, in every proposed zone, will continue to provide full inclusion, pull-out, and push-in services to accommodate students’ needs in general education settings
• Support from specialized teachers, specially designed instruction, assistive technology, and other student-centered services will remain a priority

Intensive Student Supports

Just under 10% of students with disabilities in IPS currently receive the majority of their education and services outside of the typical classroom. The majority of these students are supported in special education special programs that are embedded within IPS schools. Students supported by special programs are an invaluable part of the general school body and have meaningful opportunities to be included with their general education peers, as determined by their IEP.

An early commitment of Rebuilding Stronger planning was to ensure special education special programs would be more strategically located, both geographically and academically. Due to the opening and closing of programs over the years, programs had begun to be clustered in certain regions, included at certain school types, and excluded from certain academic programmatic models. Additionally, higher-demand, higher-performing schools have tended to have less special program offerings due to enrollment capacity and physical space. The Rebuilding Stronger plan allows the district to rectify this reality and promises to:

• Strategically hold “seats” for students served in special programs to ensure opportunities for both physical space and full inclusion, when applicable
• Increase equitable access to special education special programs (geographically)
• Ensure program access for every zone
• Intentionally place programs in higher-performing schools with better facility conditions

As a result of these commitments, students served in special education special programs will now have more school options, greater access to curricular programs like Montessori, Reggio, and Visual and Performing Arts, STEM, more enrichment programming, and more opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities like sports (including unified sports) and clubs. Additionally, we’ve intentionally paired our developmental Pre-K programs with at least one general education Pre-K program to ensure access to inclusion and greater preparation for an authentic kindergarten experience.

See below for a full list of special program locations.

Supporting Students through the Transition

For students with disabilities, particularly those with intensive or unique needs, the most critical steps in the fulfillment of the Rebuilding Stronger plan are the communication, planning, and implementation of student-centered transitions. Our most vulnerable students will need an individualized approach as considerations like medical needs, new school acclimation through virtual and/or in-person tours, peer and social relationships, therapeutic services and medication management, special transportation, and staffing dynamics are prioritized and executed. Special education administrators are committed to fulfilling these cornerstones of supportive student transitions alongside current and future program and school staff. Additionally, the IPS Operations team has taken the steps to assess and prioritize facility improvements where special programs are planned to be housed ensuring staff and students are able to engage in teaching and learning in an environment accommodating to their needs.

Special Education Special Programs

Special education programs will be accessible to every student whose case conference committee has agreed upon the need. Special Education administrators make placement decisions based on geographical location, program enrollment, intensity of student need within the program, staffing, etc. Families impacted by Rebuilding Stronger will be notified by a special education administrator who will discuss the impending transition and provide next steps.

Programs for Young Children

Programs for Young Children (PYC) is designed to provide high-quality, early childhood experiences, intervention services, and specially designed supports for children ages 3 to 5 (who have not yet entered Kindergarten) and their families. PYC Offers: developmental evaluations, walk-in speech services, Language Class, Developmental Preschool, inclusion preschool, and community preschool services. The Rebuilding Stronger plan has allowed for intentional pairing of Developmental PreK and general education PreK to ensure access to inclusion and greater preparation for an authentic kindergarten experience (in buildings with Dev PreK offering).

Intensive Intervention

The Intensive Intervention program is designed to provide wraparound support for students with intensive behavioral needs. Programming aims to teach students coping and executive functioning skills, provides access to mental health services, and teaches and reinforces socially acceptable behaviors and competencies that transcend the classroom.

Autism

Autism, Reach, and Nest are programs designed to support students on the autism spectrum. Depending upon students’ needs, services like applied behavior analysis, social-communication supports, research-based behavior intervention strategies, and specialized curricula are utilized to help students thrive and find success.

Life Skills

Life Skills programming is designed to support students with severe and profound and moderate cognitive disabilities, multiple handicaps, ASD, and those who have a dual-sensory impairment who, in most cases, are unable to access the general education curriculum. Programming for older students is designed to be community-based. Students have an opportunity to learn skills in the classroom and then apply this knowledge through age-appropriate activities in the community.

Arches

Arches programming is designed to be a work-readiness initiative for students in grades 6-12 who have developmental and intellectual disabilities that fall generally in the mild range. Arches programming combines academic instruction with social and vocational skills instruction.