Assistive technology (often abbreviated as AT) is any item, piece of equipment, software or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. Assistive technology includes products and services to help people who have difficulty speaking, typing, writing, remembering, pointing, seeing, hearing, learning, walking, etc. Assistive technology provides students with disabilities access to curriculum.

Audiological services are provided for students who have an identified hearing loss in order to access current hearing levels and make recommendations for appropriate amplification in the educational environment. 

Behavior Interventionists are trained in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) techniques, classroom management strategies, data collection techniques, discrete-trial training, and strategies for positive behavior support. Behavioral Interventionists are available to provide services for who demonstrate behaviors, which significantly impede their learning. These specialists work collaboratively with educators, administrators, other school personnel, and families to ensure that students with severe behavior difficulties receive effective interventions.

Services provided by a qualified social worker or mental health personnel including school psychologists and school counselors.

Health services are designed to enable a child with a disability to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) as described in their individual educational plan (IEP). School health services are services that may be provided by either a qualified school nurse or other qualified person. 

Interpreting services are provided to many children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing as part of providing them with access to instruction. The definition of interpreting services indicates a range of possible services (e.g., oral transliteration, sign language, cued language) all of which refer to specific communication systems.

Occupational Therapy (OT) is a related service for students in the public school system who are eligible for an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program. The provision of related services for students with disabilities is intended to facilitate participation in educational programs. Our Licensed Occupational Therapists, along with the Individual Educational Plan (IEP) team, determine the need for educationally relevant therapy based on individual student needs. Therapy in the educational environment is viewed as a continuum of services that encompasses a variety of service delivery models and intervention strategies. Occupational therapists provide intervention to eligible students whose specific difficulties in daily living skills, fine motor, visual motor, and sensory processing skills interfere with participation in school activities. 

Occupational Therapists: 

Provide treatment to strengthen and develop fine motor functions.

Focus on treatment of the small muscles, primarily those of the face, upper trunk, arms, and hands.

Improve the student's ability to perform tasks necessary for independent functioning, such as eye-hand coordination, and manual dexterity.

Occupational therapists are an important part of the collaborative team that supports students with disabilities to achieve success in school.

O&M is a service that focuses on introducing students who are blind or visually impaired to safety and effective travel through their environments

Physical Therapy (PT) is a related service for students in the public school system who are eligible for an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program. The provision of related services for students with disabilities is intended to facilitate participation in educational programs. Our Licensed Physical Therapists, along with the Individual Educational Plan (IEP) team, determine the need for educationally relevant therapy based on individual student needs. Therapy in the educational environment is viewed as a continuum of services that encompasses a variety of service delivery models and intervention strategies. Physical Therapists provide intervention to eligible students whose difficulties in functional mobility, balance, gross motor skills, and endurance interfere with participation in school activities.

Physical Therapists

provide treatment to increase muscle strength, mobility, and endurance;

focus on gross motor skills that rely on the large muscles of the body involved in physical movement and range of motion;

help to improve the student's posture, gait, and body awareness; and

monitor the function, fit, and proper use of mobility aids and devices. 

Physical therapists are an important part of the collaborative team that supports students with disabilities to achieve success in school.

The Speech and Language Impaired Program serves children with communication disorders that adversely affect their education. Poor communication skills can interfere with a student’s ability to understand and participate in classroom instruction and may impair their relationships with teachers and other children. Good communication is important for speaking, thinking, writing, reading and learning. The highly qualified Speech-Language Pathologists provide support for students, ages 3 years through 21 years, in all areas of communication. Services are delivered in the least restrictive environment in all district area schools.

Language difficulties include spoken language, reading and/or writing difficulties. Speech encompasses such areas as articulation and phonology (the ability to speak clearly and be intelligible), fluency (stuttering), and voice.

Communication disorders may result from many different conditions. For example, language-based learning disabilities are the result of a difference in brain structure present at birth. This particular difficulty may be genetically based. Other communication disorders stem from oral-motor difficulties (e.g., an apraxia or dysarthia of speech), aphasias (difficulties resulting from a stroke which may involve motor, speech and/or language problems), traumatic brain injuries, and stuttering, which is now believed to be a neurological deficit. The most common conditions that affect children's communication include language-based learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, cerebral palsy, mental disabilities, cleft lip or palate, and autism spectrum disorders.

Students with language disorders may have difficulty expressing ideas coherently, learning new vocabulary, understanding questions, following directions, recalling information, understanding and remembering something that has just been said, reading at a satisfactory pace, comprehending spoken or read material, learning the alphabet, identifying sounds that correspond to letters, perceiving the correct order of letters in words, and possibly, spelling. Students with speech disorders may exhibit unintelligible speech due to a motor problem or due to poor learning. Sounding hoarse, breathy or harsh may be due to a voice problem. Fluency or stuttering also affects speech intelligibility because the child's flow of speech is interrupted.

A strong relationship exists between communication and academic achievement. Language and communication proficiency, along with academic success, depend on whether students can match their communication to the learning-teaching style of the classroom. Students with communication disorders are capable of high academic success if they learn the classroom's social, language, and learning patterns. Our teachers and speech-language pathologists focus on classroom interactions and the language and communications used in the academic environment to assist students in being active participants in their learning.

When an IEP team determines that a student requires special transportation, special transportation is added as a related service on the services page of the IEP.