Special Education

What is special education

Special education is instruction that is modified or particularized for those students with special needs, such as learning differences, health problems, and physical/developmental disabilities.

How do we serve our students

The provision of education to people with disabilities or learning differences differs from country to country, and state to state. The ability of a child to access a particular setting may be dependent on their specific needs, location, family choice, or government policy. Special educators describe a cascade of services, in which students with special needs receive services in varying degrees based on the degree to which they interact with the general school population. In the main, special education will be provided in one, or a combination, of the following ways.

Regular education classes combined with special education services is a flexible model often referred to as inclusion or co-teaching. In this model, children with special needs are educated with their typically developing peers for at least half of the day. In a "full inclusion" model, specialized services are provided in the regular classroom by sending the service provider in to work with one or more children in their regular classroom setting. In a partial inclusion model, the child may attend regular or general education classes and then receive specialized services, such as in a resource room, speech or language therapy center.

Pull-out or "resource" classrooms are designed for the student with special needs to leave the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions. Special education services may be provided in other settings at specific times during the day on a pull-out basis, such as resource rooms, occupational, physical and speech therapy, sensory rooms, rooms with special physical equipment, adaptive physical education, etc.

Self-contained classes, located in mainstream schools but separate from regular education classrooms, are designed specifically for children who have severe special needs and may be termed support classes, or a variety of jurisdiction-specific terms.

Definitions

What are learning differences?

What are mental health problems?

Search for specific disabilities

What are physical or developmental?