Special Education
SPECIAL EDUCATION OFFICE PERSONNEL
Email: [email protected]
The Hempfield Area School District offers special education services to students with disabilities in a variety of service delivery options. These services are described below:
Special Education Links
PA Department of Education-Special Education
District Operated Programs
Types of Special Education Supports
- Learning Support - Provides academic support
- Emotional Support - Provides academic as well as social, emotional and behavioral support
- Autistic Support - Provides a highly structured environment for academic, social, emotional, behavioral, and life skills support.
- Speech and Language Support - Provides support to students’ who have difficulty with articulation, fluency, voice or language.
Levels of Intervention
The district operates full-time, supplemental, and itinerant level classes in a variety of settings. The designation of a classroom is dependent on the average amount of time most students spend in special education. The student’s IEP and not the type of classroom determine the amount of time a student is seen by a special education teacher. The following indicate the level of intervention provided in the various classrooms:
- Itinerant - 80% or more in a regular education classroom (IT)
- Supplemental - 40% to 79% in a regular education classroom (SUP)
- Full-Time - Less than 40% in a regular education classroom (FT)
Location of Special Education Services
Hempfield Area High School
Harrold School
- Co-Teaching Academic Classes/Inclusion
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
- Autistic Support - Self-Contained
- Emotional Support Class
Wendover Middle School
- Co-Teaching Academic Classes/Inclusion
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
- Autistic Support - Self-Contained
- Emotional Support Class
West Hempfield Middle School
- Co-Teaching Academic Classes/Inclusion
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
- Autistic Support - Self-Contained
- Emotional Support Class
Fort Allen Elementary School
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
- Autistic Support - Self-Contained
Maxwell Elementary School
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
Stanwood Elementary School
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
- Autistic Support Self-Contained
West Hempfield Elementary School
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant, Supplemental, & Self-Contained Classes
- Emotional Support Class - Self Contained Class
West Point Elementary School
- Learning Support Classes - Itinerant & Supplemental
Westmoreland Intermediate Unit #7 Programs and Services
The HASD also contracts with ESS Support Services, LLC in order to provide Personal Care Aides to those students who demonstrate a need for such a service as determined by their Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
- Life Skills Support – for children whose greatest need is to learn functional skills that will allow them to live and work independent of their families.
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing Support – for children who require assistance with hearing problems.
- Physical Support – for children who need programs that consider their physical disabilities.
- Multi-handicapped Support – for children with more than one disability, the combination of which results in needs requiring many services and much support.
- Blind & Vision Supports - for children with limited or no vision.
- Occupational Therapy - therapy to improve fine motor skills.
- Physical Therapy- therapy to improve gross motor skills.
Approved Private Schools
- Children’s Institute
- Wesley Highlands School
- DePaul Institute
- Pressley Ridge Day School
- Western Pa School for the Blind
- Western Pa School for the Deaf
- Easter Seals
Signs Indicating That Your Child May Need Special Education Services
- Difficulty in academic subjects
- Receiving failing grades
- Repeating a grade
- Exhibition of a serious emotional disturbance over a long period of time which affects your child’s ability to learn
- Consistent problems in getting along with others
- Difficulty communicating
- Lack of interest or ability in age-appropriate activities
- Resistance to change
- Difficulty seeing or hearing that interferes with the ability to communicate
- Health problems that effect educational performance
How to Make A Referral
Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)
The parents of a child with a disability have the right under the Federal IDEA to obtain an independent educational evaluation at public expense if the parent disagrees with an evaluation obtained by the school district. There is a limit of only one IEE at public expense each time the District conducts an evaluation with which the parents disagree.
The school district has the right to initiate a hearing to show that its evaluation is appropriate.
- Ask the parent to put the request for an IEE in writing and to include:
- Child’s name
- Child’s school
- Reason for request (optional)
- Name of evaluator (if the parent has one)
- Respond in writing within 10 days if receipt of written request
- Provide list of independent evaluators for parent to use, or
- Approve the parent’s evaluator, or
- Request a meeting to further discuss the request
- Criteria for Independent Educational Evaluator
- The evaluator must be a Certified School Psychologist
- The psychologist must be independent of the family, i.e. cannot be a close friend or family member and
- The psychologist must be independent of the district, i.e. cannot be a current or former employee of the district.