Special Services

Special Services ~ Teachers and Programs

The curriculum for the students who participate in the Resource Room program consists of the core academic subjects offered at Norwood High School. Students who take classes in the Resource Room program have Individualized Educational Programs. Courses offered in the Resource Room are English, Explorations in Algebra I, Explorations in Geometry I and Explorations in Algebra/Geometry II, Physical Science, Biology, World History II, and United States History I and II. These courses model the regular education curriculum and emphasize key concepts in each subject area, while using alternate textbooks in each of the classes.

Speech therapy, adaptive physical education, counseling, and other services are available to the students, depending on their individual learning needs.

Learning Center Teachers

The Learning Center offers support to special education students who have diagnosed learning disabilities. Learning Center specialists focus on diagnosis, remediation, academic support and educational planning for classroom accommodations and modifications. The Learning Center staff also serves as liaison to content area teachers and parents on behalf of students who have Individual Educational Programs. In addition, Learning Center staff provides students with opportunities to develop the tools necessary for success at the high school level and beyond, concentrating on organizational skills and techniques, study skills, learning strategies and understanding of personal learning styles.

Speech Therapist

The speech and language pathologist participates on an interdisciplinary team and conducts language-based evaluations to delineate the student's learning profile. Speech and language services are utilized in a team teaching format in the resource room English classes as well as in a small group format to support curriculum vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing skills/organization and oral language.

PACS/Life Skills Program

The PACS/Life Skills program at Norwood High School is intended to meet the needs of students whose ability levels and needs cannot be met within the present resource room setting.

Individual IEP goals and the Mass. Curriculum Frameworks are addressed. The students receive small group instruction that is individualized and directed toward the development of functional academic skills. Academic areas include English Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Life Skills, which include social/behavioral, health, independent living, and pre-vocational skills. Students attend a variety of classes in the mainstream with the assistance of a teacher's aide.

Materials are designed to support the individual learning style of each student. Direct instruction, hands-on activities, project-based assignments, and games are utilized to teach and reinforce skills.

Per student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP), related service staff provides direct service to students and may also provide consultation to insure that therapeutic strategies are interwoven and carried over into instructional activities and routines throughout the day.

 

The Education Cooperative (TEC)

The Education Cooperative (TEC) is an educational which is collaborative which provides member communities with high quality, cost-effective educational services that assist thirteen communities in effectively meeting the needs of students and staff. Norwood is one of the thirteen communities.

The major goals of TEC are:

• to develop, refine and deliver special education services to meet the needs of students and federal mandates.
• to coordinate and implement regional career and vocational services designed to plan and prepare students for immediate or future employment.
• to coordinate and implement services for gifted and talented students, grades Kindergarten through twelve.
• to operate alternative high schools for capable students who need academic and emotional support.
• to plan and provide regional professional development programs/services through Job-Alike groups.
• to plan and provide regional support services, capitalizing on economies of scale, i.e. cooperative purchasing.

One of the TEC programs physically located at Norwood High School is the Network. The TEC Network is a comprehensive array of special education classes for students with moderate to intensive special needs, ages fifteen to twenty-two. The TEC Network classes implement a wide variety of curriculum. Materials, activities and programs are designed to support the individual learning style of each student.

Classes are located in public school settings, allowing students to engage in a range of integrated activities in classroom, building and community settings.

Network programs also serve as regional demonstration models for integration activities. Enhancing integration within the host public school system is an essential goal.

All Network students are served in a cooperative professional environment. Network families and TEC community special education departments are encouraged to be active participants in planning each student's individual program. After students are referred and then enrolled by their school system, Network teachers conduct planning meetings with families and school liaisons that use any of the following processes:

• developmentally appropriate practice
• home visits
• integrated related services models
• C.O.A.C.H. Assessment
• priority checklist strategies
• restructuring student IEP's to be more compatible with regular education routines
• career planning processes
• interagency transitional planning
• parent support and training criteria
• natural supports
• technologies

Each student's functional independence is developed through education in the following curriculum areas:

• cognitive development and functional academic skills
• social skills and behavioral management
• vocational instruction and community-based job training
• speech, language and augmentative communication
• adaptive physical education
• personal management
• integrated related services including:
  • speech and augmentative communication
  • occupational therapy
  • physical therapy
  • nursing support
  • vision training
  • behavioral consultation
• self-advocacy strategies

The Network also administers a range of technical supports, in service training options and expertise for meeting the unique challenges of educating students with low incidence special needs.

Together, TEC and its member communities are committed to providing local programs for students with moderate to intensive special needs that offer regional cost-effective and quality educational opportunities.