Special Services
Bethel School District Special Services Vision Statement:
Bethel Special Services staff will inspire learners to grow, thrive, and be happy in a safe and inclusive community.
Bethel Special Services Mission:
Our mission is to work as a highly collaborative, interdependent team in order to deliver high levels of services that enable students to develop and apply the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values needed to realize their maximum potential.
In the Bethel School District, we take great pride in providing services that enable all of our children to reach their potential. Through comprehensive child find efforts, we seek out all resident children (and non-residents) attending private school within the district) with potentially disabling conditions. The district special education program currently serves more than 2,500 students. A full continuum of special education services is available to resident students, birth to 21 years.
Our commitment to your child
To ensure that we are providing the best care and services to your child, our staff receives ongoing professional development opportunities in curriculum, instruction and assessment. In addition to districtwide training, staff development opportunities are available for special education and related services staff. Training is provided at monthly special education teacher and specialist meetings. Individual staff members attend conferences, workshops and classes. Recent training has included: behavior assessments, behavior intervention plans, de-escalation and restraint training, assistive technology and evaluations, transition services and autism. Literacy has also been a special focus at all grade levels.
Students are served in a variety of ways utilizing many service delivery options, depending upon evaluation results, and IEP (Individual Education Program) committee recommendations.
Service delivery options most frequently utilized by students ages five to 21 are resource services provided in general education classrooms and/or resource rooms, and to a much lesser extent, in integrated or self-contained classrooms. Selection of the appropriate option for each student is based upon the student’s IEP, the least restrictive environment requirements, and the methods that provide a reasonably high probability of assisting the student to achieve annual goals. In addition, consideration is given to whether the student can be placed in his neighborhood school, and if not, if the school is as close as possible to the student’s home.
Although the full continuum of services is available, not all options are available at every school site.
For students of all ages, OT, PT, SLP, and other related services are available as determined through the IEP process. Opportunities for integrated extracurricular/non-academic activities are also considered. Transition services, including goals and objectives, based on a functional vocational evaluation and anticipated post-school outcomes are part of the IEP beginning no later than age sixteen, and annually thereafter. The need for extended school year (ESY) services is determined by the IEP team.