Special Education Services

Special Education: A Service, not a place

The Special Education department works collaboratively with school and District leaders, teachers, students, and families to provide the tools, guidance, supports, and services needed to ensure access and success for students with disabilities. Visit our Special Education Services page for more information about the services we provide.

Goals

Goals of the Special Education department for students receiving special education services are:

• High quality learning for every student
• Increased performance on State assessments for students with disabilities
• Increased graduation rate for students with disabilities
• Students with disabilities are full and authentic members of their school communities
• Universal design for learning throughout all our schools
• Advocacy and support for our students and families

Current Initiatives

We are always partnering with schools and other departments to meet District goals. Some of our larger initiatives, which are directly related to our primary goals, include:

• We are building more inclusive learning opportunities in all of our schools, with a specific focus on a year-by-year implementation of an integrated comprehensive service model.
• We are deepening our focus on creating data-driven, effective transition plans for our students with disabilities.  These transition plans should reflect our students’ strengths and areas of need, as well as guide their educational programming, particularly in High School.
• We are improving our Information Management systems so that we can more effectively track and guide student achievement; in particular, we will focus on analyzing IEP Progress reports to determine the impact of service models on student growth.
• We conduct weekly learning walks with Special Education Supervisors, Consulting Teachers, Directors, and School Leaders in order to assess the extent to which our students have access to and success in general education.
• We are partnering with the Curriculum and Instruction department to provide co-taught professional development in core content areas so that teachers of students with disabilities have access to that training and general education teachers learn how to differentiate instruction and support students with disabilities.
• We are working toward implementing social skills curriculum across the system for ALL primary grade students.
• We are engaged in a redesign of our services for students with Emotional and Behavioral disabilities.
• Student first language:  Students With Disabilities, not “Special Education Students.”
• Special Education Review by the Urban Special Educaiton Leadership Collaborative.

Accomplishments

• Students with disabilities served through the integrated comprehensive service model K-1 show strong progress toward their IEP goals in the Spring of 2010.
• Significant decrease in disciplinary actions for students with disabilities K-5 in September through November 2010 as compared to September through November 2009.
• More students are served in inclusive settings.

Resources

• We partner with the Special Education PTSA and the
• Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council to provide community outreach, training, and partnership for families and staff. See here for 2013-2014 Recruitment Announcement for the SEAAC Advisory Board. The application date has been extended to April 22nd. 
• We partner with the Haring Center and the Experimental Education Unit at the University of Washington. 
• We partner with the University of Washington DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center.