Special Services

Speech

Patricia Ziegler and Ann Rundebaken are Thomas Jefferson’s Speech/Language Specialists. Our program helps children with various communication difficulty in articulation (speech sounds), language, listening, fluency (stuttering) and voice.Children are identified as eligible for speech and language services through screenings, teacher referrals and parental requests.

There are two models of therapy provided to the students:

1. In-class speech lessons, where the speech specialist works in the classroom with all students, targeting the speech students’ specific needs and collaborating with the classroom teacher to reinforce classroom activities.

2. Traditional pull-out speech lessons where the child leaves his or her classroom for thirty minutes one or more times per week to work in a small group setting on specific speech or language goals.

All speech students receive status letters specifying day, time, type of therapy, and basic information concerning the child’s program.

At the end of each year all parents are invited to annual review conferences to review the year’s progress and plan their children’s goals for the coming school year.

Special Education

Once a child has been identified eligible for special education services, Thomas Jefferson School offers several instructional settings to meet the child’s educational needs.  These programs include In-Class Support (ICS), Resource Center (RC), and a Primary and an Intermediate Self-contained Class (SC).

Within an in-class support setting (ICS), children benefit from having educational support through the services of a certified special education teacher.  Instructional responsibility for these pupils is shared between the special education teacher and the classroom teacher(s) as described in the I.E.P.

Children receiving resource center services (RC) are instructed in a small group setting for part of the school day.  The special education teacher utilizes instructional strategies focusing upon individual learning styles and multiple modalities.

The primary and intermediate self-contained classes offer a smaller staff to pupil ratio.  The special education teacher implements the goals, objectives and strategies as outlined in their students’ I.E.Ps.

All of these programs are designed to offer opportunities for individual growth and academic success.