Special Education
Link to Monitoring Form on State Department Web Site
The Special Education Department promotes opportunities for gifted and disabled students to participate in educational activities designed to help each student achieve maximum potential. A full range of services and meeting the needs of all identified and placed disabled students (Pre-K - 12) is offered in schools throughout the Conecuh County Public School System. Disabilities recognized by the State of Alabama include Autism, Deaf-Blindness, Developmental Delay, Emotional Disturbance, Hearing Impairment, Mental Retardation, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech and Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Visual Impairment.
Prereferral Intervention Strategies
Before a student is referred for special education services, prereferral intervention strategies must be implemented by the classroom teacher and monitored by the Building Based Student Support Team (BBSST) for at least six weeks. A referral is made for a special education evaluation when interventions/strategies have been determined unsuccessful.
Disabilities
Autism - Is a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction is evident before age three that adversely affects educational performance.
Developmental Delay - A child becomes eligible for this area of disability on his/her third birthday if there is a significant delay in one or more of the following areas: 1. Adaptive development 2. Cognitive development 3. Communication development 4. Social or emotional development and/or 5. Physical development; and if the child needs special education services.
Deaf-Blindness- Is a concomitant of hearing and visual impairments. The combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs. Solely for children with hearing or visual impairments.
Emotional Disturbance- Means a disability characterized by behavioral or emotional responses so different from appropriate age, cultural, environmental, or ethnic norms that the educational performance is adversely affected. Characteristics must be exhibited over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects educational performance.
Hearing Impairment- Is an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating that adversely affects a child's educational performance. This term includes both deaf and hard-of hearing children.
Mental Retardation- Significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning that exists concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and is manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects the child's educational performance.
Multiple Disabilities- Means concomitant impairments, the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments.
Orthopedic Impairment- Is characterized by impairments caused by congenital abnormality (e.g., spina bifida), diseases (e.g., Poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., fractures or burns that cause contractures, amputation, or cerebral palsy). Having a medical diagnosis alone is not enough to justify being identified in the area of orthopedic impairment. The impairment must adversely affect educational performance.
Other Health Impairments- Are characterized by limited strength, vitality, or alertness. Including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and diabetes. Having a medical diagnosis alone is not enough to justify being identified in the area of other health impairments. The impairment must adversely affect the educational performance.
Specific Learning Disabilities- Are characterized by a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations. Children with specific learning disabilities will demonstrate a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement in one or more of the following areas: basic reading skills, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, mathematical reasoning, oral expression, listening comprehension, or written expression. No single criterion or specific number of characteristics can be used in identifying children with specific learning disabilities. Although, the age-appropriateness of observed behaviors and the frequency, intensity, and duration of a child's learning problems are critical in distinguishing specific learning disabilities from learning problems resulting from such factors as low motivation, underachievement, or inadequate instructions.
Speech and Language Impairment- Is characterized by a communication disorder in the area of articulation, voice, fluency, or language that adversely affects a child's educational performance.