Special Education at KICE
'Types' of disabilities that our students 'have' - Asperger Syndrome, Downs Syndrome, profound hearing impairment and other sensory impairments, autism, emotionally disturbed/childhood trauma, cerebral palsy, anxiety disorders, acquired brain injuries, intellectual disabilities, language disorders, physical impairments eg spina bifida and epilepsy.
- Special Education Staff
- Behaviour Management for Students with Disabilities
- Special Education Student Identification Process
- Electronical Referral Process Through EDSAS (CEDS)
- Special Education at KICE, Kingscote Campus
- Visiting Consultants
- Useful Web Sites
Special Education Staff
Kingscote Campus |
|
| Angela Mitchell | Assistant Principal, Students with Disabilities |
| Kimball Cuddihy | Special Education Teacher |
| Karene Bell | School Service Officers & Carers |
| Carla Bos | |
| Elvie Christophers | |
| Sue Merchant | |
| Ngaire Sheriden | |
| Mia Vickery | |
Penneshaw Campus |
|
| Kate Souter | Special Education Teacher |
| Jude McKay | School Service Officers |
| Chris Porter | |
| Karen O'Brien | |
Parndana Campus |
|
| Anne-Marie Clarke | Special Education Teacher |
| Margaret Muir | School Service Officer |
Behaviour Management for Students with Disabilities
KANGAROO ISLAND COMMUNITY EDUCATION BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
(R-12)
- Students with disabilities are not exempt from normal school and classroom behaviour management procedures.
- When dealing with students with disabilities, we must acknowledge students varying levels of ability to understand the relationship between rights and responsibilities.
- Students with disabilities must have behaviour judged and measured in context to their student development plan. This plan is to be written in conjunction with the students Negotiated Education Plan. All students with a disability that could reasonably result in behaviour that may lead to suspension are to have a student development plan.
- Any behaviour management strategies highlighted in the Student Development Plan which differ from those described from the whole school will need to be specifically negotiated with parents, care givers, support services and relevant agencies. These strategies will then be clearly communicated so they can be consistently applied by staff managing the student.
- Therefore at Kangaroo Island Community Education this means information from the student development plan needs to be shared with all teachers.
Responsibility for creation of student development plans and forwarding this information is:
R-5: Assistant Principal (students with disabilities), teacher and Class teacher
6-12: Assistant Principal (SBM) and Special Education Teacher
- These plans must be known by all teachers at each site and regularly reviewed as part of the Individual Learning Plan.
Special Education Student Identification Process
- Classroom or home group teacher or parents communicate concern about a student's ongoing progress at school.
- Meeting occurs to clarify specific concerns in terms of academic progress, social emotional, behavioural or physical and a decision is made to refer student for assessment for Special Education support.
- A referral form is completed indicating specific concerns, signed by parents and sent to the Disability Coordinator at our district office in Noarlunga.
- The referral is processed and passed on to the relevant specialist eg. Guidance Officer, Speech Pathologist, Hearing Support Services or Behaviour Unit.
- These specialists come to Kangaroo Island approximately once a term and during their visits will assess the referred student.
- The specialist then writes a report based on his/her findings and will make a recommendation for Special Education support to be provided for that student.
- This recommendation is reviewed and processed by the Disability Coordinator and support is granted.
- Student is entered on EDSAS and funding is provided to support that student.
- The Special Education teacher with the classroom teacher and parents write up a Negotiated Education Plan for the student, identifying specific learning needs and individual goals.
- The student will receive Special Education support either through an SSO working in the classroom, working one to one with an SSO on a program designed by the specialist, or withdrawn to work in small groups with a specialist teacher of SSO.
Electronical Referral Process Through EDSAS (CEDS)
School enters student name and/or ED Id number (unique student identifier)
EDSAS Information is downloaded into the Support Services Referral Form and printed out
Principal discusses referral with parent/guardian and completes form with signed consent
School admin officer enters the data into the EDSAS system and saves
Every night, all EDSAS data is loaded centrally (CEDS) and stored
The following day – Referral is sent electronically to the district office.
Special Education at KICE, Kingscote Campus
The Special Education room is the hub of a hive of activity in the school. There are approx 40 students eligible to receive Special Education support and their support needs range from simple to complex. Some of the more complex disabilities are cerebral palsy (both major and minor), profound hearing impairment, Down's Syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (including Asberger's Syndrome). The students with these disabilities have teams of two or three highly skilled SSO's (School Support Officers) who work to support them in the mainstream classroom, or – in one case – in a specially arranged out of school setting. There are eight SSO's who work in this way. Every student with a major disability needs to be supported in an entirely different way, though knowledge and skills learned for one disability can often be used for another.
The majority of students receiving Special Education support in the school, however, don't have a disability with a particular label. Some students have a physical or emotional problem which affects their learning. Others – and these are in the majority – have difficulties learning basic literacy and numeracy skills, and this can be for a range of reasons. Educational Psychologists (or Guidance Officers) find out what these reasons are by testing students. Students who have difficulty with listening and speaking are assessed as eligible for Special Education support by Speech Pathologists. The programs they provide area again delivered by experienced SSO's.
KICE is constantly developing new methods to respond to the special needs of students. There is a signing class on Monday afternoons which is attended by around a dozen people. A computer program called Boardmaker is being increasingly used to generate visual symbols from a huge visual dictionary; this helps students with communication difficulties understand what is being taught and also express that learning. Vocie recognition software, called Dragon Naturally Speaking, enables students to speak to a computer, which turns their words into word processed text. This is proving a great success, even though the computer's memory needs careful training to recognise individual voices.
Special Education is a complex and challenging area in which to work, but highly rewarding. Integrating students with special needs into the mainstream classroom, whatever their disability, is standard practice at KICE, unlike many mainland schools. While this sometimes creates challenges there are great benefits for everyone-the student with the disability, the other students in the class, and the staff who work with them.
Kamar Khusus is a focus group, established in Term 2 of 2007. This group comprises of a small cohort of complex students with high special needs, and operates 9am-1pm daily, with students returning to mainstream classes in the afternoon, some with support. It is facilitated by a teacher and SSO support as required.
Visiting Consultants
Consultants visit Kangaroo Island each term to provide specialist support to parents, staff and students with disabilities. They work directly with students, and meet with staff and parents. Some are Education Department personnel from Student Support Services at Noarlunga, like Speech Pathologists, Guidance Officers, and Hearing Impairment and Behaviour Management consultants. Support services also provide a Disability Coordinator, an experienced person who takes a general role, helping in whichever way is most useful. Other visitors include Autism Association, Novita (formerly the Crippled Children's Association) and the Downs Syndrome Association. Private consultants are also sometimes employed.
Useful Web Sites
SERU
DECS
Special Ed
- District Services
- Health Support
- Legislation Resource Unit-SERU
- Links to various agencies
Libraries and Resources
Additional Needs
DECS
Children's Development Health Foundation
AUTISM
NOVITA