Special Education Department

Services Available

The Pentucket Regional School District is committed to quality education for all students from ages 3 through 22 years of age. The district works closely with the area Early Intervention Providers to insure a seamless transition from early intervention services and our Pentucket Regional Preschool Programs for students who are identified as educationally disabled. Preschool programs are located at each of the two elementary schools which include Sweetsir Elementary School and Page Elementary School. The preschool program for the Bagnall Elementary School is currently located at the Pentucket Middle School for reasons of limited space availability at the Bagnall School.

The Pentucket Regional School District has preschool programs, kindergartens, and grade 1 - 6 programming in its school district's four elementary schools providing access to neighborhood general education programming. Each of our four elementary schools have full access to a broad range of special education and related services including speech pathology services, occupational therapy services, and physical therapy services. Special Educators and general educators are co-teaching, co-planning, and co-assessing in each of our elementary schools in order to facilitate inclusionary education experiences. Flexible grouping is used on an as needed basis in order to facilitate students with educational disabilities skills in the general education classroom and in "pull-out" areas.

The Pentucket Middle School for grades 7 - 8 and Pentucket High School provide full access to the general education curriculum with a full range of special education services and related services.

A student with special needs has a right to be educated in the least restrictive environment in order to access the general education curriculum. This means that, to the maximum extent appropriate, a student with special needs must be educated with children who do not have special needs. Special education services must be provided in the regular classroom environment when appropriate to the special needs child. Special classes, separate schooling or removal of a child from the regular education environment shall occur only when the nature or severity of the special needs are such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services can not be satisfactorily achieved.

The parent, the general educator, the special educator, the building administrator, and other key individuals are active participants in all placement decisions. The adult student is also a member of the placement team.

The Pentucket School District, when appropriate, place students who are experiencing difficulty in both educational day and residential placement settings. The Pentucket School District works cooperatively with the district court to insure that students who are court ordered to residential placements are afforded appropriate special education services.

Preferral Process

Prior to a referral for eligibility determination for special education, the student who is experiencing difficulties in the regular education program is referred to the Teacher Assistance Team or the Teacher Support Team in the building. This team helps teachers to establish successful programs for "difficult to teach" students within the regular classroom. The principal of the school is responsible for ensuring that the prereferral process occurs and that it is documented in the student's regular education record. Any in-house student referral for special education eligibility must be preceded by referral to the Teacher Assistance/Teacher Support Team. It is hoped that in some cases early intervention by Teacher Assistance/ Teacher Support Teams can prevent later referral to special education. This process must occur prior to referral for eligibility determination.

Any parent can refer a student for eligibility determination at any time. When this occurs, the Teacher Assistance/Teacher Support Team and the Special Education Evaluation Team move forward simultaneously in their respective duties. In this way the student has the benefit of receiving modifications and supports as recommended by the Teacher Assistance/Teacher Support Team while awaiting the 45 day evaluation time period used by the Special Education Team. Modifications recommended by the Teacher Assistance/Teacher Support Team may include, but are not limited to modification of the curriculum, of teaching strategies, of teaching environments, of materials and of the use of support services, and/or consultative services. The prereferral process may be as short as four weeks or as long as six weeks. All students, except preschool students, who are referred for eligibility determination, must undergo the prereferral process.

766 Process

Parent Resources

Information on Disabilities

Inclusion

Extended Year Program

Description: Extended year programs are provided for children with special needs who require year round educational programming. We also provide services for typically developing children. Providing the opportunity for summer programming for all children enhances the experience for everyone. The programs provide students with developmentally appropriate learning experiences in physical education, arts and crafts, mathematics, literature, logical thinking, and reasoning. Field trips and swimming programs enhance the program for all. On rainy days, and at other times, computers, gym activities and other exciting learning materials are available for each student's use. The program runs for a six week period during the summer. The preschool program for children ages 3 - 5 is offered on Monday - Thursday from 9:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The elementary program for children ages 6 - 11 is offered on Monday - Thursday from 9:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. For more information, please call the Special Education Office at (978) 363-2280, ext. 5.

Food/Transportation: Preschool children should bring a snack and older children should bring a lunch and snack. Car pool information will be provided to all interested parents.

Health and Safety: Your child's health, safety, and well being are of primary concern. An emergency information card and developmental health checklist is required for every child. There is a registered nurse on site.

Location: The Preschool and Elementary Extended Year Programs are located at the Pentucket Middle School on the West Newbury/Groveland town line.

Staff: Staff members are experienced and certified general and special education teachers. Paraprofessionals, student assistants, and student community service workers also staff the program. This allows for low student to staff ratios and a great deal of individual attention. Speech and language, occupational, and physical therapists work directly with all students. They also provide consultation to the program. A registered nurse is on the site at all times.

Child Find

Massachusetts Special Education Law, known as Chapter 766, and the federal special education law, IDEA-97, mandate identification programs that find and evaluate children requiring special education from age three through twenty one up to his/her twenty second birthday. Special education programs with related services are designed to fit each child's individual needs.

In Massachusetts, students with educational disabilities are identified as children in need of special education because of a disability consisting of a developmental delay or an intellectual, sensory, neurological, emotional, communication, physical, specific learning or health impairment or combination there of and is unable to progress effectively in general education and requires special education services in order to successfully develop the child's individual educational potential.

Identifying a youngster as educationally disabled takes place only after the student is evaluated with written parental permission and the special education multidisciplinary educational evaluation team concludes that the child is educationally disabled and is in need of special education services.

The process of developing an appropriate Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) involves a great deal of parent input. The parent helps develop the IEP and agrees to a special education to a special education placement which meets the student with an educational disability's needs in the least restrictive environment.

If you know of a child who may have an educational disability, please have the parent and/or guardian contact the child's neighborhood school. The contact persons are listed below: