- Westside Community Schools
- Special Education
Special Education
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- DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE -
Greetings from the Westside Community Schools Special Services Department! Whether you are joining us as the family member of an incoming preschooler or a graduating senior, it is with great pride that I welcome your child and you to another school year!
As the Director of Special Services, I could not be more honored to serve within a District that embraces diversity, challenges educators to personalize learning for all students, and promotes inclusion and kindness within our community. It is easy to see that the mission of Westside Community Schools --“serving the unique needs of all learners”-- both shapes and supports the work we do in classrooms each day. In order to effectively live our mission, we must not overlook the importance of creating strong home-school partnerships with families and caregivers.
Collaborating around student strengths and shared goals requires special educators and families to openly communicate. This website is an additional way the Special Services department is working to inform, engage, and enhance communication with our parent and caregiver community.
We look forward to continuing our tradition of strong, collaborative parent-teacher partnerships. I would encourage you to reach out to your child’s special education case manager if you have questions, concerns, or need additional information. These highly skilled and dedicated educators are committed to your child’s success and look forward to partnering with you. Listening, learning, advocating, and maintaining high expectations is the work of all of us. We value your partnership and thank you for choosing Westside Community Schools. On behalf of the Special Services Department, we wish you a great school year!
Yours,
Kami Jessop, Ed.D., Director of Special Services
Programs
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Early Childhood
Early Childhood Special Education Services
Early Childhood Special Education
Birth to Age Three
Early intervention from birth to age three (Part C of IDEA) focuses on empowering families to meet the developmental needs of their children, recognizing that caregivers have the most impact on a child’s development at this age. Typically provided in natural environments, such as the child’s home, these services and outcomes for the child and family are defined in an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).
Preschool Age
From age three until a child enters kindergarten, Westside Community Schools serves children who are eligible under Part B of IDEA. Under Part B, the IFSP is replaced by an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which contains goals and objectives to address your child’s unique needs in the school setting. Children at this age may receive special education services at Underwood Hills Early Childhood Center, within one of the Westside Foundation Early Childhood Centers, located in many of our elementary buildings, or in a community-based center within our district boundaries.
Westside Community Schools offers several inclusive preschool classrooms within the Underwood Hills location. Typically developing preschoolers serve as role models who have age-appropriate cognitive and pre-academic skills, language skills, social-emotional skills, behavior, and fine and gross motor skills. These experiences in the early learning classrooms are the foundation for inclusive practices in Westside Community Schools.
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Elementary
Elementary Special Education Services
Elementary Special Education
Comprehensive special education services are provided in each of our ten elementary schools. To the extent appropriate, children with disabilities are served in their neighborhood school, alongside their general education peers, regardless of disability. Supports provided vary depending on your child’s specific academic, social, behavioral, health, physical, and daily living needs.
Continuum of Support
MINIMAL:
- Consultation Only – When a student is maintaining grade-level progress, consultation may be used. Consultation includes collaboration between general education and special education staff. Collaboration focuses on student progress, recommended accommodations and modifications, and a review of pertinent data.
- Collaboration & In-Class Support – Classroom teachers provide the majority of instruction with special education staff present in order to provide any additional assistance needed to access curriculum and classroom activities. The IEP team will identify the type of in-class support needed for specific times of the school day.
MODERATE:
- Collaboration, In-Class Support & Additional Instruction – This model is used when students exhibit skill delays that require additional instruction in order to accelerate growth in a specific area. Instruction outside of the general education curriculum can be paired with in-class support and/or instruction to assist students with accessing the general education curriculum to the greatest extent appropriate. Collaboration between general education and special education staff continues.
MAXIMAL:
- Collaboration & Alternate Curriculum Instruction – Students who have developmental and academic delays significant enough to require an alternate curriculum may receive some or all core instruction outside of the general education setting and/or as a replacement for the general education curriculum. Students receiving this level of support have been determined as eligible for participation in an alternate state assessment by their IEP team. These students may or may not require special education assistance throughout their school day across settings for a variety of reasons.
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Middle School & High School
Secondary Special Education Services
Middle School & High School Special Education
As in all Westside Community Schools buildings, special education services at the middle and high school levels are determined by your child’s IEP team. Common services within the secondary special education continuum include:
- Collaborative instruction provided during specific co-taught classes. These classes are taught by both a certified special education teacher and a certified general education content-area teacher.
- Resource or Assisted Learning (AL) periods. Students may be assigned one or more period(s) of Resource or AL each day. Resource or AL time, staffed by the special education department, will be used to work on student IEP goals, deliver interventions, or support the completion of assignments.
- Pull-out or supplemental academic instruction provided as needed. Students with more significant academic deficits in the areas of reading, writing, math or social-skills may be served in a pull-out model. Decisions regarding participation in general language arts and math classes are made as an IEP team.
- Instruction on alternate curriculum standards is provided through classes specifically designed for students who require extensive support in the areas of academics and/or functional, daily living skills. These courses target both the state extended indicators and students’ individual IEP goals.
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West Campus
West Campus Special Education Services
West Campus Special Education
Westside High School West Campus, an extension of the main campus, offers a smaller, more individualized learning environment for students.
The Westside Board of Education voted in February 2016 to rename the campus, formerly known as the Westside High School Career Center, to match its renewed focus and facilities. Students transition to WHSWC for a variety of reasons. In the smaller, structured learning environment, students are able to learn skills to help them graduate from high school and prepare for their post-secondary plans of either entering the workforce, military, or college. As in all other Westside Community Schools, special education services are provided at WHSWC in accordance with student IEPs.
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Young Adult Transition Programs
Young Adult Special Education Services
Young Adult Transition Program
The Westside Community Schools Young Adult Transition Program is a community-based program with a wide variety of job training sites and work experience throughout Omaha for students who are approximately 18 to 21 years of age. The program provides opportunities for young adult learners to experience several non-paid vocational preparatory sites, practice functional living skills in an apartment setting, interact socially, and access recreation and leisure activities in the community so that comfortable routines and relationships can be established in a structured and supportive environment.
Project SEARCH
Westside Community Schools has partnered with Children’s Hospital and Medical Center for our Project SEARCH program site. This one-year school-to-work program is business-led and takes place entirely in the workplace during the student’s final year of education. The experience includes a combination of classroom instruction, career exploration, and hands-on training through worksite rotations. In addition to Children’s Hospital, Westside partners with Nebraska Vocational Rehabilitation, the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Assistive Technology Partnership, and Division of Developmental Disabilities to offer students this unique opportunity.
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i66 Behavioral Program
In-District Behavioral Programs
i66 Behavioral Program
The i66 Behavioral Program is an in-district program available at the elementary, middle, and high school levels for students who have significant ongoing behavioral challenges. IEP teams determine placement in this specialized setting based on a child’s individual needs and response to a multi-tiered system of supports within their home school. A placement within the i66 program is intended to be temporary with the goal of advancing through the program and reintegrating into the home-building as behavioral progress occurs.
Key features of this placement include smaller class size and lower staff-to-student ratio in order to support students’ individualized behavior modification programs, social skills instruction as well as opportunities to participate with general education peers. The Westside Community Schools general education curriculum also remains a priority.
MISSION
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The mission of the Westside Special Education Department is to provide the very best possible educational opportunities for students with disabilities ranging in age from birth through age 21. In order to fulfill that mission, our goal is to educate all students in their neighborhood schools to the greatest extent possible, regardless of their disabilities. This is made possible by offering a continuum of services designed to meet individual student needs. These services range from a consultative model to a highly specialized alternate program.
ABOUT US
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Westside currently has approximately 1,000 special education-identified students and an estimated 120 certified staff members. Our staff includes special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, assistive technology and vision specialists, a deaf educator and school psychologists, all of whom use their training and expertise to provide support to students and staff at the building level. These individuals receive ongoing training and professional development opportunities, as well as designated time to collaborate with their general and special education colleagues, all for the purpose of improving learning for students with disabilities.
CORE VALUES
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The work of the Westside Community Schools Special Services department is inspired by four core values that align to our district mission statement. These core values remain at the forefront and are foundational to the practices we implement each day. Decisions regarding the allocation of resources, teacher selection, professional learning opportunities, and even the content of a child’s IEP are all driven by the values upheld by the special services department.
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EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES
We use high-quality, evidence-based instructional methodologies to serve all students in their least restrictive environment; in their neighborhood school to the extent possible.
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INFORMED & ENGAGED IEP TEAMS
We systematically communicate and strategically collaborate with colleagues and families for the purpose of delivering equitable and appropriate special education services.
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HIRING & DEVELOPING THE BEST
We select, mentor, and professionally develop special educators, with the goal of putting the best educators in front of children, thereby increasing our impact on student outcomes.
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COMPLIANT & HIGH QUALITY IEPs
We create, facilitate, implement, and monitor quality, compliant, comprehensive Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) that drive student programming.
