STUDENT SERVICES

 

During the past year, the East Longmeadow Public Schools Special Education Department provided supportive services to approximately six hundred and forty students.  Most of these services were provided in the context of the public schools and consisted of educational assistance and remediation, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, and adaptive physical education.  Forty-seven of these students with more significant needs attended programs provided by the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative to which East Longmeadow is a member.  Twenty-one students with even more significant needs attended private special education schools.  These include Curtis Blake Day School, Valley West Day School, White Oak School, The Children’s Study Home, The River Street School, and The American School For the Deaf.

 

During this year, the department became involved in the creation of the Learning Centers.  These self-contained programs, formerly part of the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative, were absorbed into the student bodies at Mapleshade and Birchland Park Middle School.  Not only did the district save a considerable amount of money through the implementation of these programs, but it afforded students with significant language-based learning disabilities the opportunity to receive an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment.  All Learning Center programs afford students the opportunity for mainstreaming, as well as the opportunity to receive remedial education and related services that are necessary to maximize students’ opportunities for success.  Increased parent outreach and involvement, more accessible administration, and special programming, such as Special Olympics, has enhanced comprehensive educational opportunities for these students.

 

There still continues to be a trend of many students entering the elementary schools with significant disabilities.  These disabilities have included extensive medical/physical needs, autism, pervasive developmental disorder and students who are behaviorally challenged.  The focus of programming for these students continues to be their inclusion in many normal school programs and classrooms.  Providing supports to enable students with challenges to receive a quality education is a creative, demanding process that evolves, changes and grows.  During the past years, many of the special education programs have undergone changes which have supported this philosophy.  Increasingly, services to students at all levels have moved towards providing supports within the regular education class to help students succeed.

 

East Longmeadow continues to be a member of the Springfield METCO Program.  This program allows fifty-three multicultural students who reside in Springfield to be educated in East Longmeadow.  These students are chosen through a lottery process and are interviewed and screened for acceptance.  This program has allowed for cross-cultural relationships to develop and has been very successful.  Each student is funded by a grant program through the Massachusetts Department of Education.

 

As in the past, the most important goal of the Student Services program continues to be the provision of effective programs for students with learning difficulties and other handicaps which enables the students to reach their maximum potential.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Raymond G. Sylvain

Administrator of Student Services