STUDENT SERVICES

During the past year, the East Longmeadow Public Schools Special Education Department provided supportive services to approximately six hundred seventy 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. Twenty-three 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-five 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, May Institute, New Directions and the Hampshire Educational Collaborative.

During the past four years, the department has been involved in creating our own self-contained special education programs. Most of these programs were formerly part of the Lower Pioneer Valley Collaborative. These programs were absorbed into the student bodies at Mapleshade, Birchland Park Middle School and East Longmeadow High School. In addition, due to need, a new program at the lower elementary level was established at Meadow Brook School.  Fifty-five students are served in these programs. 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 of these 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 in their own school district.

 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 that 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. 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 Sylvain, Administrator of Student Services