PHILOSOPHY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION RELATING TO THE EDUCATION OF INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES

East Central Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) is committed to the basic premise that the purpose of a public school education is to provide each student, including those with disabilities, the opportunity to develop to the limit of his/her own capacity in order that he/she may have a useful life lived in dignity and freedom.  Our goal is to provide full educational opportunities to all children with disabilities.  Each student with a disability shall be offered an individual education program to meet his/her needs.

Special Education Services

• Administration – The BOCES, as the administrative unit in special education, is a service arm of the local districts with the function to facilitate and assist in the provision of each student’s free appropriate education.
• Speech/Language Services– Speech/language pathologists provide assessments, consultation, screening, direct therapy, and training for students with speech/language disabilities.  They determine if a student’s speech/language skills are preventing the child from receiving reasonable educational benefit from regular education alone. Specific skills include:  articulation, auditory processing, voice, fluency, auditory perception (memory and discrimination), structure and function of oral peripheral mechanism (mouth and tongue), oral and written receptive and expressive language (use and understanding of language), and ability to communicate with assistive devices. Speech/language assistants support direct services to students.
• Psychological Services – The school psychologists provide cognitive assessments for special education, counseling as indicated by the student’s individual education plan (IEP), consultation to parents and educators and assistance in facilitating special education staffings.
• Sociological Services – Social workers/family resource specialists complete the student/family history for special education staffings, provide counseling as indicated in the student’s individual education plan (IEP), consult with the parents and staff, assist in facilitating the parent advisory committee meetings and special education staffings.
• Motor Services – Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy – The Occupational Therapist Registered (O.T.R.) and Registered Physical Therapist (R.P.T.) assess, provide consultation, and/or direct therapy for a variety of skills such as balance, coordination, handwriting, strength, range of motion, endurance, eye hand coordination, visual perception, posture, relaxation techniques, and specialized equipment needs for mobility, writing, and doing everyday tasks.  They assist in determining if a student’s physical disability limits ambulation, attention, hand movements, coordination, communication, self-help skills, or ability to access transportation or the school facility. The Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (C.O.T.A.) and Physical Therapy Assistant (P.T.A.) support direct services to students. 
• School Health Services/Nursing Services – All twenty-one member districts have school health services available to assist with IEP health care plan development, vision and hearing screenings and other required health services.

• Low Incidence Services:
• Audiology – East Central BOCES provides audiology services.  Audiologists provide follow-up hearing screening as needed, when referred by school district health professional staff, and annual hearing assessments for students identified with hearing losses.  Audiologists provide direct and/or indirect services as determined by the individual education plan (IEP).
• Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing – East Central BOCES provides for all twenty-one member districts a Teacher/Consultant for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.  This teacher/consultant assists with individual education plan (IEP) development, communication plan development and provides direct and/or indirect services to students with disabilities per the IEP.
• Vision Specialist/Teacher of the Visually Impaired – East Central BOCES provides for all twenty-one member districts a Teacher/Consultant of the Visually Impaired, direct and/or indirect services, as determined by the individual education plan (IEP) team.  This professional also assists with the development of the literacy plan in the IEP as needed. 
• Early Childhood Special Education/Child Find, Ages Birth-K– East Central BOCES provides screenings and evaluation of children birth to kindergarten age to determine eligibility for special education.  Children birth to three years old are referred, if appropriate, to the local Part C program, which assists parents in accessing services to benefit their child and family.  Eligible children ages three to kindergarten are provided special education services according to their individual education plan (IEP).
• K-12 Child Find Services – Each member district designates their special education teacher(s) to cover child find referrals, age 6-21.
• Alternative Education Programs – Services at these alternative programs include both classroom instruction and therapeutic counseling.

East Central Education Center (ECEC) – MS/HS located west of Limon, Colorado.

Model Day Treatment (Grades K-6) - located at Strasburg Elementary Building.

• Center Based Programs – High Needs -These programs include not only academic and pre-academic skills, but also all areas of functional daily living skills.  Functional daily living skills may include:  shopping, cooking, cleaning, leisure time activities (swimming, bowling, field trips, etc.), accessing transportation, financial management, etc.

West Area Program (located at Bennett Elementary building)

East Area Program (located at Burlington M/S)

• Other Services – East Central BOCES Special Education Administrative Unit has a variety of specialty service teams and consultants:

• Professional Development
• English Language Acquisition Consultant
• Transition Consultant
• School-to-Work Alliance Program Coordinator (see SWAP Link)
• Response to Intervention (RTI) Team Leaders
• Crisis Response Coordinator
• Autism Team
• Behavior Team
• Parent Advisory Committee (PAC)
• Statewide Augmentative Alternative Assistive Communication (SWAAAC) Consultant
• Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) Trainers