Instruction, Supports & Services

Students with disabilities often benefit from tools and strategies that are designed to increase access to curriculum, instruction, and assessments.

 

For many students with disabilities, learning success is predicated on having appropriate adaptations, accommodations and modifications made to classroom instruction and other learning activities.

 

Sometimes a student may need to have changes made in class work or routines because of his or her disability. Some adaptations are as simple as moving a distractible student to the front of the class or away from the pencil sharpener or the window.

 

 

The Learning Center is a support for students with disabilities who participate in the general education program for most or all of the school day. Staff from the resource specialist program, in collaboration with general education teachers, can utilize the learning center to help students access the core curriculum.

 

A Learning Center is a designated classroom or set of classrooms where a diverse group of educators provides multi-leveled instructional support to students. Both general and special education teachers may provide instruction in the Learning Center. Students receiving special education services and students in general education may be served simultaneously in a Learning Center elective course when a general education teacher and a special education teacher co-teach the class and carry separate rosters.

 

The purpose of the secondary Learning Center is to provide students with disabilities with supplementary, direct instructional services in content, learning strategies, and progress monitoring in academics, transition, or social communication skills. Instruction in the Learning Center must be based on students’ needs in the general education program. It is not to supplant core instruction in the general education classroom.

Students with disabilities have the same access to the current English Language Development (ELD) instruction and infrastructure at school sites as their nondisabled peers. The District provides services to ELs that are mandated by federal and state laws. These include, when necessary, ELD instruction and any necessary supports to provide ELs with access to the core curriculum.

All schools inform parents during initial enrollment and annually of the instructional program options that are available to students, as well as of their right to apply for a Parental Exception Waiver from the EL Program. EL Program options information is provided orally and in writing, using language and materials designed to be readily understandable to the parent. To inform parents of the instructional program options, schools provide parents a copy of the Initial Notification of Enrollment in Instructional Programs for English Learners, Annual Assessment Results and Program Placement for English Learners Letter, Instructional Programs for English Learners parent brochure and video, and the Parent Notification of Reclassification Criteria.

 

All ELs, including those with disabilities, are assessed each year on their progress toward meeting the California English Language Development Standards. EL students are assessed annually either with the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) or the Ventura County Comprehensive Alternate Language Assessment (VCCALPS). ELs with disabilities may be tested using the California Department of Education (CDE)-approved Testing Variations, Accommodations, and Modifications Matrix, which is updated annually. The Individualized Education Program (IEP) team documents in the student’s IEP any accommodations or modifications used both for assessments and for classroom ELD instruction.

 

As with all English learners, ELs with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) are expected to make progress in English language proficiency and academic content mastery. To attain this, the instructional programs for ELs with IEPs will include ELD as a component of their core instruction, as well as access to core content using Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) and other research-based instructional methodologies appropriate for ELs with disabilities.

 

 

Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a framework that ensures all students receive high-quality instruction and interventions based on their needs. It includes academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and attendance support.

 

 

 

Early intervention in phonemic awareness, fluency and automaticity, reading comprehension, and the basics of written English is key to helping students meet or exceed grade-level expectations in reading and writing.

 

 

 

 

 

Early intervention in computation and problem-solving is key to helping students meet or exceed grade-level expectations in mathematics.