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Special Education

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About the Special Education Department

We believe in the basic dignity of mankind and that all persons have worth and potential for learning. We believe that all students have an infinite capacity to learn, and that this capacity is best enhanced when students have a sense of importance and self-esteem. We believe that this potential for maximum learning is most effectively influenced on an individual basis, and that the more a person learns the more one develops the capacity to learn.

The school is obligated to all the young people in the community and, therefore, must be responsive to individual differences and provide programs to meet many different needs. It is, then, the function of the school to help students to reach their full potential as unique individuals, as responsible citizens, and as producers and consumers of goods and services based upon differing abilities and needs.

The function of Special Education is to ensure that all individuals with exceptional needs are provided a free appropriate education in conjunction with special services that may be required so that they may reach their full potential. Special students must be educated in an environment which provides maximum interaction with non-handicapped students. A fair assessment of each student's learning needs must be the basis for placement in an Individual Educational Program designed to teach those basic skills and qualities of character necessary for a rewarding life in home and community.