OAHE SPECIAL EDUCATION COOPERATIVE

Resource Room Instruction is available to qualifying students in Kindergarten through 12^th grade. It provides specialized instruction in reading, math, and written language. Some children have their regular classroom curriculum supplemented through Special Education; other children have their own specific curriculum in the resource room.  A certain number of students on also need supports and instruction in the area of behavior in order to fully benefit from their education.
 

In addition to academic skills, transition needs are addressed for older students. Transition addresses life skill for students who are on an Individual Education Plan (IEP). An example of transition needs might be learning how to complete job applications and interviews, planning and preparing meals, learning how to budget and balance a check book, and developing employment skills. Project Skills is a program in which students gain work skills with the help of a job coach through employment in community businesses. The areas in which a child might qualify for Resource Room instruction through Special Education are listed below:
 

• Deaf-Blindness: The child must have a combination of hearing and visual impairments which causes severe communication and other developmental and educational needs.
   
• Emotional Disturbance: In order to meet the criteria for E.D., a student must have behaviors lasting for at least six months and are found to be two standard deviations below the mean (significantly below average) as measured by evaluation. These behaviors must be interfering with social skills, home life, and academic performance.
   
• Cognitive Disability: General intellectual functioning is two standard deviations below the mean which causes deficits in academic performance and adaptive behavior skills.
   
• Hearing Loss: A student may be found to eligible for special education in this category if he has an unaided hearing loss of 35 to 69 decibels which interferes with the acquisition of language skills.
   
• Specific Learning Disability. A student must have an academic deficit in reading, math, written language, oral expression, or listening comprehension that is 1.5 standard deviations below their intellectual ability. In addition, this deficit must affect their academic achievement and cannot be a result of poor attendance, limited English proficiency, cultural factors, and/or environmental or cultural disadvantage.
   
• Multiple Disability: A student may be found eligible under this category if he has a combination of any of these areas that are so severe the child’s needs cannot be adequately accommodated in a special education program geared to just one of the impairments.
   
• Orthopedic Impairment: A child qualifies in this category if he has a severe impairment that limits his ability to move through the school building, impedes his ability manipulate materials needed for learning, and interferes with his educational performance.
   
• Vision Loss: A student has a deficiency in visual acuity that even with lenses or corrective devises adversely affects the child’s educational performance or ability to move about safely in his environment.
   
• Deafness: If a student has a hearing loss of 70 decibels or higher which significantly affects a child’s education performance, he meets the criteria of Deafness.
   
• Other Health Impairment: If a child’s academic performance is affected by illness or other chronic health problems, he may qualify for special education in this area.
   
• Autism Spectrum Disorder: This is a disorder that adversely affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction. Other characteristics are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements such as hand flapping, resistance to changes in routines, and unusual reactions to sensory inputs.