Student Services

The Blue Ridge School District recognizes the following school-based disability categories based from Pennsylvania and IDEA regulation:

 

• - Specific Learning Disability
• - Other Health Impairment
• - Autism 
• - Emotional Disturbance
• - Speech-Language Impairment
• - Visual Impairment (including blindness)
• - Deafness, Hearing Impairment
• - Deaf-blindness
• - Orthopedic Impairment
• - Intellectual Disability
• - Traumatic Brain Injury
• - Multiple Disabilities
• - Hearing Impairment

The District provides access to a full continuum of placement options. The starting point is always the least restrictive environment where the student is educated in his/her neighborhood school with non-disabled students. The types of supports, services, and programs are considered in order to address barriers which affect access to a disabled child’s education. The extent of special education services and the location of delivery of such services is determined by the IEP team, and is based on the student’s identified needs, abilities, chronological age, and the level of intensity of the specific intervention.

The Blue Ridge School District recognizes that students who demonstrate superior cognitive ability and achievement may be identified as a student with Gifted abilities.

In-District Programming:

Learning (Primarily Academic) Support 
Support for students identified as in need of specially designed academic instruction. 
Learning Support for exceptional students whose primary identified need is academic learning. 

Life Skills Support 
The focus is primarily on the needs of students for independent living as well as general daily living and pre-vocational skills.

Emotional Support 
The focus is primarily on emotional and behavioral self-regulation. 

Speech and Language Support 
The program is modified primarily to meet the needs of the students with speech and language impairments. 

Autistic Support 
The focus is primarily to develop communication skills, social skills, and daily living skills. 

Students who are Multiply-Handicapped, have Traumatic Brain Injury, are Orthopedically Impaired, have Other Health Impairment(s), are Deaf or have Hearing Impairments, are Blind or have Visual Impairments, or require Occupational Therapy and/or Physical Therapy will receive services from support systems within and/or outside the school district as determined appropriate by the IEP Team.

Gifted Support

Students identified as a cognitively gifted. The focus is primarily on developing enrichment and accelerated achievement opportunities.

Screenings and Interventions:

All information gathered through the screening process is considered confidential under Section 438 of the General Education Provisions Act. 

The District engages in various screening activities throughout the school year to ensure that students receive an appropriate educational program and meets students’ needs. 

These screenings include reviewing Student-based data, cumulative records, enrollment records, health records, report cards, ability and achievement test scores; hearing, vision, physical and speech/language screenings, etc.  

A multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) is utilized to the fullest extent to provide interventions and differentiation to help support students’ needs.

When screenings and data from MTSS suggest that a student might be exceptional, the District seeks parental consent to conduct a multi-disciplinary evaluation. A multi-disciplinary evaluation may not proceed without parental consent.

Parents who suspect their child is exceptional may request a multi-disciplinary evaluation at any time by submitting a written request to the Director of Special Education or building Principal. The District has a System of Student Support (SOSS) team composed of teachers, administrators, school counselors, reading and math specialists, and the school psychologist. The team will convene within 10 calendar days when a request for evaluation is received to review student data (academic, behavioral, discipline, attendance, health) and determine whether or not a disability is suspected and an evaluation is warranted.

The Blue Ridge School District maintains a variety of documents concerning students who are identified as having or who are thought to have a disability within the meaning of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 – Section 504, and Gifted Education. To conserve space and avoid unnecessary storage costs, and to protect privacy, these documents are subject to destruction when the District deems them no longer relevant to the education of your child. This correspondence will provide you with information concerning when we consider certain documents to be no longer educationally relevant. Although the District might have documents of the sort described in this letter that pertain to your child, you should not assume that such documents exist or that they are “educational records”.

The point at which a document is no longer educationally relevant will depend on the type of document.

The following types of document will be considered no longer educationally relevant once read by the intended recipient, unless stored in a student file: (a) electronic communications between school staff; and (b) electronic communications sent to school staff by parents, guardians, and other third parties.

The following types of document will be considered no longer educationally relevant at the conclusion of the school year during which such document was created; (a) raw data and test protocols used in evaluations and re-evaluations; (b) raw data, test protocols, and work samples used for progress monitoring, when those data and samples are thoroughly presented in progress reports or in IEP present educational levels; and (c) all other raw data, tests and quizzes, and student work.

The following types of document will be considered no longer educationally relevant at the expiration of six years from the date on which the child is no longer receiving special education services from the district; (a) permissions to evaluate or re-evaluate; (b) evaluation and re-evaluation reports; (c) invitations to IEP team meetings; (d) IEPs and IEP revisions; and (e) notices of recommended educational placement or prior written notices.

Other types of document will be determined no longer educational relevant on a case-by-case basis, and you will receive notice of such determination in writing at your last known address. If you have any questions concerning the foregoing information, please contact Margot Parsons, Director of Special Education, at 570-465-3141. A copy of the District student records policy, which contains important information about the maintenance, use, disclosure, amendment, and confidentiality of education is available on our District website.