Sandwich Public Schools

603 CMR 28.00:Education

Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA 2004)

Parent Information: Special Education, Section 504, ADA, Massachusetts Organizations, National Organizations, Resources

Parent's Notice of Procedural Safeguards

Sandwich Special Education Parents Advisory Council

Federation for Children with Special Needs provides information, support, and assistance to parents of children with disabilities, their professional partners, and their communities.

The Parent Toolkit will help you to keep track of and support the progress of your child from pre-kindergarten through high school. It will help you to identify expected progress and will provide tips to help you aid your child's academic, nutritional, physical, and social and emotional development through the years.

Resources for Parents with Learning and Attention Issues (Understood.org)

Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress

National Center for Learning Disabilities

Mental Health and Crisis Services in Barnstable County

Autism Speaks

National Runaway Safeline for Students and their Parents or Guardians

Special Olympics

Cape Cod Challenger Club

Related Service Providers and Interventionists can provide services both within the classroom as well as within a separate setting outside of the classroom. This instruction can be provided as a general education service through the MTSS Model (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support) at the discretion of each building principal.

When this service is determined to be required due to a child's disability then this service will be located on the Service Delivery Grid of that student's IEP (Individualized Education Program). If this service is located on Grid B then it will be provided within the general education setting where both students receiving Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) and all other students may benefit from this instruction. Services located on Grid C of the student's Service Delivery Grid of their IEP will only be provided to student receiving special education services.

Parents and guardians will often find that services are provided in both the general education setting (e.g., classroom, lunchroom, etc.) as well as a smaller, more restrictive environment (e.g., office, small group, etc.). This allows our students to learn in an environment with small student-to-teacher ratios with less distractions while allowing our staff to help the child apply what they've learned while in the classroom environment.

District-Wide

Co-teaching is a collaborative approach to instruction in which two teachers, typically a general education teacher and a special education teacher, work together to plan and then implement instruction for a class that includes students with disabilities. 

This can benefit not only the students with disabilities, but all students who are having difficulty with the content, instruction, or assignments. Co-teaching is the most common method of delivering specially designed instruction to students with disabilities in the least-restrictive environment.

The goal in Sandwich is to expand our Inclusive Practices which includes the continuous improvement of Co-teaching. Advanced versions of Co-Teaching can include the teaching of content with both a general education teacher and related service provider such as a Speech and Language Therapist, Social Worker, School Counselor, School Psychologist, Occupational Therapist, or Physical Therapist.

Kindergarten through 8th Grade

The Therapeutic Learning Classroom (TLC)  is a therapeutic program for students with social, emotional, or behavioral needs Students receiving supports through this program have difficulty with developing age-appropriate social relationships with adults and/or peers, self-regulation of behavioral responses to typical school demands, ability to appropriately make transitions from one activity to another, ability to handle frustration in an age-appropriate manner, and/or ability to fully access the curriculum and instruction due to emotional/social/behavioral challenges.

The TLC Programs found at the Forestdale (PK-2nd Grade), Oak Ridge (3rd through 6th grade), and Sandwich Middle School (7th and 8th grade) are designed to be available for any students that may requires these supports. The goal of the program is to provide a safe, supportive therapeutic setting to support students’ development of effective social, emotional and behavioral regulation skills, while also providing academic instruction and supports to help students access the general education environment to the maximum extent possible.

The Sandwich High School Program is designed for students that require more substantial therapeutic supports. Participation within this program requires that the student currently receive special education services and are eligible for an IEP.  Students in crisis due to a traumatic event, acute mental health need, or extreme behavioral escalation requiring stabilization may be referred to this program.

Forestdale (PK-2)

Oak Ridge (3-6)

Sandwich Middle (7-8)

Sandwich High (9-12)* IEP Required

The Language-Based Classroom (LBC) provides a small, structured learning environment with routines and scaffolding to help students with a language-based learning disability experience academic success. Instructional strategies include: 

• Breaking down significant concepts or long-term assignments 
• Providing clear guidelines and/or models
• Utilizing repetition, review, and circling back to ensure mastery and automatization of key concepts and vocabulary. 
• Providing multisensory teaching strategies according to the three sensory modalities: visual, auditory, and tactile
• Designing individualized, skill-based instruction that ensures opportunities for daily success leading to increased mastery of skills and improved self-esteem.
• Including students in the learning process.
• Providing project-based learning
• Thematic instruction in reading, writing, vocabulary, and math

 The LBC is designed to provide direct instruction that facilitates growth and practice in all aspects of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as building the internal language that guides thinking processes.

(LBC) Student Profile

Students in the LBC should have average to superior cognitive abilities and have well-developed skills in reasoning and comprehension. These students have often been diagnosed with the following: Specific Learning Disability (SLD) with an impairment in reading (dyslexia) and/or an impairment in written expression (dysgraphia); Expressive Language Disorder; learning difficulty associated with numeracy (dyscalculia); executive function weakness; and/or ADHD. Students can also have weaknesses in processing speed and/or working memory. Students receiving services in the LBC often struggled in traditional classrooms because their reading, writing, computing, and organizational skills did not match their cognitive potential.

Oak Ridge (5-6)

Sandwich Middle (7-8)

Sandwich High (9-12)* "General Applied English & General Applied Math"

The Spinnaker Program is a special education program for students with autism and related disorders that utilizes evidence-based practice and the methodology of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to teach a wide range of social, communication, and behavioral skills, and to reduce interfering behavior.  Students in the Spinnaker program are supported by a certified special education teacher, board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) and ABA trained therapists/Education Support Professionals (ESPs). ABA therapists/ESPs are systematically rotated to promote generalization and independence as staffing variables allow.

Spinnaker Program Components:

• Instruction from a certified special education teacher
• BCBA consultation and support
• Low student-to-teacher ratio
• Safety Care training across staff
• ABA methodology and evidence-based instructional strategies (e.g., visual supports)
• Positive behavior intervention plans based on the function of behavior 
• Individualized direct instruction
• Specialized curriculum
• Individually determined inclusion support 
• Opportunities for small group instruction
  Instruction in social, communication, adaptive, behavioral and academic skills

Spinnaker Program Criteria:

A student may be appropriate for the Spinnaker Program when the student’s ability to make effective progress within a full inclusion program is impacted by delays in adaptive behavior, learning, communication, and/or social/play skills and it has been demonstrated that effective progress can not be made within the general education classroom without additional staff support, accommodations and/or modifications, and specialized instruction/curriculum. Effective progress may also be impacted by interfering behaviors which have not been reduced by implementation of a positive behavior intervention plan within the general education setting. 

A student may no longer require the supports of the Spinnaker Program when a transition plan has been implemented that allows for effective progress within a general education setting which may include individually modified curriculum, fading of additional staff support, accommodations and/or modifications and effective implementation of a positive behavior support plan within the general education classroom. Consultation from Spinnaker staff may be ongoing per individual student need. 

Note: This document is not specific to any one individual and preference for identity-first or person-first language could not be established. Both preferences are respected. Person-first language is used as is typical practice in general documents referring to children. 

Forestdale (PK-2)

Oak Ridge (3-6)

Sandwich Middle (7-8)

The Life Skills Program at Sandwich High School is designed to help students develop skills that will help them in their daily lives and include: 

Communication: Students learn to speak clearly and assertively, listen well, and respect others' opinions. 

Social skills: Students learn to overcome shyness and communicate effectively. 

Self-care: Students learn about healthy habits and routines that can reduce stress. 

Problem solving: Students learn to analyze problems and consequences. 

Decision making: Students learn how to make decisions. 

Transition planning: Students learn about life after public school. 

Community-based instruction: Students learn about the community through activities outside of school. 

Life skills programs can use a variety of teaching techniques, including role plays, games, puzzles, group discussions, and multimedia interaction. Some programs also use a prompting hierarchy that starts with a high level of support and gradually fades to lower levels as students master the skill. 

Participation in the Life Skills Programs is typically offered to students with cognitive delays, students who are eligible for special education through an IEP. 

Sandwich High (9-PG)