Special Education

Home/hospital services are provided to a student when a licensed medical physician determines that the student, will or is anticipated, due to a medical condition, will be out of school for a minimum of two consecutive weeks of school (10 days) or more or on an ongoing intermittent basis. The goal of home/hospital instruction is to afford the student experiences equivalent to those afforded to other students at the same grade level and are designed to enable the student to return to the classroom/remain synchronized with the other students in his or her class. Appropriate educational services from qualified staff will begin no later than 5 school days after receiving a physician's written statement.

Instructional or related services for a student receiving special education services will be determined by the student's individualized education program.

A student who is unable to attend school because of pregnancy will be provided home instruction, correspondence courses or other course of instruction when the student's physician indicates, in writing, that she is medically unable to attend regular classroom instruction (1) before the birth of the child and (2) for up to 3 month after the child's birth or a miscarriage. 

Medical Form for Home/Hospital Instruction

What do occupational therapists do?

• Occupational therapists use meaningful activities to help children and youth participate in what they need and/or want to do in order to promote physical and mental health and well-being. 
• Occupational therapy addresses the physical, cognitive, psychosocial and sensory components of performance. 
• In schools, occupational therapy practitioners focus on academics, play and leisure, social participation, self-care skills (ADLs or Activities of Daily Living), and transition/ work skills. 
• Occupational therapy’s expertise includes activity and environmental analysis and modification with a goal of reducing the barriers to participation. 
   

Services Include:

• Consultation
• Evaluation
• Intervention
• Prevention
• Direct and Indirect services
   

Learn about meetings and presentations meant to help families of Special Education Students.

School psychologists strive to help children succeed academically, socially, and emotionally.  They are trained in both psychology and education.   They provide direct support and interventions to students; consult with teachers, and school therapists to improve support strategies; work with school administrators to improve school.

District 31 Psychologists
Lynn Merrill 
lmerrill@district31.net

Stefanie Bauer 
sbauer@district31.net

Dr. Lisa Dreyer - Early Childhood
ldryer@district31.net

In general, school social workers work with students in the school setting to help them access learning, while supporting growth and development, and validating their dignity, capability and potential  as human beings.

District 31 Social Workers
Mrs. Quincy Jenkins - Social Worker
Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Illinois School Social Worker
qjenkins@district31.net

Mrs. Amy Sack - Social Worker
Licensed Social Worker and Illinois School Social Worker
asack@district31.net

Sandi Newman -  Social Worker
Licensed Social Worker and Illinois School Social Worker
snewman@district31.net

Meeting the Needs of Students
School social workers meet the legal minutes of students with social work/counseling services on their individual education plans.
School social workers can meet directly with students who have social, emotional, and/or behavioral needs at  the Tier 2 (more significant than the majority of the population) and Tier 3 (most significant) level. 
School social workers can work with school staff in meeting the needs of students by providing consultation and collaboration.
School social workers and the administrative team work together to assist students in moments of crisis.
School social workers can  consult with families who may have questions about their student’s social, emotional, and/or behavioral development. 
School social workers oversee the administration of the school wide behavior screening, the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders, SSBD,  each fall.
After scoring the SSBD, school social workers are able to identify those students who are considered “at-risk” for social, emotional, behavioral concerns based on the SSBD results. 
School social workers also utilize data from other sources to identify students with potential social, emotional, and behavioral concerns, including  behavioral referrals, attendance, nurses office visits, and the MTSS system. 

School social workers support with a variety of initiatives, including:

• Support of the implementation of 2nd Step
• Erin’s Law presentation and support
• Communication to staff about social emotional learning
• Coordinating the building’s systematic check-in intervention program, Connections

District Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP), work with children in the following areas of communication.
 
Articulation Disorder/Delay
Characterized by the inability to produce individual speech sounds clearly and difficulty combining sounds correctly for words. Speech sounds may be incorrectly substituted (tun for sun), omitted (ool for school), or distorted (shlun for sun). 

When to refer:
* Doesn't use consonant sounds/ uses mostly vowel sounds and gestures to communicate
* Omits/Substitutes /Distorts sounds in words
* Speech is difficult to understand/ unintelligible.
* Not using one or more of the sounds expected at their age 

***Consonants p, b, m, d, t, k, g, f, w, n, y  and vowels well established by age 4-5
***Consonants p, b, m, d, t, k, g, f, w, n, y, ng, h and vowels well established by age 5-6
***Speech should be intelligible yet some sounds may not yet be mastered: s, z, l, r, ch, sh, dj, v, zh, voiced and voiceless th
***Speech is intelligible and all sounds should be mastered 

Language Disorder
Characterized by difficulty understanding language or following directions, or the inability to choose appropriate words and combine them correctly for sentences. The individual lacks age appropriate language comprehension and expressive abilities. 
 
When to refer: 
* Difficulty answering and asking questions
* Difficulty following simple and multi-step directions; comprehension of basic concepts
* Difficulty retelling a story or talking about an event
* Difficulty remembering information presented verbally
* Expressing ideas with a variety of complete and grammatically correct sentences
* Difficulty with vocabulary naming and classification 
* Difficulty listening and drawing conclusions; making inferences; summarizing main points during learning activities 
* Difficulty with problem solving
 
Fluency Disorder
Characterized by an abnormal amount of involuntary repetitions, hesitations, prolongations, blocks or disruptions in the natural flow of rate and rhythm of speech.
 
When to refer: 
* Student physically struggles to initiate and  complete utterances.
* Student has an abnormal number of repetitions (repeat sounds, syllables, words, phrases), hesitations, prolongations, blocks (can't get words out) or disruptions in natural flow of speech. 
* Student exhibits tension or abnormal movements during speech.
* Student avoids speaking  due to fear of stuttering or is embarrassed by his/her speech.
* Student's rate of speech is too fast making him/her difficult to understand.

Voice Disorder
Characterized by abnormal vocal pitch, loudness, quality, or resonance.
 
When to refer: 
* Voice is chronically hoarse, harsh, breathy or of poor quality
* Voice is always too loud or soft
* Pitch is inappropriate for the student's age or sex or has frequent pitch breaks
* Voice is hyponasal (absence of nasal resonance in the voice) or hypernasal (sounds like "too much nose" in the voice) 

Pragmatic Disorder
Pragmatics refers to the appropriate use of language in social situations. For example, knowing what to say, how to say it, when to say it and generally how to "act" around other people during conversation. There are many children who have large vocabularies and are able to speak in full sentences that are clearly articulated, however, they may still have difficulty using language in various social situations. 

When to refer: 
* Difficulty following a simple conversation; participating appropriately in a conversation; starting a conversation; opening and closing a conversation
* Difficulty participating appropriately in conversation 
* Difficulty initiating and maintaining topic
* Difficulty taking turns during conversation
* Difficulty maintaining eye contact
* Difficulty understanding other people's perspectives
* Difficulty understanding humor and sarcasm 

District 31 is proud to be a member of TrueNorth Educational Cooperative 804, formerly NSSED, or Northern Suburban Special Education District. As a member, District 31 shares resources with 17 other school districts in our region to better help provide every student the opportunity to learn and reach their full potential. Through TrueNorth, our students can access academic and behavior support, and our staff can engage in high quality professional learning that impacts student growth. Visit truenorth804.org to learn more about the cooperative and watch an introduction video.

View an overview of the services and programs available in the TrueNorth Guidebook. 

Follow TrueNorth on Facebook @TrueNorth804