Special Education Services

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL ACADEMY

Luis Gomez

Director of Special Education

_{P: (231)830-3700 E: lgomez@mhtigers.org}

_{Central Office Muskegon Heights}

_{2441 Sanford Street}

_{Muskegon Heights, MI 49444}

SPECIAL EDUCATION

The programs of the Special Education Department are broad based, located in every building and level of Muskegon Heights Academy District.  The mandate for special education is birth through age 26.  Partnering with Muskegon Intermediate School District and Global Pyschological services,  K-12 support, and special education classrooms are provided for children with different physical, cognitive,  and learning needs.

Department Programs

Three-Five Program: The Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) program is a half-day classroom model for 3-5-year-olds.  Our ESCE programs is housed in Edgewood Elementary

Elementary: Each elementary school has a resource room.  A resource room is designed for students who need support in the general education curriculum.  The district also operates classrooms for students that require a special education classroom.  There are also teacher-consultants, therapists, psychologists, and social workers to support these programs.

Middle Schools: The middle school offers a combination of teaming with general education teachers, basic classrooms, and resource rooms.  This is done to allow for the greatest number of options in programming for the diverse needs of the students.  In addition, teacher-consultants, therapists, psychologists and social workers support these programs.

High Schools: Each high school operates a combination of resource rooms and basic classrooms.  The focus is to help students with skill development, high school graduation, and transition to the world beyond high school.  Teacher-consultants, therapists, psychologists and social workers support these programs.

Child Find /RTI (Response to Interventions)

IDEA requires schools to identify and evaluate children with disabilities. Both schools and parents/guardians can request a special education evaluation for a child who is not yet eligible. If the school requests an evaluation, the school must contact the parent/guardian to request informed written consent to evaluate the child. If you are a parent/guardian who wants to request an evaluation, send a written, signed and dated request to your child’s school asking for the evaluation.Evaluation teams will primarily use the data from a Response to Intervention (RtI) process