Robert Benjamin Wiley Community Charter School

Special Education

The Charter School Board of Directors and staff are committed to providing a full range of quality specialeducation services to those students determined to be eligible for and in need of special education. In keepingwith the letter and spirit of IDEA, these special education services to students are delivered in a primarilyinclusive model.  

From the school's inception, the Charter School has contracted with the Intermediate Unit to provide overallsupervision and consultation for the program and have benefited from their expertise in developing polices,programs and practices. The Board of Directors has made a steady and growing commitment to the provision ofservices to students with disabilities. The school is staffed and structured to allow students with differing abilitiesto be successful in the regular classroom. Small class size, teaching assistants at each grade level, counselorsand additional support staff provide adequate resources for accommodations and modifications.  The Charter School’s original mission and vision and ongoing commitment is to provide skilled and committedstaff and identify research based strategies that are designed to improve learning for the specific demographicsthat we serve: urban, minority, low-income, special needs students.  A total of 9 certificated special education teachers provided direct services in the school. Additionally theequivalent of full time speech therapy services is provided by two therapists providing daily support speechlanguage therapy. We continue to contract with the Intermediate Unit for psychological evaluations and specialeducation supervision.

Opportunities presented by IDEA provided for additions to our special education programming. In the fall of 2005, with the support of our Board of Directors, our staff and our parents, we began an “early intervening”program, using special education staff and resources to provide comprehensive interventions to students.  With parent participation and agreement, the Child Success Team planned and implemented strategies toprovide academic and behavioral assistance to students with the goal of preventing and/or deferring referrals forspecial education services. Following our special education audit, we worked with IU staff to refine and revise ourearly intervening planning and anticipate expanding the program to include students struggling with language,speech and communication concerns. Additionally, to assist with “early intervening, the Board of Directorsapproved a contract with a local mental health services agency to provide on site counseling and mental healthintervening services for students who presented with behaviors that interfered with learning.  While parentpermission was required for participation, students did not need to wait for county mental health approval andwere able to access the services on site. This provided the possibility of services for students whose parents didnot have transportation or other availability to access mental health services during the school day.  Aggressiveoutreach to available community services include assistance with referrals for individual and familycomprehensive services, and a partnership with server community mental health provider as well as 30 studentswho receive services through the County WRAP office including mobile therapy and therapeutic staff support.  Our building level team (child success team) provides a forum for teachers and support staff to identify studentswho may be in need of additional intervention strategies. Our 6 special education teachers and 5 master’sdegree candidates provide individual assistance for students in the regular classroom as well as in a specializedsetting when needed.

The Charter School works collaboratively with Intermediate Unit Staff and professors from local teachinguniversities to insure that the instructional strategies used by both regular and special education staff to educateeligible students, students at risk for failure and those not making reasonable progress are research based andeffective. Ongoing staff development through outside consultants, intermediate unit staff, Pennsylvania Trainingand Technical Assistance programs, graduate course work and school planned in-services trainings aredesigned to build core capability in meeting the needs of these “at risk” and “eligible students.  Additionally, comprehensive training for special education and regular education staff on functional behaviorassessments and behavior improvement plans led to improved documentation and outcomes.  Staff development is provided to all Charter School staff on special education strategies, accommodations,modifications and progress monitoring. Special education staff participates in ongoing trainings through PATTANand Intermediate Unit 5. On site staff development is provided on behavior planning and progress monitoring.