Innovative Service Delivery Models:

Aldine ISD's special education department is a model educational system, marked by a progressive and innovative spirit. The special education department is proud to offer a full continuum of services to meet the unique needs of each individual.  The ARD/IEP team develops the student's Individual Education Program (IEP) with the general education setting and curriculum as the reference point.  For students whose IEP can best be implemented within the general education setting, an array of services is available to ensure success, including modifications, support, content mastery and/or co-teaching. The following options are available:

• Inclusion Classes:  Aldine ISD is undoubtedly a frontrunner in inclusive education.  Our district has a statewide reputation for successfully including students with disabilities into the general education classroom, while maintaining the support for the individual needs of all students.  Districts from all over the state continuously seek direction through consultations and observations of Aldine ISD's Inclusion Program.
• Resource Classes:  Students receive instruction or tutorial assistance in one or more academic areas in order to meet their unique needs, which cannot be met through a general education classroom or curriculum.
• Gaining Appropriate Performance (GAP) Units: These classes serve students who need a highly structured behavior management system that emphasizes modifying inappropriate behaviors and teaching appropriate behavior and social skills.  Structured classes generally serve students with moderate to severe emotional disturbance and/or students with other health impairments who exhibit behaviors that significantly interfere with their ability or the ability of others to benefit from instruction.
• Gaining Appropriate Performance (GAP) Center: This campus serves students who need a highly structured behavior management system that emphasizes modifying inappropriate behaviors and teaching appropriate behavior and social skills and who are not being successful on the general education campus. The GAP Center generally serves students with severe emotional disturbance and/or students with other health impairments who exhibit behaviors that significantly interfere with their ability or the ability of others to benefit from instruction.

Psychological Consultation                                                                                           Counseling
Social Work Services
Transportation
Other related services as determined by the ARD/IEP Committee

• The Functional Academic Curriculum for Exceptional Students (F.A.C.E.S.): curriculum serves students who have great difficulty with transfer and generalization of skills and need an emphasis in functional academics, adaptive behavior and job skills.  The curriculum may contain instruction in functional math and language arts, domestic skills, community skills, vocational skills and leisure skills.
• Lane School: This centralized program emphasizes motor skills development, sensory skills development and language and communication training for students with Severe/Multiple Disabilities. This campus provides a highly individualized class for students with severe developmental delays and disabling conditions.
• Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities:  The EC/PK campuses are designed to emphasize acquisition of delayed developmental skills for children with disabilities, aged 3 to 5.  Based on a child's unique needs, the program addresses cognitive skills, visual and auditory perceptual skills, receptive and expressive language, gross and fine motor skills, socialization, and self-help skills.
• Program for Students with Autism:  This class serves students who need a highly specialized behavior management system focused on developing appropriate communication and interactive behaviors both in home and community settings.
• Speech Therapy:  Students identified as having a speech impairment may receive therapy in the areas of receptive or expressive language development, auditory discrimination, articulation, fluency, voice, or augmentative/alternative communication systems.
• Assistive Technology:  The ARD Committee considers whether there is a need for assistive technology for every student with a disability.  For students whose needs are particularly challenging, Aldine ISD has an Augmentative Communication/Assistive Technology Team which can aid with making decisions and instructing students and teachers about particular devices.
• Adaptive and Developmental Physical Education (ADPE):  Each student with a disability must be afforded the opportunity to participate in the regular physical education program available to nondisabled children unless the child needs a specially designed program as prescribed in the IEP.  Aldine has a strong team of ADPE teachers assisting students with special needs to improve or maintain their physical and motor fitness, fundamental motor skills and patterns, and skills in individual and group games.
• Occupational Therapy is available for students who require monitoring and development of their fine motor skills in order to benefit from the educational process.
• Physical Therapy is available for students who require monitoring and development of their gross motor skills in order to benefit from the educational process.
• Orientation and Mobility is a service to assist students with severe vision loss in using strategies and specialized equipment to become acquainted with and successfully navigate a variety of environmental settings.
• Services for Students with Vision Impairments:  The Aldine Independent School District has a comprehensive program for students with visual impairments. This program provides educational support services for any child who has been determined by a licensed ophthalmologist or optometrist to have no vision or to have a serious visual loss after correction and whose vision has been determined by a Functional Vision Evaluation and Learning Media Assessment to interfere with his/her educational programming.  An eye report from the eye specialist is required that gives a diagnosis, acuity estimate, field testing, prognosis and a statement that the child has a serious visual loss after correction. The eye report needs to be forwarded to the Program Director for Students with Visual Impairments in the Special Education Department. Service delivery options are determined by the assessed needs of each student. Depending on the child?s individual needs, the appropriate placement will be determined by the Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) committee. Placement options range from the least restrictive environment of full time placement in the regular classroom in the student?s home school, with consultant services from a certified teacher of students with visual impairments, to the most restrictive environment of a self-contained classroom. A certified teacher of students with visual impairments provides either consultative services to the teacher or direct services to the student in the child?s classroom or instructional setting. Regardless of the child's placement, the teacher of the visually impaired will work closely with the child, his parent, and classroom teacher to identify necessary modifications to support the child?s educational programming.
  • Early Childhood Intervention Services for Students with Visual Impairments (Birth through Two Years of Age):  This program serves children from birth through two years of age who are blind or have a "serious visual loss" after correction, which is interfering or can be expected to interfere with normal patterns of development. Certified teachers of the visually impaired work in cooperation with staff in early childhood intervention programs. This team develops an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) which is based on the both the infant?s and family?s needs. This plan includes activities and techniques that address the impact of the visual impairment on the child?s development. The teachers of the visually impaired demonstrate these activities to the care giver which can then be continued in the home between sessions.


• Transition Services:  Beginning at age 16, or younger if appropriate, the ARD Committee considers the transition service needs for each student with a disability.  This process focuses on the student's courses of study and any interagency responsibility or needed linkages to accommodate the student's plans following graduation.  
• Homebound Services:  When a student is expected to be confined at home or in the hospital for at least four weeks, Special Education Services may provide a teacher to instruct the student in his/her home.   Homebound instruction is designed to enable students to continue their coursework during extended absences so that when they return to school, they may resume their educational programs with as little interruption as possible.
• Services for students with Auditory Impairments: This program provides educational support services for any child who has been determined by a licensed audiologist and otologist to have a a serious hearing loss even after corrective medical treatment and/or use of amplification and cannot be adequately educated in general education classes without the provision of special education.

  Regional Day School Program for the Deaf:  The Aldine Independent School District (AISD) offers a comprehensive program for auditorally impaired children and young adults.  Students enrolled in the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf must have a sensori-neural hearing loss in both ears which severely impairs processing linguistic information through hearing, even with recommended amplification and adversely affects educational performance. All educational services are provided by certified teachers of the auditory impaired, and there is a full array of support services. A student (age birth to 21) is determined eligible for services by the Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee. The program provides instruction in oral language, total communication, and any other mode of communication depending on the need of the student.

  Our Total communication classrooms advocate utilize all means of communication that gives an auditory impaired child the chance to develop competence with language.  Such means include speech, amplification, sign language, finger-spelling, speech-reading, gestures, and pantomime.

  The auditory-oral method involves mainstream settings with amplification (FM systems), speech, and speech reading without the use of sign language.

  • Infant Program:  The Aldine Independent School District (AISD) in coordination with the Texas Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) programs provides services for children ages 0-2 who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.  A certified teacher of the deaf provides services to the child in their home environment.  These services are provided at no cost to parents.  Through weekly home visits, the teacher models, support, and advises the parents in the instructional area of hearing aid management, parent-child communication, listening skills and language development.  Instructional materials are brought into the home to make the program effective for the family.

  The ECI program will provide services to your child and family as outlined in the Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).  The ECI will provide these services directly or arrange for another agency to provide them. 

  Services are provided for forty-eight (48) weeks during the year. Your child's progress on the IFSP will reviewed on a six-month and annual basis.  A meeting will be held with the school district and ECI program thirty days prior to your child's third birthday to transition from ECI to school services, Head Start or other educational settings.