Middle School
Special Population Demographics and Services
SNACS ensures that students with disabilities receive high-quality instruction, access to the general curriculum, and necessary supports and services based on students’ individualized needs. The students with disabilities in our school spend most of their day in the general education classroom. SNACS provides support services such as counseling, speech, and occupational therapy to complement students’ experiences in the general educational setting. Academic resource support services are primarily through a push-in model where the special and regular education teachers work as partners to provide the optimal educational experiences tailored to the needs of individual students. Because of this, we recognize the link between quality instruction and access to the general education curriculum. The curriculum has specifically designed lessons, which scaffold learning and reinforce specially designed digital problem-solving opportunities geared toward struggling students. Teachers gear curriculum toward all learners, with leveled assignments based on readiness level and ability.
Speech Services Featured Speech and Language Programs
Therapists licensed by the State of Nevada in speech-language pathology provide services. Therapists hold a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and certificates of clinical competence (CCC) from the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) www.asha.org. We deliver a direct services approach in a pullout setting and consultative services where the speech pathologists are providing indirect services to the student by providing guidance, intervention techniques, and therapy strategies to other individuals working with a student, or a combination of these models. We provide receptive and expressive language therapy, articulation therapy, fluency therapy, and social/pragmatic language therapy to our students.
When working with students with disabilities, our goal is to provide explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, oral reading skills, and reading comprehension strategies. Ultimately, we aim for each individual to be ready for high school with college readiness in mind. The Special Education Team works closely with related service providers and student families to ensure that all students’ academic and social-emotional needs are met.
To address the needs of students receiving special education services, we are using supplemental materials that directly coincide with the general education curriculum adopted and provided by SNACS. This way, we can guarantee that the Special Education Teacher is reinforcing exactly what is being taught in the classroom and giving the students with disabilities specialized instruction in the areas that they need it most. The curriculum has a specific intervention module that aligns with the grade-level topics in the curriculum.
Speech and Language Programs
Lindamood-Bell® – Critically acclaimed programs that teach children and adults to read, spell, comprehend, think critically, and express language.
Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars®
Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing®
Think Social: A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Aged Students – Michelle Garcia-Winner – helps students with social language issues
www.socialthinking.com
Demographics
At SNACS, we serve approximately a 96% at-risk population based on the state definition for students at-risk students for not graduating high school. The charter school was one of the originally designated schools serving the at-risk population. We serve students eligible for the Free and Reduced Breakfast and Lunch program. The subpopulation accounts for approximately 50% of the population. The students receiving Special Education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) account for approximately 20% of the population. Students qualifying under the English Language Learner (ELL) subpopulation accounts for approximately 10%.