Special Education
Contact Information
Trisha Kurt, Director tkurt@msad53.org
Linda Dunton, Administrative Assistant
182 School Street
Pittsfield, ME 04967
Tel: (207) 487-5711
Fax: (207) 487-6310
Special Ed Teaching Staff
Manson Park
Natasha Robinson
Vickery Elementary School
Sarah DeLong
Erika Cates
Maria Clark
Warsaw Middle School
Scott Hammond
Carmen Lessard
Kristina Rivera
Welcome to MSAD 53 Special Education
MSAD 53 offers extensive services to students with disabilities ranging from direct special education instruction to accommodations in the regular classroom.
What is special education?
Special Education is designed to make sure that students with educationally-related disabilities have an appropriate education. It includes trained teachers and special teaching materials and techniques. It includes programs for students with any of the following conditions that interfere with education: intellectual disabilities, emotional disabilities, learning disabilities, visual or hearing impairments, speech or language impairments, health problems, physicals disabilities, autism or traumatic brain injury. Special education is intended to give students with educational disabilities a better chance of success in school. Special education may be provided in a regular classroom where the teacher gets help from a special education teacher or the student may receive help in a resource room, speech room or other specially designed education setting. The important point is that special education is designed with the individual student's needs in mind and that it provides an education that will benefit the student. All educationally disabled students are entitled to educational and supportive services that will meet their needs at no cost to the parents.
What are supportive services?
Supportive services are those that are necessary for a student to benefit from special education services. These may include special transportation, physical and occupational therapy and speech services. Not all services from which a student may benefit are included under law as a supportive service. Your child will be entitled only to the supportive services found to be necessary for your child to benefit from special education services. For example, if the child is in need of physical therapy because of a muscular problem but that muscular problem does not affect the child's education, that child would not be entitled to physical therapy through special education.
Disabilities
In the Maine Special Education Regulations, the Department of Education defines "students with disabilities". According to this definition, a student with a disability is an individual who:
· has reached the age of 5 years on or before October 15
· has neither graduated from a secondary school program with a regular high school diploma nor reached 20 years of age at the start of the school year
· has a disability which adversely affects the student's educational performance and requires the provision of special education services in order that the student may benefit from an elementary or secondary educational problem
CHILD FIND NOTICE
MSAD 53 has a duty to locate, evaluate and identify any child residing in the District who qualifies for Special Education services or Section 504 accommodations or services.
Children eligible for special education include those children with disabilities who have autism, deaf-blindness, developmental delay, emotional-behavior disability, hearing impairment, mental disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, or developmental delay and who, because of such an impairment, need special education services.
Children eligible for Section 504 accommodations or services include those children who have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity.
If you suspect your child has a disability and may need special education services or 504 accommodations, or if you would like additional information, please contact the District's Special Education Director at 487-5711 .
