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Middle School Support Services

 

The Hommocks Middle School Special Education Programs

 

Students classified as in need of special education are supported through a number of different programs at the Hommocks. Listed below are descriptions of the various supports.

Students do not pick a program like they would other high school courses. Instead, at your student’s meeting of the Committee on Special Education (CSE) the team will identify the most appropriate program for your student given his/her needs and goals on the IEP.

For more information on the classification process, please consult the Special Education Parent Handbook

 

Integrated Co-Teaching Classes

The Hommocks co-teaching model consists of a special education and general education teacher sharing equal responsibilities for the instruction, management, assessment, and overall facilitation of a class. Both teachers bring their unique talents and experiences to bear in supporting the learning of all students in the room.

 

Consultant Teacher Service

Consultant Teacher Service (CTS) can be either “direct” or “indirect”. Direct CTS is when a special education teacher “pushes in” to a general education classroom several times per week to provide additional support for a student. In-Direct CTS is where the special education teacher consults outside of class with the general education teacher on a student’s progress and offers the teacher support in meeting the student’s individualized needs.

 

Special Classes

Subject-specific special classes are classes designed to support students in achieving mastery of a challenging curriculum. In recent years, Hommocks has made strives to support students in leaving these special classes for successful achievement in the mainstream setting. As a result, the special classes that remain are intended to support students in the eventual transition to less restrictive environments.

 

Academic Support Classes

This is a support class for certain students who need extra support and supplementary assistance in general education classrooms. This program was designed to support students who are in special class math and English but attend general education social studies and science. The focus of this program is to preview, review, re-teach more difficult topics, and to teach test-taking and student skills needed to foster future independence and competence in these areas so that they can participate successfully in the least restrictive setting for social studies and science.

 

Skills Classes

This is a support class for certain students in co-taught classes who need extra supplementary assistance beyond the support of the co-teaching environment. Typically, the Skills class supports former self-contained students in their first experiences in the mainstream environment. The majority of co-taught students do not attend Skills but instead have the opportunity to enroll in electives.

 

Special Class Reading

This is a support class designed to specifically target the decoding skills that a small majority of students who enter the Hommocks are missing, preventing them from attaining a reading level commensurate with their middle school peers. It is typically a program for classified students, however some regular education students sometimes attend. The specific reading instruction is embedded in the Wilson Reading Program.