The Garden City Board of Education focused its attention on the district’s Special Education support and services at the January 10th work session. Susan Kosser, interim director of pupil personnel services, gave an overview of services the district currently provides and recommended that Garden City cross-contract with other districts to build a stronger special education program.

The number of classes, teachers and programs is driven by student need. This year, there are 33.4 special education teachers in the district, which is a decrease of .4 from the previous year. The Garden City program is relatively small when compared to other districts on Long Island, with 433 students classified as needing special education.

Kosser plans to restructure current special education classes to create an upper elementary school and Middle School special education class. She also plans to assess students who are Garden City residents but receiving instruction in other districts so that they can return to Garden City. Kosser also would like to assess and modify grades 6 to 12 inclusion programs in order to meet New York State guidelines and the individual needs of students.

This month an after-school clinical sports group will begin, where a physical education teacher and teaching assistants will help elementary school students with significant disabilities for 20 weeks. Also coming soon is Handwriting Without Tears, a program where small groups of elementary age students will work with an occupational therapist once a week for six weeks.

Kosser plans to have staff focus on learning strategies, differentiated instruction, special education curriculum and life skills curriculum and programs. Additional training will be provided to ensure consistent procedures in all schools and identification of additional pre-referral strategies. Another change to take place involves occupational and physical therapy at the elementary school level. It was determined that shorter sessions would be more effective since they would better match children’s attention spans. The new sessions will be reduced from 40 to 30 minutes.