Intensive Supports Program

The Intensive Support classrooms are designed to meet the unique needs of students with significant disabilities who require extensive support across settings to acquire, maintain, and generalize academic and functional skills necessary for application in school, work, home, and community environments. This area of our program provides a rich array of classroom and community based experiences that will result in the acquisition of functional skills that lead to lifelong independence and employment. The program utilizes an adaptive, research based, SOL/ASOL aligned curriculum which is designed specifically to give students with complex learning needs meaningful access to learning.

Richmond Public Schools continue to make great strides in enhancing the capacity of every school to welcome students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and provide high quality educational programs that meet their academic and social needs. The Specialty classrooms are designed to provide direct systematic instruction and positive behavior supports, in a highly structured environment with a small student to teacher ratio. In our efforts to ensure that our practices are aligned with the research, teachers receive ongoing/support training from mentor teachers who have extensive training and background in evidence-based practices for individuals with ASD.

RPS continues to work effectively with many community partners, including collaboration with the VCU Autism Center for Excellence Project and Virginia's Training and Technical Assistance Center in order to become a model of excellence in our programs and services for all students with ASD. RPS engages in strategic and long-range planning in order to meet the needs of staff and families who support this rapidly expanding number of students served in our schools. In recognition of the very diverse abilities and needs of this population, students are served across the continuum including full-time placement in general education settings with support to students who require intensive and systematic instruction in the special education environment.

Our Core Program  is designed to provide specialized instruction in a setting where students across the district can attend a comprehensive school with like peers, while being served by a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ToDHH) throughout the academic day. In the Core program, students receive instruction in a variety of settings to include; inclusive, collaborative and self-contained. This program is available grades K-12 in schools where the students can transition with their general education peers throughout their educational career.

Core Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program

Our Core Program  is designed to provide specialized instruction in a setting where students across the district can attend a comprehensive school with like peers, while being served by a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ToDHH) throughout the academic day. In the Core program, students receive instruction in a variety of settings to include; inclusive, collaborative and self-contained. This program is available grades K-12 in schools where the students can transition with their general education peers throughout their educational career.

Itinerant Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Students may receive services from a Teacher of Deaf and Hard of Hearing in their zoned school for the time determined within the IEP. It is highly recommended students requiring greater than 1 hour per day of direct services from a Teacher of Deaf and Hard of Hearing are best served in the core program where a teacher is on staff full time.

Interpreter for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Educational interpreters provide communication access to students by faithfully and accurately representing the classroom instruction, teacher/student dialogue, and relevant sound information in the mode of communication used by the student.

Interpreting services are provided to students with significant hearing loss whose primary mode of communication is sign language and an interpreter is required for the student to fully access their learning and social environment

The RPS Visually Impaired Program provides services to students served under the category of Blind or Visually Impaired in their zoned school. Itinerant teachers, certified in this area, provide support to students and classroom teachers alike, in accessing the necessary materials and equipment to make  learning fully accessible. Additionally, our staff provides specialized training in Braille and building travel.