Intensive Supports Program
Intensive Supports Program
The Intensive Supports Program encompasses specialized programs serving students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Blind/Visually Impaired, those significantly impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as those who require intensive support to access instruction and their learning environment. Each program provides a fully accessible learning environment, where students are immersed in specialized learning by a team of educators and related services professionals trained in their area of service. The focus of each team is to equip students for a successful life after graduation.
Program Structure
RPS offers a wide-range of supports and services to teams and families serving students in the Intensive Support Programs. Emphasis is placed on provision of division and school-based professional development and technical assistance to ensure all students have services that enable them to have meaningful educational benefit. As such, RPS employs an Intensive Support Program Specialist and three Intensive Support mentors to support the division in enhancing the capacity of all schools to serve this population of learners in fostering student academic and post-secondary growth.
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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.
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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.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) provides information on its website about educational services and resources to support students who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, or deaf-blind. The following resources are excerpted from VDOE’s Sensory Disabilities webpage and from websites for partnering agencies, centers, and college/university programs in Virginia.
Resources
- Training and Technical Assistance Centers, TTAC
This website as well as the The Virginia Family Special Education Connection website provides a wealth of resources for parents and families.
