Antelope Junior High Campus

Special Education Information

Welcome to Syracuse Arts Academy Special Education! Special education provides students with identified disabilities specialized instruction designed to meet their unique learning needs, giving them the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential. In the United States, special education is delivered, free of charge, through the public education system, thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Here at Syracuse Arts Academy, we strive for the best academic and behavioral support for our Sped students!

Child Find Notice:

Our Special Education Department is attempting identify all children with disabilities who are currently enrolled at the school.

If a child is having significant difficulty with vision, hearing, speech and/or behavior or is experiencing slow development atypical for his/her age, physical impairments or learning difficulty then he/she may be a child with a disability. Disabilities that could interfere with education include: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disabilities, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, specific learning disabilities, communication disorders, traumatic brain injury and visual impairment. Federal law mandates the provision of free educational programs and/or services for such persons.

If you know of a current Syracuse Arts Academy student who might qualify for Special Education services, including a student suspected of having a disability even though he/she is advancing from grade to grade, please review the tabs below.

For more about the Carson Smith Scholarship, visit the Special Education page.

USDA Non-Discrimination Statement:

In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident.

Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.) should contact the responsible Agency or USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English.

To file a program discrimination complaint, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, AD-3027, found online at How to File a Program Discrimination Complaint and at any USDA office or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: program.intake@usda.gov.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

RTI Interventions

Basic Reading Interventions:
Letter Knowledge
Phoneme Segmentation
Concepts of Print
Using Picture Clues
Phonics
Phonological Awareness
Sight Words

Reading Comprehension Interventions:
Sequencing Events
Summarizing Events
Details
Prediction
Interpretation
Reflection
Reading Comprehension Self-Check
Advanced Story Map

Reading Fluency Interventions:
Fluency, Phrasing, and Expression

Composition/Organization of Written Expression Interventions:
Interactive Writing
Graphic Organizers
Color Coding Strategy
Paragraph Frames
Sentence Expansion
Sentence Combining

Encoding/Spelling Interventions:
Copy-Cover-Compare
Take a Good Look
Web the Word
Elkonin Boxes
Alphaboxes
Building Words
Compare and Contrast

Basic Math Interventions:
Stay, Ask, Check
Problem Solving
Keyword Mnemonics
Math Wise for Add/Subtract Single & Double Digit Numbers
Peer Assisted Learning Strategies

For more intervention ideas, feel free to visit the popular website, Intervention Central, with free intervention and assessment resources for educators in grades K-12. This includes high quality RTI resources available at no cost—including articles on effective academic and behavioral intervention practices and interactive tools to create assessment and other materials.
Intervention Central

Davis County Early Intervention
Early Intervention Links for all of Utah

Progress Monitoring

Progress monitoring is a scientific based practice used to assess a child's academic progress and evaluated the effectiveness of instruction. Monitoring the academic progress of students provides formative results and aligns with best practices around IEP development and classroom instruction. Research has demonstrated that when educators use student progress monitoring, teacher decision making improves, and students become more aware of their performance.

Prior to calling an SST meeting, General Education teachers must have first gathered sufficient date to show lack of progress. Without significant data, an informed decision cannot be made.

Special Education teachers use progress monitoring trackers to evaluate and monitor a student's improvement on the goals identified in their Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

The following tracker is a template available to you for progress monitoring.
Progress Monitoring Template.docx

SST Referral Process

All staff members are required to take Child Find Training annually to be familiar with the SST process.

Consistent with requirements of IDEA (300.000) and State Rules (II.A(1-3)), each LEA shall ensure that all students with disabilities ages 0-21 residing in the LEA who are in need of special education and related services are identified, located, and evaluated.

General Education Requirements: Provide high quality “Tier One” instruction, provide differentiated instruction, identify the need of the student, provide high quality ELL instructional strategies, provide or refer to “Tier Two” instruction and intervention, Provide RTI/MTSS according to LEA procedure, design an intervention plan appropriate for the student, request a team level and/or school level SST meeting.

A Student Success Team (SST) meeting is called at the TEAM LEVEL when a teacher has a concern and has identified the problem or needs help doing so, parents have concerns you are unable to address, you see a pattern of behavior or lack of academic progress, you need help from your team designing an appropriate intervention plan, or when data indicates a reason for concern. Any grade level or departmental team, instructional coaches, and other individuals involved in their education should be invited to the SST meeting.

A SST meeting is called at the SCHOOL LEVEL when you have implemented appropriate targeted interventions with fidelity, you need additional intervention ideas and your team is at a loss, you have seen growth, but feel that the student will struggle to maintain growth in the future, the parents has requested their student be evaluated for a 504 or IEP, you feel a disability is present and not being addressed, or you are at a complete loss as to what to do next. Request an SST from your Vice Principal or designate. The VP will set the appointment and invite all appropriate staff.

Come to the SST with information relevant to the student and their performance. Some examples include Acadience, SRI, writing samples, cumulative file, attendance, fact fluency measures, grades, behavior data, pre/post data, and/or targeted intervention progress data.

*An SST meeting is NOT synonymous to a referral to Special Education.

If Team moves forward with Referral the following steps will be taken.

Step 1: The SST coordinator will work with the General Education teacher to ensure all At-Risk documentation is completed within one week of the SST. A link is provided below for the USBE At-Risk Document template.
At Risk Documentation.docx

Step 2: The At-Risk documentation is taken to the building administrator for signature.

Step 3: The Referral documents would be filled out and signed by the Special Education Director.

Step 4: The Permission to Test document is sent home to parent for physical signatures. The SST coordinator will follow-up with parent to ensure timely return of the document. Once it is returned to the school, the Eligibility Coordinator begins testing. The Assessments Coordinator works closely with the School Psychologist, General and Special Education teachers, and any related service providers to ensure all needs are met.

The SST Coordinator for Antelope Elementary is Janet Eastman
The SST Coordinator for North Campus is Nikki Field
The SST Coordinator for the Jr High is BillieJo Petersen
The Eligibility Coordinator for all 3 campuses is Morgan Linebarger