District brings all special education in-house

GREAT BEND — A three-year effort to revamp the Carthage Central School District special education program is complete. The district is now offering the full range of special education services within its schools.

"The state Department of Education did a review during the 2006-07 school year and asked us to examine why we needed to contract special education services out of our district," said Michele L. Capone, special education department director.

In past years, the district contracted some services through the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services because it didn't have enough students to fill each program in Carthage, Ms. Capone said during a presentation at last week's Board of Education meeting.

Since the state review, the district has been working to offer more programs so students with special needs can be taught in Carthage schools and not bused out of town every day, Ms. Capone said. The continuum of services includes several different programs, from resource rooms for supplemental instruction to the regular classroom.

The district also offers several programs for different types of disabilities as part of the 12-1-1 program, which is new to the district this year. Under the program there must be one teacher and one teaching assistant for every 12 students, to make sure each student is getting individual attention, Ms. Capone said.

The district also has seen a gradual increase in the number of students with special needs due to increasing enrollment.

"We've grown in numbers in the past few years and with the diversity that Fort Drum brings to the area, we have gotten more special needs children," Ms. Capone said.

The district has 452 disabled students this year, up from 390 last year and 360 in 2007-08.