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Hicksville rising to challenge

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By PETER GREER

greer@crescent-news.com

HICKSVILLE -- A total of 18.1 percent of Hicksville Exempted Village Schools students have some sort of disability, but school officials don't like to use that word: "It's not a label," said Hicksville Elementary School assistant principal Claudia Winn.

Far more important to school officials is how to make sure all students receive the best education possible, which includes making allowances for these disabilities.

"This is a huge piece of what we do in public education," noted Hicksville High School principal Sue Dangler.

Disabilities can range from slight physical impairments to multiple conditions, which for one reason or another can hamper students' ability to learn. A partial list of disabilities affecting numerous students in the county include blindness, deafness, attention deficit disorder, speech disorder, autism and traumatic brain injury.

For unknown reasons, Hicksville's 18.1 percent -- or 186 out of 1,025 students -- is significantly higher than the state's 13.4 percent average. And it isn't the highest in Defiance County. Topping the list in the county is Defiance with 21 percent. Hicksville is second, followed closely by Central Local with 18 percent, Northeastern with 13.3 percent and Ayersville with 11 percent.

Talking about these situations and determining how best to deal with them is what school systems do. "Some kids need accommodations, modifications and assistance," said Dangler. "Sometimes all that's needed is additional time."

For Hicksville, students in need of adjustments in the standard educational program will take part in the Intervention Assistance Team (IAT) process. The team consists of various teachers and administrators who work together to determine the best techniques needed to maximize a student's education.

"It's an attempt to level the playing field for students so that no one is left behind," Dangler stated.

"The purpose is to modify the way we teach or what we (can do) to facilitate their education better," Winn said. "After we do the pre-IATs, the teacher will try particular things. Later on we'll reconvene and see how (things are) going."

The team usually includes teachers of students who stand to benefit from the program; however, a number of teachers are specifically trained to modify materials to assist in learning. Each student with disabilities gets individual attention. "Sometimes we monitor the students; that's all we can do," Winn said.

In addition to regular teachers and administrators, input from specially trained teachers and school psychologist John Dalrymple can help with following guidelines needed for the student. The guidelines, a part of the ACCESS program, gives training for teachers.

The psychologist, Winn said, helps to "provide another set of eyes, another set of ears."

Of course, input from parents is welcome. "The parents," she added, "are appreciative that we're trying to do something for our kids. Everything is parent-approved.

"At the IAT meetings," she said, "we ask parents to tell how kids react to situations at home. Do they read (school) books at home on their own, for example. The psychologist makes suggestions also."

If it is determined to be necessary, students may be taken through multi-factored evaluations which look at their ability to learn and skills they may or may not possess, including motor skills, academic ability, cognitive, speech and language comprehension. Following testing, results are explained at another meeting.

"We ask, Is there a disability and what is it?" Winn said, "and where would the child receive the less restrictive education?"

The answers depend on what the students' individual needs are -- and where they are in school as well. For example, some preschool students work for half a day Tuesday through Friday with specialists in such areas as physical therapy, speech and hearing who work with them as needed.

"There is the individualized education plan," said Winn, "designed for specific students' areas of need. In grades K-4, there is a pull-out program (featuring) specialized help from an intervention specialist. Some kids in grades five and six are pulled out for a period in the morning; assistance is provided the rest of the day from a special education teacher in the regular classroom. This is referred to as inclusion."

Pull-out programs, while once much more commonplace in school systems, are used today with less regularity. For example, severely cognitively disabled children may attend a unit at Good Samaritan School in Defiance, while the hearing-impaired may attend special classes in Archbold.

When a teacher is assisting, he or she may end up helping other students as well. "They can help anyone who needs it," Winn said. "There's an extra teacher in there."

The programs are rewritten for students every year. "The students are re-evaluated every three years," Winn said.

But help from others only accounts for so much. Like all students, success or failure in the classroom is largely the responsibility of the students themselves, no matter the situation.

"There is so much hard work and dedication from the people who work on all the different levels," Dangler said. "They go the extra mile every day, (but) it is still up to the student to do the work and to be challenged."

But despite the care taken in fitting individual programs with individual students, all of the programs have one thing in common. "Our goal," said Winn, "is to serve the children as much as possible."

Added Dangler: "They're all part of the same student body in this school."