Inclusion

Several programs and different strategies are used by the school to provide access to and success in the regular curriculum. Of the 534 K-5 students at Monroe, 34 have Special Education IEPs, 14 are on 504 Accommodation Plans, 34 are identified GATE, and 192 are English language learners. One County special day class on our campus serves 6 students. Personal learning plans and programs are provided through the Special Education Individualized Education Program, 504 Accommodation Plan, GATE Program and the English Learner Program. Students with IEPs and 504 Plans are optimally included in the standards-based core curriculum. Special and regular education staff and parents meet to provide access to the core curriculum by modifying student assignments/ homework, developing contracts, and monitoring progress at monthly collaboration meetings, parent conferences, and annual reviews. Both groups of students receive accommodations or alternative assessments as determined by their IEPs or 504 plans. The special education team orchestrates the schedules of students with IEPs. Some students spend their day fully-included, some come to the learning center for instruction for one or two periods and some spend most of the day in the center.

Our District nurse supervises our health assistant in the specific care of our medically fragile students. The specific needs of GATE students are addressed within the regular classroom in all subjects by differentiated instruction that includes complexity, depth, novelty, and accelerated learning. Additionally, specific programs, such as Spanish, Mastery Math, and high interest, challenging activities in PBI, and parent/teacher designed thematic curriculum, facilitate the progress of these highly able students. Additionally, we now have Title I funding enabling us to hire 11 fully credentialed part-time teachers to work individually or in small groups at all grade levels with 200 at-risk students.

Monroe's Performance Based Program was designed by special education staff in order to support school staff and provide IEP goals and objectives instruction. General education teachers embrace our disabled students in part because of this support they receive for all of their diverse learners. Special and regular education teams have attended many workshops, one of which resulted in the school adoption of Reading Renaissance STAR assessment and Accelerated Reader Program. Our Student Assistant Program offers students training and opportunities to be a supportive friend to severely disabled students. Special education staff 'hires' these volunteers to be part of 'A Circle of Friends' program. These friendships work wonders toward building a truly inclusive environment in and out of the classroom.
Monroe's carefully planned learning activities are aligned with standards and specifically target at-risk learners. They include after-school tutorials at 2-5 grade levels, a five week summer school and our off-campus evening homework center.

English learner students are supported in English/language arts and acquisition of academic content vocabulary through an English Language Development (ELD) program, Hampton Brown Into English! that is aligned, when possible, with the State standards-based curriculum. Students receive specific ELD instruction and pre-teaching of the regular curriculum as is dictated by each student's level of English comprehension. Teachers practice amplification, more support, rather than simplification to accelerate ELs' progress in English. During the last redesignation cycle, 21 students were redesignated as English proficient.