Overview of Preschool Program for Children With Disabilities Johnson County Schools 211 North Church Street Mountain City, TN

Johnson County Schools is a public school system serving approximately 2,350 preschool through 12th grade students. The district is located in Johnson County in the upper east corner of Tennessee and borders the states of Virginia and North Carolina.

The area has the distinction of seeing the “first sunrise in Tennessee.” There is one high school, one middle school and five elementary schools. Four of the five elementary schools serve Head Start and PreK students in nine classrooms.

Presently, we are serving twenty- four preschool students with disabilities within the Head Start /PreK program. All are fully included with the exception of leaving the classroom for speech, occupational or physical therapy. These students have various disabilities including developmental delays and health impairments along with speech and/or language delays.

There is a history of strong collaboration between the Head Start/PreK administration and teachers and the special education program which continues to work successfully to provide the best education for young students with disabilities within the Head Start and PreK settings.

Assistive technology is being used effectively with Head Start and Prek students to allow full involvement in the programs. Special education instructional assistants may work in Head Start/PreK classrooms to provide support for more challenging students.

At this point, PreK students, Head Start students and preschool students with disabilities are served together across the nine classrooms. A visitor to the classrooms would see no distinction between the Head Start/PreK students or the preschoolers with disabilities.

The most important benefit of inclusion for these young students is the change in attitude of staff, parents, nondisabled students and disabled students toward the possibilities for all students.

Many of the students continue to be fully included today in upper grades with the support of classroom modifications, instructional assistants and/or assistive technology.

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