The Supporting Children with Disabilities: A Guide to Working Together for School Districts and Community Preschool Programs (Guide) was developed by the Race 2K project to provide a context and framework to help School District and community program staff discuss and, if appropriate, formalize a working relationship to support children with disabilities in community preschool placements. The NH Department of Education has strong focus on ensuring that preschool children with disabilities are educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). This means that preschool children with disabilities are educated in an early childhood program and removed to other settings only when the nature and severity of the disability is such that, even with supplemental aids and services, their needs cannot be met in the early childhood setting. For some districts, this means expanding district operated program models to include early childhood classrooms. For other districts, there is a need to collaborate with community early childhood programs (child care, private preschool programs or Head Start) to provide the early childhood environment for children with Individual Education Programs (IEPs). While seemingly a simple solution, the practice of placing children in community programs raises many questions for school district personnel and staff from community programs alike.
Ensuring Access to Early Childhood Environments- Using Community Programs
This Guide is designed to be a tool to help guide school district and community preschool program staff learn about a program and discuss the program’s characteristics and components. It is important to remember that no one size fits all when it comes to supporting children with disabilities. By reviewing characteristics and components necessary to meet the individual needs of children, staff can determine the capacity of both a school district and community preschool program to work together to support children with disabilities. This guide does not assess whether a program is “good” or “bad” but rather assesses whether a particular program or classroom has the necessary characteristics to meet the needs of a child/children, and if not, how can the district and community program work together to do so. There are three sections to this Guide: Program Profile, Program Rubric; and Formalization.
- Program Profile – Identifies key characteristics of a program and includes Talking Points to help school district and community program staff talk about their joint capacity to support the unique needs of children with disabilities in the community program. These characteristics and discussion questions are not meant to be all-inclusive lists, but rather practices that need to be considered. Depending upon the unique needs of a district, particular child or community program, there may be additional characteristics to consider.
- Program Rubric – Designed to document the discussion about the characteristics of the program and the capacity of the district and community program to work together to meet the needs of children with disabilities placed by the school district in the community program. The Rubric includes areas for comments and to add additional characteristics, if appropriate.
- Formalization – Guides the coordination and formalization of how the district and community program will work together (including defining roles and responsibilities) and other housekeeping details.
