Learning and Leadership - Special Services
The special education vision of the Cedar Rapids Community Schools is to provide a unified system of delivering education for students with disabilities. This means that general and special education teachers work together to assist and follow students throughout their educational career. Team teaching and co-teaching is highly encouraged.
We place a priority on servicing students in their regular classrooms using the general education curriculum. Students are placed into alternative instruction only after it has been demonstrated that general education interventions have been exhausted and it is in the student's best interest to receive an alternative method of instruction.
The district also strives to serve as many students with disabilities as possible in their neighborhood schools. Flexible instructional arrangements minimize the "labeling" and promote the self-esteem of the student. Of course, the low incidence of some disabilities, such as hearing impairments, make it necessary to consolidate some classes and offer them at particular schools.