Special Education Programs

If your child has been determined to be eligible for special educational services, a full continuum of services is available to assist him/her. To the maximum extent appropriate, a student with a disability is educated with children who are not disabled. Documentation will be given to you at various times during the evaluation process.

These services from least restrictive to most restrictive include the following:

Preschool

Berlin Borough School District maintains two programs for preschool aged children who have been identified as having developmental delays in the areas of speech and language development cognitive ability, fine or gross motor skills, and social or emotional maturity.

General Education Preschool Class (PM)

This program is designed for students 3-5 years of age. This class will consist of approximately 6 students who have been determined to be eligible for special education services and 8-10 students who were chosen through a district wide lottery system. The goal in this classroom is to provide academic instruction that prepares students for kindergarten.

Primary and Preschool Disabilities Classroom (AM)

This program is designed for students 3-5 years of age who have been identified as having an educational disability whose nature and severity is such that education in general education class with the use of appropriate supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. The class size is eight students with a teacher and a classroom assistant and can increase to 12 students with two classroom assistants. 

For Students  K-8

In-Class Resource

In this program, collaborative teaching is utilized through different parts of the day. Collaborative teaching (co-teaching, team teaching, and cooperative teaching) is a joint teaching model in which the general and special education teachers share planning, teaching, and evaluation within the general education classroom. Support and/or replacement can be provided in this setting.

Pull-out Support

In this program, your child is pulled out for a brief period of time to receive extra reinforcement in a subject in which he/she needs assistance.

Pull-out Replacement

In this program, your child will receive instructiomn in a subject he/she has difficulty with in a small group setting. Your child will be taught according to his/her ability and skill level in the subject.

Special classes

When your child has difficulties in many settings or subjects and they cannot be addressed using the programming explained above, then classes will be taught in a small setting according to his/her skill level and ability.