Special Services

The Special Services Department is dedicated to serving students with disabilities and special needs, along with their families, to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed.

This department encompasses four key areas of support:

Exceptional Education
Section 504 Services
Gifted Education
Health Services

Our primary focus is to provide students with disabilities or health-related challenges the necessary tools and resources to fully benefit from their educational programs.

At Gulf Shores City Schools, it is our commitment to meet the individual needs of students with special needs efficiently and in a timely manner. Each student undergoes a comprehensive evaluation, and an educational program is developed specifically to address their unique requirements.

Below is a summary of the school system’s responsibilities and the categories under which students may be identified as having a disability.

Services

Special Education Process

Screener For Exceptional Education

Make Waves of Kindness

4th Annual Island Schools Special Olympics

Photo Gallery

Gifted Education Services

Gifted students are those who perform at high levels in academic or creative fields when compared to others of their age, experience, or environment. These students require services not ordinarily provided by the regular school program. Students possessing these abilities can be found in all populations, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor. In addition, some students with disabilities may be gifted. The Gulf Shores City Board of Education prohibits discrimination against any student on the above basis with respect to his/her participation in the gifted program.

Exceptional Education

Exceptional education is not a “place” rather, it is a set of services. The district’s goal is to partner with families regarding the individual needs of children. The Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal legislation that helps guide school teams and families in the qualification of students and the development of Individualized Education Programs (IEP). GSCS has a continuum of services to meet the needs of our diverse student population.

Section 504 Services

Section 504 is a part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that prohibits discrimination based upon disability. Section 504 is an anti-discrimination, civil rights statute that requires the needs of students with disabilities to be met as adequately as the needs of the non-disabled are met.

Section 504 states that: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 706(8) of this title, shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...” [29 U.S.C. §794(a), 34 C.F.R. §104.4(a)].

Section 504 requires schools to provide students with disabilities appropriate educational services designed to meet the individual needs of such students to the same extent as the needs of students without disabilities are met. An appropriate education for a student with a disability under the Section 504 regulations could consist of education in regular classrooms, education in regular classes with supplementary services, and/or special education and related services.

Training and Resources Available for Parents

ALSDE

Parent Tip Sheet

Child Find Flyer

Parents-Partners In Special Education

A Parent Video Series

Special Education Guide

Areas of Qualification

Autism

Child Find

Gulf Shores City School System ensures that all children residing within the jurisdiction of the public education agency, birth to 21, regardless of the severity of their disability and who need special education and related services, are identified, located, and evaluated. Child Find applies to children who attend private schools, including children attending religious schools within the public education agency's jurisdiction, highly mobile children with disabilities (i.e., migrant and homeless children), and children who are suspected of having a disability and are in need of special education even though they are advancing grade to grade. Child Find also includes a practical method of determining that eligible children with disabilities are receiving needed special education and related services.
(Public Education Agency Only)

Child Find Brochure

Child Find Flyer

Parent Tip Sheet

Parents-Partners in Special Education

Child Find activities will be conducted on a continuous basis as described below:
A. Procedures used to identify and locate children.
1. Gulf Shores City School System will provide ongoing public notice of the services available to students with disabilities through various media including: radio and television announcements, articles and notices in the local newspaper, information provided on the Gulf Shores City School System website, posters placed in local school, agencies, hospitals, and pediatricians offices, Civic Clubs/Agency presentations, and/or Gulf Shores City Schools Student/Parent Information Guide.
2. The Gulf Shores City School System will contact individuals and agencies that provide services to children with disabilities through various means such as personal phone calls, meetings with special education personnel, and written correspondence. Such agencies include: Children's Rehabilitation Services, Department of Human Resources, Department of Mental Health, Department of Public Health, local health care and medical providers, day care centers, early intervention programs, i.e., Head Start, preschool programs, church or private kindergartens, private schools, speech and hearing center, and/or social security (migrant and homeless).
3. Gulf Shores City School personnel will implement the following procedures to ensure that students who may be in need of special education are identified: School personnel will review current state and local testing information, grades, and/or progress monitoring of intervention plans to identify students with possible learning problems. The Director of Special Education, the school administrator, and/or Special Education staff (In-person or online) will provide annual in-service training for local school personnel of the referral process for special education. Each school has a Problem-Solving Team (PST) that will be utilized to facilitate in identifying students who may need special education services as opposed to those students who are at-risk or may not have had prior access to appropriate instruction/educational opportunities and interventions in the regular classroom.

Deaf-Blindness

Developmental Delay

Emotional Disability

A condition in which one or more of the following characteristics are exhibited over a long period of time and to a marked degree, adversely affecting educational performance:

An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors;
An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;
Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

Emotional disability includes schizophrenia but does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined they have an emotional disability as defined above.

Gifted Education

A screening procedure will seek to identify students who qualify for enrichment opportunities beyond those offered in the regular classroom.

A student may be referred by teachers, counselors, administrators, parents, or guardians, peers, self, or any other individuals with knowledge of the student’s abilities.

All second grade students will be observed as potential enrichment referrals using the gifted behavior checklist provided by the State Department of Education. Parents of second grade student will be informed by letter of the Second Grade Child Find process. The observation of behaviors and subsequent referrals are made for second grade at the beginning of the second semester each year.

For each student referred, information is gathered in the following three areas:
A. Aptitude - Assessed through an individual or group test of intelligence or creativity.
B. Characteristics – A behavior rating scale designed to assess gifted behaviors in completed by a classroom teacher.
C. Performance – At least three indicators of performance at a gifted level such as achievement test scores, grades, products, work samples, and/or portfolios.

The scores from the assessments/items used are entered on a matrix where points are assigned according to established criteria. The total number of points earned determines if the student qualified for gifted services.
Contact the student’s teacher or the school counselor to refer a student for consideration for gifted services.

Gifted Education Guide

Hearing Impairment

Intellectual Disability

Multiple Disabilities

Orthopedic Impairment

Orthopedic Impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures). If a medical diagnosis is presented, the medical diagnosis alone is not enough to justify being identified in the area of orthopedic impairment. The impairment must adversely affect the educational performance of the child.

Other Health Impairment

Other Health Impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette Syndrome. If a medical diagnosis is presented, the medical diagnosis alone is not enough to justify being identified in the area of other health impairment. The impairment must adversely affect the educational performance of the child.

Specific Learning Disability

Specific Learning Disability means a disorder in one or more basic psychological process involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disability, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Dyslexia Information

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a specific learning challenge that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge (Alabama Administrative Code 2903120).

Dyslexia-Specific Screening Process

According to the Alabama Literacy Act, students in grades K-3 in Alabama schools will be given a universal screener that has been recommended by the Alabama Literacy Task Force. The results of universal screenings will be used to determine students’ need for intervention, additional assessment, and screenings for characteristics of dyslexia. Additionally, an assessment for characteristics of dyslexia will be provided for students upon parental or teacher request.

Dyslexia Screening Flowchart

Alabama Dyslexia Resource Guide

Speech and Language Impairment

A communication disorder in the area of articulation, voice, fluency, or language that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

Articulation – Errors are primarily characterized by substitutions, distortions, additions, and omissions. Phonological errors are in excess of developmental expectations and nondevelopmental processes may be noted. Errors are not stimulable. Connected speech may be unintelligible or may be intelligible only to familiar listeners or within known contexts.
Voice - The child’s voice is abnormal in vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance and/or duration and is inappropriate for the child's age and gender. Deviance is noticeable and distracting to any listener. The disorder adversely affects communication.
Fluency - Abnormally dysfluent speech is observed during conversation and/or structured speaking tasks. Listeners are distracted by the child’s dysfluent speech and distracting concomitant behaviors may be observed. The child may exhibit fear or avoidance of speaking. The child’s ability to communicate is adversely affected by the disorder.
Language - Syntactic, morphologic, semantic, and/or pragmatic errors are observed. The child’s ability to comprehend or use spoken language is adversely affected.

Traumatic Brain Injury

An acquired injury to the brain caused by external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment or both, that adversely affects educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas such as cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem-solving, sensory, perceptual and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

District

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