SPECIAL NEWS

National Developmental Disabilities Month

The Sharyland ISD Special Education Department, strives to promote inclusion of all children with disabilities. March is National Developmental Disabilities Month. According to the CDC, developmental disabilities are defined as impairments in physical, learning, language or behavior areas, and include: Autism spectrum disorders, Cerebral palsy, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Learning or intellectual disabilities, Hearing loss, Vision impairment, and Other developmental delays. This March, we ask that you help bring awareness to developmental disabilities. #DDAM2023

If you know a child who shows signs of developmental delays, learning difficulties, medical conditions, or behavioral difficulties that interfere with learning. Please contact the child’s campus or the Special Education Department at (956)580-5218.

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Our Sharyland ISD Social Workers, support students and their families by being the link between school, home, and the community. They help by advocating, connecting individuals with resources, create and maintain professional helping relationships, help improve problem-solving, coping, and development capacities in people, and have knowledge and understanding of human relationships. This March, we ask that you help celebrate our two Social Worker, Mrs. Cynthia Guajardo and Mrs. Karla Cisneros-Lopez.

Sharyland ISD Social Work Site

#SWMonth2023 #SocialWorkBreaksBarriers

March 6-10 is Educational Diagnosticians' Week. The primary role of an Educational Diagnostician is to conduct psycho-educational assessments to support identification and IEP plans as part of initial and 3-year evaluations. The Diagnostician’s assignments include supporting the special education teacher with ARD implementation, archiving ARDs, providing DISTRICT ARD MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE training, reporting PEIMS data, maintaining records for timelines, and communicating compliance with campus administrators.

Sharyland ISD Diagnosticians strive to support students in obtaining a Free Appropriate Public Education. Please take a moment to thank your campus diagnostician. Currently, the Special Education Department, has 11 Educational Diagnosticians districtwide.

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day. This date was selected to represent the uniqueness of the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down syndrome.

This 21st, wear crazy socks to spark up a conversation. When asked about your socks, take that opportunity to be a voice and advocate for the well-being, inclusion, and rights of individuals with Down syndrome. #WorldDownSyndromeDay | #LotsOfSocks

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May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. This may we ask that you celebrate your speech pathologists and help Sharyland ISD Special Education Department increase awareness of communication and swallowing disorders and the life-changing services that speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and those within related fields provide.

https://www.txsha.org/better_hearing_and_speech_month

Speech and Language Pathologist(SLP) & the Speech and Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA) Day

Sharyland ISD Certified Speech and Language Pathologist(SLP) & the Speech and Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA) strive to evaluate and provide services to students who have been identified through the evaluation process as having a disability in speech and/or language. Currently, the Special Education Department has 4 Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP) and 1 Speech and Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA). The SLP & SLP-A plan and implements activities related to speech and communication needs. They work closely to identify goals and objectives to support language needs. Please take a moment to celebrate an SLP/SLPA.

TEA Testing Calendar

CALENDAR PDF

STAAR Alt 2

Texas definition of a student with a significant cognitive disability is a student who:

exhibits significant intellectual and adaptive behavior deficits in their ability to plan, comprehend, and reason, and ALSO indicates adaptive behavior deficits that limit their ability to apply social and practical skills such as personal care, social problem-solving skills, dressing, eating, using money, and other functional skills across life domains;
is NOT identified based on English learner designation or solely on the basis of previous low academic achievement or the need for accommodations; and
requires extensive, direct, individualized instruction, as well as a need for substantial supports that are neither temporary nor specific to a particular content area.

Resource: TEA Website

Child Find is a federal mandate under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It requires local education agencies (LEAs), which include public school districts and charter schools, to identify, locate, and evaluate all children with disabilities residing within their jurisdictions who need special education and related services. (34 CFR §300.111—Child find)

TEA Information

SPEDTEX

News

Hello Community. The Speech Therapy department at Sharyland ISD has exciting news to share. We recently added a new Speech Language Pathologist, Ashley Salinas, MS, CCC-SLP. She comes to the district from the private sector and has 12 years of experience. We are excited to have Ashley as part of our team and know she will be a great asset to the district and the community we serve.

Also, in other speech therapy news. Our District Speech Pathologist recently attended a 2-day LAMP (Language Acquisition through Motor Planning) training. LAMP is one of many alternative augmentative communication (AAC) systems that can be utilized with non-verbal speakers. The course provided a lot of insight and hands-on training. We as a team are fortunate we could attend as the use of AAC is growing in the community and the need for knowledge of a variety of different modes of communication community is necessary to better serve our community as a whole.