Dublin ISD will start the school year with a new special education co-op led by a familiar face, former elementary school principal Kalley Mitchell.
The district is forming its own co-op, Southwest Erath County Special Education SSA (Shared Service Arrangement).
“We left the previous co-op to provide more individualized services to our children and to have more control in the decision making process for our staff, students and community,” DISD Superintendent Melissa Summers said.
Leaving the Greater Erath County co-op, Dublin and Lingleville will be joining forces to educate special needs students. It also offers Mitchell the opportunity to return to one of her greatest passions – to help students be successful in life.
Mitchell’s education includes a Bachelor’s of Science in kinesiology with a special education minor, a Masters in Special Education along with a certification as a diagnostician and educational leadership.
But her passion for special education started when she was in kindergarten.
“I’ve known since I was a child this was what I wanted to do,” she said. “I had a friend who was deaf.”
Mitchell learned sign language in order to be able to communicate with her friend and in high school made friends with a student that was visually impaired.
Since brail books were not available at their school, she would read novels for class aloud to her and give her rides to attend an advanced college algebra course.
Mitchell was the former special education director for DISD from May 2015 until February 2019, then moving to elementary school principal until June of this year.
As far as Dublin’s special education co-op is concerned, a lot of things will not change, but some fun opportunities will be coming down the pipe such as the return of life skills field day, field trip opportunities and working at local businesses in order to gain work skills.
“We want our students to eventually be able to be independent,” Mitchell said.
The special education program in Dublin has early childhood classes for ages 3-4 and life skills up to the age of 21 if they need it.
For those students who may need a bit of extra time to get used to returning to classes, the district is launching extended school year services, where students that qualify will begin coming to class from 8-11 a.m. for the two weeks prior to the start of school. Four special needs students will be attending, Mitchell said.
“They have to show that they would not be able to recoup life skills tasks within six weeks and we document that,” Kalley said. It began Wednesday, July 19.
The co-op will be conducting free screenings for early childhood placement and eligibility called Child Find. This screening will help locate children birth to five years of age who do not hear, learn, speak or walk the same as other children of his or her age. The screening tests given to identify these students will include vision, hearing, speech, language development, motor skills, and overall intellectual skills. Parents of these children are invited to participate in this free screening.
This free screening will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, in the Dublin ISD Board Room.
Private school administrators and Home School parents are invited to meet with Southwest Erath County Special Education S.S.A. regarding identifying, evaluating, and serving children with disabilities attending private or home school in Dublin and Lingleville school districts.
The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2 in the Southwest Erath County Special Ed office located at 420 N. Post Oak in Dublin.
Like many opportunities in education, special education is a partnership between parents and the district. It also takes a village to make it work and DISD’s special education program employees two diagnosticians, a speech pathologist, one visually impaired/orientation and mobility specialist, nine teachers, eight paraprofessionals and a secretary.
They also offer occupational, physical and speech therapy to student with a partnership with Country Side Therapy in Stephenville and a Licensed School Psychologist at Tarleton State University for those who may have autism.
All services are offered at no charge to parents during school hours.
“Some parents still like to take their kids over to Country Side to get additional therapies. That is one benefit to having your child enrolled in school when they turn three. They can get that during the day where they wouldn’t have to travel to Stephenville to get those services,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell will also be focusing on partnerships with FCCLA, football and other extracurricular activities just to get students involved and to educate kids about disabilities.
“You just wait ... you are going to see us out and about,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be very inclusive and open.”
So far, the co-op will have 175 students for the upcoming school year.
“I’m most looking forward to the kids,” she said. “The kids and helping families ... to get the support and services they need for their child. I’ve always said we are a team. If the family and the school is not a team then that child is not going to get what they need.”
Mitchell said if a family ever suspects an evaluation needs to be done or a student is having difficulties, to reach out to her at 254-445-2229 Ext 1019 or via email at kmitchell@ dublinisd. us.
Any local businesses that may be interested in participating in a work study program (students will have a paraprofessional with them) are encouraged to contact Mitchell.