Our Special Education Program at Desert Sage Elementary School K-6 consists of five learning ceneter classrooms that are strategically located on the main, lower, and upper level floors in our school building.

 

 

Our main level or first floor learning center  is dedicated to providing all of our special education students access to a quiet setting where they have an opportunity to refocus and regroup.  This learning center is dedicated to providing behavior coaching and intervention techniques and strategies particularly tailored for students with behavior challenges and students.  This learning center is also houses specialized equipment for students with limited mobility and require additional care or are medically fragile. 

 

Our lower level learning center  is dedicated to providing all of our special education students access to a small classrom learning environment where they can receive invidualized or small group instruction  This learning center is dedicated to providing academic support for special education students with learning challenges. 

   

Our upper level or second floor learning center is an open concept learning environment that combines two classrooms into one.  This is our largest learning center where two special education teachers can work with different grade level students, in the same environment, at the same time.

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Our READ 180 Lab is a technology-based learning center  is dedicated to READ 180 and System 44 instruction.   The lab contains desktop computers,  IPADs,  and READ 180/System 44 paperback books and audiobooks.  This learning center is also available to accommodate computer-based small group testing for AZ Merit, Reading Inventory (RI)  and DVUSD assessements. 

 

 

Five special education teachers and ten paraprofessionals are responsible for providing specialized instruction for our special education students. Our special education teachers supervise paraprofessionals, develop and implement IEP's, attend IEP, MET, CIT, PLC and MTSS meetings, develop behavior plans,  provide accommodations and modified instruction for high need and at-risk students, and coordinate student, teacher and paraprofessional schedules.  Also,our cadre of special education teachers co-teach and collobarate extensively with general education teachers in all grade levels. 

 

Our highly qualified and highly skilled special education teachers are: Jacquelyn Anderson, Teresa Kasher, Sara Garner, William White, and Sharon Wiebelhaus. Our combined educational teaching experience exceeds 75 years.