Partners: Iron Horse Middle School

The entire basis of this model is built on teaming. We believe that we are far stronger as a team, and together we can continue to sustain the fundamental and underlying premise that promotes this concept. All staff members at Iron Horse work together to meet all students’ needs. This emanates from the administration to the clerical staff to the teaching staff to the support staff. Each person plays a role in helping all student reach maximum potential. Parents are powerful members of this team and have provided tremendous support. The concept of collaboration strengthens all involved as we learn from each other. We recognize that together we share goals and challenges.

The parent community has been very instrumental in the sustainability of the program. The Parent Teacher Association has a special needs committee as part of its structure and builds parent support programs to educate and inform parents. The school has a 24-hour return call policy, which promises that staff members will return all phone calls within a 24-hour time frame. This allows easy access to parents to have questions responded to. Emailing of progress reports helps keep parents in the loop. A coffee for incoming parents, held in the spring prior to 6th grade, allows parents a first hand opportunity to meet staff, learn about the program, and have questions answered. Parents of currently enrolled students are also available to act as a resource to incoming parents. They are able to empathize with the fears of transitioning a special needs students and offer sage advice. The parents also feel that they are stakeholders in the program and work with staff to improve the program.

Our program is a source of both district and community pride. Members of our district’s special education parent task force and our site’s special needs parent organization (under the umbrella of our Parent Teacher Association) hold formal educational meetings to inform our community of our program and garner their support. In addition, our local and district Parent Teacher Association’s sponsors a series of in-services geared at supporting parents of special needs children. Many of our team members are asked to present at such workshops and share our model program.