Special Education

 SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HEAD Mrs. Mary Chichester
Contact Information :
mchichester@nwr7.org
  860.379.8525, ext. 2105
  100 Battistoni Drive, Winsted, CT 06098
   
   
FACULTY Ms. Christine Kandefer, ckandefer@nwr7.org
 
  Mrs. Joan Ingersoll, jingersoll@nwr7.org
Mrs. Charlotte Krueger, ckrueger@nwr7.org
    Ms. Tonya Celadon, tceladon@nwr7.org
    Mrs. Pamela Lombard, plombard@nwr7.org
    Mrs. Deb Griffin, dgriffin@nwr7.org
    Mr. Dave Houldcroft , dhouldcroft@nwr7.org
Mr. David Drozdenko, ddrozdenko@nwr7.org
  Mrs. Jill Moulton, jmoulton@nwr7.org
   
Synopsis
 
Northwestern Regional #7 has always been strongly committed to providing a continuum of Special Education services.

The Northwestern Special Education department offers a full menu of services designed to give students with as much or as little support as needed in the least restrictive environments. The Special Education department has 11 full time teachers and 14 paraprofessionals who facilitate the delivery of these services.

In the Middle School, full inclusion services the needs of the majority of our students. Middle School Special Education teachers and paraprofessionals provide indirect support in the regular education classroom through a co-teaching model and direct support through the Resource Room.

For those students who need extra academic help and support, self contained classes in the areas of Social Studies, Reading, English, Math and Vocational Education are available. Students can take all or just one of these self-contained classes depending on need.

For those students whose behavior difficulties make success in the regular or self-contained classroom impossible, we have the FLEX program. The FLEX program, like its name implies, is a flexible program designed to return students back into the mainstream when behaviors are under control, while keeping students current with their regular education courses.

In the High School, inclusion is expanded to include team taught teachers with regular education and special education teachers available on the ninth and tenth grade levels. In the ninth grade, team taught classes are available in the areas of General Science, English, Social Science and Pre-Algebra. On the tenth grade level, team taught classes are available in Biology and English. We hope to expand our services and include team taught classes on the 11th and 12th grade levels soon.

For those students in the High School who cannot academically and/or behaviorally handle the rigors of the regular education setting, we have self-contained Special Education classes designed to meet the individual needs of the students.

Not to be forgotten is the LINX Program, which is our Program for multiply handicapped students. Students in LINX stay at Northwestern in the 7th and 8th grades then begin a concentrated vocational program which takes them into the community with job coaches.

In addition to our day school programs, Northwestern has an after-school program called STEPS (Students in Transitional Education Program) for those students who cannot handle the structure of the day school. The STEPS students meet after school from 2:30 to 5:00 Monday through Thursday. Again, as with all of our Special Education Programs, the STEPS goals includes returning students into the day school as their behavior improves.