About our Special Education Services
Pittsgrove Township Child Study provides an array of services to the students, parents and staff of Pittsgrove Township. We provide a continuum of programs options to accommodate student needs in programming within the least restrictive environment. These programs range from modifications in the general education setting to self-contained programs including Multiply Disabled, Behavioral Disabled, and Autism Programs.
Our Child Study Team is comprised of School Psychologists, Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultants, and a Social Worker. Each discipline offers expertise in a variety of areas. They each are assigned case management and have various responsibilities to enhance the educational experience of our students.
- School Psychologists are specialists with training and expertise in psychology as it is applied to education. They use their training and skills to collaborate with parents, educators, and other professionals to ensure that every child learns in a safe and supportive environment. School Psychologists use their understanding of school organization and effective learning to help students realize their academic and social potential. They tailor their services to the particular needs of each child and each situation. School Psychologists are trained to assess and counsel students with behavioral, emotional, and educational concerns. Psychological assessments shall be the responsibility of a School Psychologist. The psychological assessment should include standardized and functional appraisals of a student’s current cognitive, intellectual, adaptive, social, emotional and behavioral status in the context of their environments. Serving as case managers the School Psychologist consults with a wide array of educators to develop strategies, modification systems and offer support to aid classroom management. The School Psychologist also provides counseling as a related service. The school based counseling addresses social and academic issues.
- The Learning Disabilities Teacher-Consultant (LDT-C) functions in the school environment as an educational diagnostician, instructional programmer, Child Study Team member, and case manager. The LDT-C is required to be dually certified as a teacher. The requirement of classroom teaching experience offers a multi-dimensional relevance to the assessment and implementation processes. Learning Disability Teacher-Consultants use their understanding of classroom functioning, effective teaching and adaptive instruction to help students maximize their learning potential and provide practical assistance to their teachers. Service provided includes teacher/student consultation, preventative pre-referral intervention, assessment, coordination of services, and program development. The LDT-C must also effectively communicate with parents, teachers and administrators. An educational assessment shall be the responsibility of a learning disabilities teacher-consultant. The assessment should include both standardized and functional assessments, review of the student’s work samples and the student’s records, classroom observations, interviews of teacher and other relevant parties, evaluation and analysis of the student’s academic performance and learning characteristics.
- School Social Workers provide services to students and their families to help the students attain maximum benefits from their educational programs. The school social worker takes into consideration the social, emotional, cultural, and economic differences among children and their families to promote the student’s academic and social/emotional well being and enhance their full educational and individual potential. It is the responsibility of the school social worker to do a social assessment that includes observation of the student and communication with the student’s parents/guardians. The social assessment includes adaptive social functioning and emotional development and of the family, social, and cultural factors which influence the student’s learning and behavior in the educational setting. The School Social Worker also provides counseling as a related service. The school based counseling addresses social and academic issues.
We also provide Speech, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and a variety of other Related Services according to each student’s specific needs.
These are some examples of the hard work and dedication of all of our staff. I am proud to work with skilled professionals that consistently work to enhance the programs throughout our district for all students. Thank you for allowing us the rewarding opportunity to work with your children.