The Leavenworth County Special Education Cooperative (LCSEC)
provides special education services to children with special needs within the
six school districts of Leavenworth County. The districts include Leavenworth,
Lansing, Fort Leavenworth, Basehor-Linwood, Tonganoxie, and Easton.
Committed to the belief that all students can learn and to working in
partnership with parents and general education staff, the mission of the LCSEC
is to provide a free appropriate education program and related services to all
identified children with special needs within the districts comprising LCSEC. It
is the philosophy of the LCSEC to provide every exceptional child, regardless of
individual exceptionality, with an appropriate education program in order to
meet the needs of the child, as well as to encourage the fulfillment of his/her
potential. A full range of special education services are provided by the LCSEC.
These services include screening, evaluation, placement, and review of program
decisions. the LCSEC offers programs and services to identified students who
have special education needs which require intervention other than, or in
addition to, regular education placement. These programs and services
include:
Autism - Deaf/Hard of Hearing - Early Intervention
and Developmental Services - Emotional Distrubance - Gifted - Learning Disabled
- Mental Retardation - Occupational Therapy - Physicaly Impaired - Psychological
Services - Severe Multiple Disabilities - Speech Therapy - Visualy Impaired -
Workstudy/Transition
The LCSEC functions under the direction of an
advisory board consisting of the superintendents representing the six member
school districts within Leavenworth County. The advisory board makes
recommendations to the Leavenworth School Board and works with the LCSEC
Director to provide quality special education services to all Leavenworth County
students. the LCSEC Director is responsible for the administration and daily
operation of the LCSEC. The Deputy Director, Assistant Director, and
Coordinators report to the Director and have responsibility for various
administrative functions.
The LCSEC employs a professional staff of 175
certified teachers and 190 paraeducators serving 2200 students with special
needs, ages 3 to 21. Committed to professional growth, the LCSEC and individual
districts offer a vigorous staff development program. Proximity to several
colleges and universities, including the University of Kansas, allows staff to
pursue graduate studies in a wide variety of education areas.
Families
Together, Inc. is a state-wide organization that assists parents and their sons
and daughters with any form of disability. The program's mission is to
encourage, educate, and empower families to be effective advocates for their own
children. Through a variety of programs that Families Together, Inc. offers,
parents are informed about available resources and services throughout the
state.
The Parent to Parent of Kansas is a program of Families Together,
Inc. and is dedicated to providing one on one support to parents of children
with special needs. It is a voluntary program for parents with local programs
state-wide. Parent to Parent matches a trained volunteer supporting parent of a
child with special needs with the parent of a special needs child. Parent
matches are established around similar family and disability
issues.
There are other resources available to families with specail
needs. The ACS Exceptional Family Member Program has a resource book listing
special needs resources that are available in the local area and nationally.