Special Education (Bethlehem, Lincoln: houses, school districts, live in)

[mom14]

I will be moving from New hampshire to Bethlehem Township. East Hills School. Does anyone know about special Education in Bethlehem? Are the school hard to get what you want? Any help I would appreciate. Regards Mom14

[firefightermom]

I don't live in Bethlehem, but do live in PA and had trouble find the special ed program for my preschool age son when we moved from MD. He had been in speech therapy for a year and I had a terrible time getting info from the school district. I did find a website for Bethlehem schools Bethlehem Area School District that does mention special ed. I hope this includes the school you mentioned.

I was finally able to get info from the Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12, which handles all sorts of special ed. From what I could find, in the Bethlehem area, it is called the Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. I found a website CIU20 > Home but it was down at the time. I found another site that led me directly to the school site which I listed above.

Hopefully this will help! I was so frustrated with the runaround I got, I just had to try to find something for you even though I don't deal with the same district! Good luck with it.

[toobusytoday]

I just want to welcome you to the Lehigh Valley Mom14. Unfortunately, I don't know about the special ed in Bethlehem. If you post in the Lehigh Valley forum, you might get a better response. From what I see at the school digger website, http://www.schooldigger.com/schoolco...=20&withinsd=0 it's a bit better then Broughal MS and in a less dangerous area then Broughal too. If you haven't already bought, you might want to look outside of the city for better schools.

[mdb06]

I was a special education teacher in west-central PA for 33 years and know it can be a difficult and confusing quest for a parent. In PA, Intermediate Units across the state provide various special ed and many other services to the school districts, including speech therapy, OT, PT and vision. However, it is NOT consistent across the state. In recent years, many districts have been "taking over" providing some of those services for cost-cutting and other reasons, so the IU may provide some services, the district others, within the same district.

The best thing to do is to call the school district's main office (just look in the phone book or google them) and ask for the Special Education director's office . They will explain the who-does-what's and start the process rolling. If your child has an IEP, they will need a copy of it as well as a copy of the most recent Evaluation Report, as the IEP determines which services your child is eligible for and must receive. However since you are coming from a different state, chances are the district/IU will want to do a re-evaluation and new IEP. The IU that I was with did not accept out-of-state IEPs, re-eval was mandatory. There are timelines they must follow to do this, hopefully they will follow them without you having to nudge them. If your child is preschool age, you will be directed to the Early Intervention provider ("special ed" is a term used only for school-aged children) which is usually the IU. Start now, the process can be lengthier than you think.

Good luck to you, and welcome to PA! (By the way, I love New Hampshire and have vacationed there many times. Absolutely beautiful state!)

[toobusytoday]

My guess is that mom14 has a middle school age child since East Hills is a middle school, not a district.

[mdb06]

Yes, but she still should contact Bethlehem Area School District special ed office to get the process rolling. East Hills is part of BASD.

Typically, a psychologist does the eval and leads the team that generates the IEP. Most districts have a limited number of psychologists who each service a number of schools. East Hills Middle School may or may not have an in-house psychologist. Additionally, there are other things to be considered. Not all special education services are provided at all schools. Children with lower incidence exceptionalities, such as autism and life skills support, may have to attend classes in a school that is not their "home" school. Class size limits sometimes necessitate a different site placement as well. The district sp. ed office determines and coordinates all of this. The individual school, in this case East Hills, more or less "houses" whichever classes are appropriate and needed within that building. But the staff there may not be the ones making the placement decisions.

Mom14 did not mention her child's specific exceptionality, but she is still better off starting at the top and contacting the district sp. ed office. If it is a simple placement that can be handled by East Hills' staff, they will direct her there. If it is more complicated, she will be right where she needs to be from the get-go.

[mdb06]

BASD Special Education Department

[toobusytoday]

mb06,
I wasn't suggesting that you didn't know that East Hills wasn't a Middle School and part of the BASD, but I thought I would do an fyi in case other posters wanted to go off in the wrong direction and post about special needs in elementary schools.

[mdb06]

That's OK, I didn't take it personally! I just wanted to clarify the process a little for anyone who needed.

[toobusytoday]

Does anyone else have first hand information about special ed in the BASD?