Psychological & Child Services

The WUSD Psychological and Child Services Department welcomes the opportunity to partner with our families as we strive to provide appropriate programs and services that meet the unique needs of our students and successfully prepare them for meaningful and productive post-secondary experiences.

Our staff are highly qualified and trained to provide students with quality services and assist students in succeeding academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally.

School psychologists at every site provide a full range of psychological services, including but not limited to conducting psycho-educational assessments, diagnosing specific learning, emotional, and behavioral disabilities, consulting with staff, providing counseling and social skills training to students, and other related activities as directed.

School site staff, including special education teachers, speech and language pathologists and itinerant providers such as physical therapists, occupational therapists, and adapted physical education specialists, work closely with special education district leadership and school site administrators to establish appropriate goals and objectives, provide specialized services and instruction for students with a variety of disabilities, and implement an appropriate program for each student, per the student's IEP.

Vision and Mission

The Wiseburn Unified School District (WUSD) is committed to providing appropriate educational services to our students with disabilities and their families. A full range of special education programs and services are offered for approximately 300 students residing within the district’s boundaries. The district places an emphasis on collaborative and inclusive models including general education placement with special education consultation, resource specialist programs, special education classes, and a continuum of early intervention preschool programs.

DIS related services are also provided by the district specialists and include:

Speech and Language Services
Adapted Physical Education
Occupational Therapy
Physical Therapy
Counseling and Behavioral Support

Individualized Education Plans are developed at least annually for each student to ensure a free appropriate education is designed to assist students in reaching their academic, social emotional and behavioral goals in the least restrictive environment.

WUSD joins other school districts in the South Bay area as a member of the Southwest Special Education Local Planning Area (SELPA), and works collaboratively with the SELPA to ensure the services offered to Wiseburn students and families are in alignment with the Local Plan. Although the majority of students in the WUSD are served in their home school, all options are explored within the local community including regionalized programs operated by the Southwest SELPA, and others available in neighboring districts, such as the Lawndale Consortium Program.

Eligibility for Special Education Services

A student 3 through 22, with a suspected disability, may be eligible to receive special education and related services. First, an assessment needs to be completed to determine whether or not the student has one of the thirteen Federally-defined disabilities. Second, the disability has to adversely impact the student’s educational performance to a degree that requires special education services. Special education decisions are made by the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, which includes the parents, teacher(s), and other specialists.

Special education eligibility categories include:

Hearing impairment
Vision impairment
Hearing and vision impairment
Intellectual disability
Autism
Speech and language impairment
Emotional disturbance
Traumatic brain injury
Specific learning disability
Orthopedic impairment
Other health impairment
Established medical disability
Multiple disability

Programs

District Preschool Special Education Program (Ages 3-5)

The Wiseburn Unified School District preschool special education program provides a continuum of services and supports to three, four, and five year old children, who meet eligibility criteria for special education.

The special education preschool program is located at the Wiseburn Child Development Center (WCDC) where special education services are provided in the least restrictive environment and opportunities to develop cognitive, language, motor, play, and social skills are maximized.

K-8 Resource Specialist Programs

In order to meet the needs of each child's Individual Education Plan (IEP) in the least restrictive environment, the Wiseburn Unified School District (WUSD) provides a continuum of services and supports to children who are eligible for special education services.

The WUSD Resource Specialist Program (RSP) services and supports include consultation with the general education program staff, in-class support and/or specialized academic instruction in the RSP classroom to ensure that children in the RSP program are accessing the general education curriculum, meeting targeted IEP goals and achieving appropriate social, emotional, and academic success.

K-8 Special Education Classes

The Wiseburn Unified School District Special Day Class Program (SDC) is a self contained special education class which provides services to children who are eligible for special education services and present with more intensive needs that cannot be met by the general education program, RSP or DIS programs.

The SDC class provides individual, and small group instructional activities to support each student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) emphasizing skill development in the areas of cognition, language, social-emotional, behavioral and motor development. Children in the SDC class have daily opportunities for mainstreaming with typically developing peers in the age / grade appropriate general education setting based on their IEP.

Speech and Language Pathology Services

Speech and Language Pathology services are provided to students presenting with articulation, expressive and receptive language, social communication, fluency and voice disorders. The WUSD speech language pathologists (SLPs) work with students, parents, teachers, and administrators within assigned schools to provide for the identification, assessment, consultation, and remediation of these disorders.

WUSD SLPs are members of a multi-disciplinary team to assess the speech-language needs of pupils in order to design and implement appropriate language and speech services and evaluate student progress. They provide individual and small group speech-language therapy services for students, work effectively and collaboratively with general and special education staff in the design and implementation of effective language and speech instructional/remedial models, and collaborate with general and special education staff in planning and implementing a comprehensive speech / language program, and when appropriate, integrate and align therapy activities with core curriculum while involving staff and parents in the therapy process.