Welcome to the Special Education Department in the Woodland Hills School District
Administration Building - Room 101
Director of Pupil Personnel Services - Mr. David Johnston 412-731-1300 x0141 email - johnda@whsd.net
Administrative Secretary - Mrs. Lee Hovanec 412-731-1300 x 0141 email- hovabe@whsd.net
Administrative Secretary - Mrs. Shirley Bennaugh 412-731-1300 x 0147 email- bennsh@whsd.net
AIU Special Education Supervisors- Mrs. Stephanie Apter 412-731-1300 x 0135 email-aptest@whsd.net
Mrs. Debbie Hensley 412-731-1300 x 0136 email-hensde@whsd.net
Mrs. Lisa Kellick 412-731-1300 x0137 email-kellli@whsd.net
Department Fax 412-256-4904
Primary Responsibilities - Appropriate educational programming for students who are gifted and/or disabled as defined in the Pennsylvania State Code in Chapters 14 and 16.
CHAPTER 14
The Woodland Hills School District is committed to providing an appropriate special education program for its students with disabilities. We offer a full continuum of educational services.
Currently in our eight school buildings are 56 special education classes in operation for the 2009/2010 school year. Forty seven of these classes will be district operated, nine will be operated by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, In addition, serving our eight buildings are one itinerant vision teacher, one itinerant hearing teacher, interpreters for the hearing impaired and itinerant speech clinicians. These individuals are contracted from the Allegheny Intermediate Unit #3.
The exceptionalities currently being served in our district buildings are: visually impaired, hearing impaired, emotional support, life skills support, learning support, speech and language support, autistic support, multidisabilities support, and orthopedically impaired support students. For students whose needs go beyond those, which we can support in the regular education buildings, we access special facilities such as: approved private schools, private licensed facilities, and special education centers.
Most children are referred for evaluation either by parents or members of the staff. Each of our nine school buildings has teams of staff trained in the student assistance program. This is functioning for both elementary and secondary buildings. Multidisciplinary teams in each building continually assess the special needs of students. Parents are active members of the building teams and as mentioned may initiate an evaluation of their child. If the child meets the state eligibility criteria for special education services he/she will require specially designed programming. There is a wide range of programming available to students residing in the Woodland Hills School District where the primary goal is to keep the youngster as closely involved in the regular education classroom as possible. The special education programming may range from support in the regular education classroom to special programs in special facilities.
Our strengths in the special education services and programs can best be described by two phrases, which are creative collaboration and appropriate support. Woodland Hills School District truly looks at the individual and assesses through the IEP team the appropriate educational program for every youngster.
All students are eligible and encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities. The Woodland Hills sports program has a number of students with disabilities participating in various positions. The Woodland Hills band also encourages our students to participate and we are proud that our students have achieved awards in band competitions. We encourage our students with disabilities to participate in all activities involving the school district.Resources: