Rocky Mountain School District No. 6

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Learning Support Services in Rocky Mountain School District

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To best meet the educational goals that we have for our students, referrals regarding a student experiencing learning difficulties are provided to a School Based Team (SBT). The School Based Team often consists of the classroom teacher, the learning services teacher, the school principal, school and district based support staff. The needs of the student are best met through a collaborative, strengths based approach where students and parents have the right to be, and should be, involved in the decision-making process and education of their children.

School Based Teams will endeavor to: identify appropriate programs and learning environments, generate strategies and support systems, develop individualized student plans, implement the plan to support student learning, monitor and evaluate the student learning, communicate student progress, celebrate student success, and make referrals where necessary.

School Based Team may consist of some or all of the following:

  • Learning Services Teachers
  • Indigenous Education Support Workers
  • Education Assistants
  • Youth Care Workers

 

  • Community LINK Workers (C-LINK)
  • District Elementary Counsellors
  • Teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDHH)
  • Teacher for the Visually Impaired / Orientation and Mobility Instructor
  • School Psychologist
  • Speech Language Pathologist
  • Occupational and Physical Therapy


British Columbia's Ministry of Education funds a number of unique programs to help meet the educational needs of low-incidence students in BC school districts. Provincial Outreach Programs (POPs) provide services for low incidence students in partnership with BC public school districts. The District Partner for SD6 works directly with the Provincial Outreach Program (POP) to support student needs and staff professional development.

District Learning Support Services Staff​​​

District Learning Support Services staff work on behalf of all students across Rocky Mountain School District. Program description, roles, responsibilities, and referral process are described for each role and service below.

Contact
Sharon Collin
250-342-9243 ext 4674
Email Sharon Collin

Contact
Kari Mason
250-342-9243 ext 4412
Email Kari Mason​​

​Community LINK (Learning Includes Nutrition and Knowledge)

​Purpose
Community LINK (C-LINK) is designed to support the academic achievement and social functioning of vulnerable students.

Description of Services
Programs and services can include breakfast, lunch, snack programs, academic supports, counseling, youth workers, and clubs and activities groups.

Access to C-LINK staff
All referrals should be brought to the attention of the School Based Team (SBT).

Contact
Your School Based Team, Learning Services Teacher, or School Principal for additional information.

Purpose

School counselling services are school or district based, non-categorical resource services designed to support students, their families and educators. These services are intended to facilitate the educational, personal, social, emotional and career development of students in schools and in the community.

The focus of school counselling is upon enhancing the students’ development, assisting with the development of an enabling school culture, and empowering students toward positive change.

Description of Services

School counselling functions include individual, group and class work to provide both a prevention and intervention service. The counsellor:

  • promotes personal and social development appropriate to developmental stages;
  • counsels students, their families and the community to foster growth in the students' self-esteem, individual responsibility, and in skills such as decision-making and social skills;
  • ameliorates factors which may precipitate problems for students;
  • enhances students' educational achievement through goal setting, assisting with the development of portfolios, IEPs and activities such as promotion of effective work and study habits;
  • provides appropriate interventions to assist students with school-related problems and issues; and
  • facilitate the goals of career education by assisting students and their families to explore and clarify the student's career options, through developmental activities that stress decision-making, personal planning and career awareness.

Access to School Counselling Services

As a member of the School Based Team (SBT), school counsellors assist in the access to and coordination of school, district and other community services for students. Coordination may include information gathering, case management, referral, and liaison among home, school and community. School counsellors frequently assist students with transitions between schools throughout the K-12 system and with post-secondary plans.

Contact

Golden Zone Elementary Counsellor
Jordanne Monahan

Email Jordanne Monahan

Kimberley Zone Elementary Counsellor
Denise Stephenson
250-427-2283 ext 4755
Email Denise Stephenson​

Windermere Zone Elementary Counsellor
Sue Bradley
250-342-6232 ext 4566
Email Sue Bradley​

Golden Secondary School
Ron Ainslie
250-344-2201
Email Ron Ainslie

David Thompson Secondary School
Shannon Warren
250-342-9213
Email Shannon Warren

Selkirk Secondary School
Jeff Pew
250-427-4827
Email Jeff Pew​

Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is a profession specific to blindness and low vision that teaches safe, efficient, and effective travel skills to people of all ages:

  • "Orientation" refers to the ability to know where you are and where you want to go, whether you're moving from one room to another or walking downtown for a shopping trip.
  • "Mobility" refers to the ability to move safely, efficiently, and effectively from one place to another, such as being able to walk without tripping or falling, cross streets, and use public transportation.


Orientation and Mobility Specialists
An Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist provides instruction that can help you develop or relearn the skills and concepts you need to travel safely and independently within your home and in the community. O&M Specialists provide services across the life span, teaching infants and children in pre-school and school programs, as well as adults in a variety of community-based and rehabilitation settings.

Access to Orientation and Mobility
All referrals should be brought to the attention of the School Based Team (SBT) and then forwarded to the Director of Instruction, Learning Support Services.

Contact
Your School Based Team, Learning Services Teacher, or School Principal for additional information.

​​​Purpose
School psychology services are district-based, non-categorical educational and mental health services designed to support students, school personnel and parents in enhancing academic, adaptive and social skills for students.

Description of Services
School psychology services play a supportive role in the identification, assessment, planning, implementation, reporting and evaluation process. 
The school psychologist:
• provides collaborative consultation,
• may assists with pre-referral interventions,
• provides psycho-educational assessments for students referred by the School Based Team,
• provides ongoing collaborative planning ,
• may contribute to the design and evaluation of the IEP, and
• may provide inservice training in the area of assessment.

Access to School Psychology Services
School Based Teams and Learning Services staff in each school facilitate the referral process for formal psychology services and assessment. These referrals should be sent to the Board Office for processing. This step is taken only after there has been considerable pre-referral assessment, intervention, and consultation at the school level. 



​Purpose
The speech-language pathology services in a school district may include a full range of services encompassing prevention, identification and assessment, direct instruction for students (individually, in classroom settings, or in small groups as appropriate), consultation, collaboration with other educators regarding the student's needs in the classroom and other school environments, inservice training, information sharing with families and other service providers and public education.
 
Any student with delayed, disordered or atypical speech and/or language skills should be brought to the attention of the speech-language pathologist.

Description of Services
Speech-language pathologists should use both formal and informal measures to evaluate a student's abilities relative to established norms, school expectations, the classroom environment and the student's needs. A variety of standardized measures should be used in conjunction with samples of behaviour taken from the school context, observations of students and/or interviews with the student, parent/guardian and relevant others. The information obtained should be related to other assessment/planning activities undertaken as part of the learner's educational program.
 
Program Overview Document – will provide an overview of the SLP program in Rocky Mountain School District.

Access to Speech Language Pathology Services
All referrals should be brought to the attention of the school-based team and then forwarded to the SLP.  There is a significant emphasis on early identification and intervention with all Kindergarten students within Rocky Mountain District provided an oral language screening assessment. Case load priorities go to students identified with the Kindergarten oral language screen, students with significant communication delays, and students requiring assistive communication technology. The Program Overview document will provide additional detail on the Tiered Intervention Program used within Rocky Mountain School District.​
Speech Language Pathology Contacts

Golden Zone Speech Language Pathologist
Laura Masters
250-344-5513 ext 4611
Or leave a message at Alexander Park Elementary School
Email Laura Masters​
 
Kimberley Zone Speech Language Pathologist
Kristal Bodaly
250-427-2245    
Email Kristal Bodaly

Invermere Zone Speech Language Pathologist
Marcia Madson
250-342-9243 ext 4407
Email Marcia Madson​

Purpose
A Teacher of the d/Deaf & Hard of Hearing (TDHH) is a certified teacher who, after completing a teaching degree, specializes with a Masters Degree or Graduate Diploma in teaching students who are d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Students are considered to be d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing when they have a medically diagnosed hearing loss. Due to their atypical hearing levels, students present with unique educational, social and emotional needs that require frequent and ongoing direct service from a TDHH.

Description of Services
The services provided by a Teacher of the d/Deaf & Hard of Hearing are varied, highly specialized and tend to include many of the following services:

  1. working directly with students on academic, personal, social, literacy, and communication goals 
  2. consulting with and supporting Classroom Teachers, Learning Services Teachers and Education Assistants 
  3. developing Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs)
  4. assessing formally and informally 
  5. providing technical support for any hearing assistive technology 
  6. serving as a liaison with a variety of provincial and regional services

Access to the Teacher of the d/Deaf & Hard of Hearing
All referrals should be brought to the attention of the School-Based Team with a recent audiogram. They will be forwarded to the Director of Instruction, Learning Support Services and the Teacher of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing.

​Purpose
Visual impairment is a generic term that covers a range of difficulties with vision and includes the following categories: blind, legally blind, partially sighted, low vision, and cortically visually impaired.
 
For educational purposes, a student with visual impairment is one whose visual acuity is not sufficient for the student to participate with ease in everyday activities. The impairment interferes with optimal learning and achievement and can result in a substantial educational disadvantage, unless adaptations are made in the methods of presenting learning opportunities, the nature of the materials used and/or the learning environment.

Description of Services
The student's educational requirements and any special measures that are to be taken in order to help meet those requirements should be documented in a formal Individual Education Plan.
 
When an IEP is developed, the following needs should be considered:
• orientation and mobility skills;
• visual skills;
• specialized instruction and adaptations for reading and writing (e.g., braille, magnified print, electronic text);
• specialized instruction and adaptations in mathematics;
• access to technologies (e.g., braille writers and notetakers, audio calculators, computers);
• daily living skills;
• social skills;
• vocational planning and skill development;
• study skills and note-taking strategies; and
• concept development.
 
Access to Teacher of the Visually Impaired
All referrals should be brought to the attention of the School Based Team and then forwarded to the Director of Instruction, Learning Support Services​.

Contact
Your School Based Team, Learning Services Teacher, or School Principal for additional information.