At Arbor Heights, we offer a continuum of special education services with three tiers of support:
Resource Room
Access
Focus (self-contained)
In addition to special education teachers and instructional assistants, our students often work with occupational and physical therapists and speech-language pathologists depending on each child's unique set of needs.
All of our special education students, regardless of the program they are part of, have access to their general education peers and curriculum, as appropriate. We value the diversity that inclusion brings to our community.
Resource Room
The resource room serves students with mild-to-moderate learning and social challenges. These students receive specially designed instruction (SDI) and modifications to help them keep up with grade-level expectations and individual IEP goals. SDI is provided in both the special education setting and in the child's general education classroom, according to their IEP.
Access
The Access program serves students with academic, social, and motor-skill challenges that need more intensive support than the Resource Room. The Access program has a ratio of 1 teacher + 3 instructional assistants to 10 students. Students spend a majority of their day in their general education classroom, both with and without support from the special education staff.
Focus
Our Focus classrooms serve students with a variety of challenges—academic, social skills, motor skills, self-help, and communication—and benefit from the high staff-to-student ratio and small class size. These students participate with their general education peers during portions of the day during specialist classes such as PE, Art, Music, E-STEM.
Learn more about Special Education Services at Seattle Public Schools.