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The Hampton High School Special Education Program consists of learning support, emotional support and life skills support. Each program has a paraprofessional available to assist students with academic or emotional needs. Students requiring more individual assistance may have a paraprofessional assigned in certain classes. **Placement and all other decisions are made through the IEP process and the IEP team members develop the child's individualized education program.**
 * **Learning support** focuses on students' academic needs related to their learning disability. Four learning support teachers provide intense support for students in the academic regular education classes. Some classes provide the Inclusion/Co-teaching Model.
 * An **emotional support** teacher provides direct instruction or support for students identified with an emotional disability. Students can receive direct instruction in all academic subjects in the emotional support classroom if deemed appropriate by the IEP team. The emotional support teacher may co-teach with some academic teachers in the regular education classroom.
 * The **life skills** program is for those students who require a functional approach to learning. A life skills teacher provides academic direct instruction, community-based instruction, functional life skills instruction or employment instruction based on the student's individualized needs identified in their IEP.

The high school provides Inclusion for all students with IEPs in the general education setting. Many of the classes are designed as co-taught classes in order to ensure maximum integration in the regular education classroom for our students with disabilities.

The learning support teachers at the high school strictly provide back-up services on a pull-out basis (during a student's study hall) to provide extra support with students' academic work. This happens when they are not sharing instruction in the co-taught classes.

The emotional support teacher co-teaches in several classes and also provides direct instruction for those students who need one-to-one or small group instruction. The emotional support teacher also provides back-up support for those students included in the regular education classroom.

Students at the high school level who are part of the life skills program are included in regular education classes as decided upon by the IEP team. All students, regardless of their disability, participate in the regular education classroom for elective courses. As with all students with disabilities, the least restrictive environment (LRE) is decided by the IEP teams. The IEP team always considers the regular education classroom with supplementary aids and services first before moving toward a more restrictive environment.

Transition is the process of moving a student with disabilites from school to adult life. Transition means looking at a student's dreams, goals, and aspirations for the future and designing the IEP so that he or she will be better prepared to achieve those dreams and goals. Transition planning should begin by 14 years of age or earlier if deemed neccessary the by the IEP team (The Transition Handbook: A Guide to Transiton Planning for IEP Teams by the Allegehny Intermediate Unit).