Special Education

Support Services

• Learning Support 
• Life Skills Support 
• Autistic Support 
• Emotional Support 
• Gifted Support 
• Language Support

Contracted Services

• Hearing Impaired Services 
• Visually Impaired Services 

Identifying Students

To identify students who may be eligible for special education, various screening activities are conducted on an on-going basis.  These screening activities include: 

• Review of group based data
• Cumulative Records
• Enrollment Records 
• Health Records 
• Report Cards 
• Ability and Achievement Test Scores 
• Hearing, Vision, Physical and Speech/Language Screening 
• Review by the Instructional support teams. 

Screening activities are conducted upon requests made, in writing, by parents and teachers.  Before screening begins, the District seeks parental consent to conduct a multi-disciplinary evaluation.  Parents who believe their child is exceptional may request a multi-disciplinary evaluation at any time through a written request to the building principal. For information relating to definitions and warning signs for developmental delays, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, autism, etc., please click here. 

Surrogate Parents

1. The McKeesport Area School District is responsible for assigning a surrogate parent within 30 days.
    
2. The McKeesport Area School District identifies the legal status of the child in need of a surrogate parent to determine if the student is a court or agency placement in a private home; parents or guardians are unknown (1305); a ward of the Commonwealth or Pennsylvania or ward of the Court; parent of guardian are unknown (1306).  Unaccompanied youth are also considered homeless and include a child who is a runaway or who has been kicked out by their parent.  A surrogate also needs to be assigned to unaccompanied youth.
    
3. The McKeesport Area School District completes the Allegheny Intermediate Unit's application form for Obtaining a Surrogate Parent and submits it to the Surrogate Parent Coordinator of the AIU.
    
4. The AIU Surrogate Parent Coordinator will assign a trained, qualified, and available surrogate parent to the child.   If no such qualified surrogate parent is available, the Surrogate Parent Coordinator will work with the district or agency to recruit qualified persons. 

Due Process

Parents have the right to participate in all testing and placements procedures.  A detailed list of all procedures will be made available upon request. 

Confidentiality of Student Records

McKeesport Area School District protects the confidentiality of personally identifiable information regarding exceptional and protected handicapped students in accordance with state and federal law and district policy.  Parents have the right to review all information. Records are disposed of in a timely manner after notification of parents.