Alturas School District’s speech-language pathologist(s) support the communication needs of qualified students throughout the school. Speech-language pathologists conduct speech and language assessments, work collaboratively with parents and school staff to provide support for students with speech and/or language impairments, and provide treatment in a variety of delivery models including individual therapy, small group therapy, and teletherapy.

“Speech” refers to the way we say sounds and words. Speech includes articulation, voice, and fluency. “Language” refers to the words we use and how we use them to share thoughts and needs. Language includes both receptive and expressive skills including vocabulary, word and sentence structure, grammar, comprehension, and social language.

Speech-language paraprofessionals assist speech-language pathologists in serving students’ communication needs.

School Psychologists do interventions to prevent school failure, test struggling students to uncover reasons for learning problems, provide them with appropriate interventions, consultation and interventions for special education, ensure school-wide curriculum and learning environment, crisis intervention, compliance with state and federal laws, brief counseling, provide resources for outside of school, collaboration and consulting with teachers and parents to help students with their areas of need. School Psychologists help educational teams decide if a student may be eligible for special education services by gathering data, performing assessments and interviews, gathering medical and developmental history, intellectual/cognitive functioning, emotional/social/behavioral, adaptive functioning, functional behavioral assessments; and write reports about all information gathered for problem-solving and decision making.

Occupational therapy is a health profession that works in schools to promote academic achievement and learning through specific intervention activities focused on the development of fine and visual motor skills. These skills have been identified by the IEP team to impact performance in the classroom and to prevent students from benefiting from Special Education services. The IEP team makes the decision of whether or not a student requires occupational therapy services, as not every child with a disability benefits from these services. Occupational therapy services are provided as a related service to students with need, currently accessing an Individualized Education Plan or a Section 504 plan.

Physical Therapy in the school is designed to support a student with gross motor concerns to access his/her educational environment. Physical therapists (PT) are movement experts and can help students to improve their quality of movement, ability to move in and around school and prevent injury. PT in the school will vary based on each student’s functional ability. The goal for each student is to be able to take a more active role in the learning process. PT may include improving a student’s ability to move around the school environment, participate more fully in classroom activities, maintain and change positions in the classroom, as well as manage stairs, doors, restrooms and the cafeteria.

~IESDB (Idaho Education Services for the Deaf and Blind) works in consultation with Alturas Preparatory Academy to provide services and support for students with deaf and hard of hearing and or blindness or vision impairments. Supports are designed to begin with the general education setting and may include enlarged print materials, assistive technology devices, braille equipment, staff support, orientation and mobility training, sign language instruction and interpreter services.