HANCOCK COUNTY — Special-needs students in Southern Hancock schools who get focused instruction at school in another district will be heading back to their home district next school year.
Katy Eastes, director of student services, recently updated the school board on the change, telling the board district officials feel they’re at a point where their own programs are able to provide instruction. Eastes said the district will not continue its contract with Mt. Vernon schools, whose Facilitating Improved Social Habits, or FISH, program, has assisted SH students.
The behavior resource class enrolled fewer than 10 Southern Hancock elementary-age students this year.
While Eastes noted Mt. Vernon has been an amazing partner, it has always been their goal to serve SH students in a location that is as geographically close to their homes and the community as possible. Plus, the move will save the district an estimated $4,000.
“Mt. Vernon has taken the best possible care of our students who needed more support,” Eastes said.
Laura Durig, director of special education for Mt. Vernon, said they are excited SH is now able to provide support classes for their students, as transitions for their students will become much more seamless when the services are provided in their own community.
Southern Hancock officials plan to take strategies they’ve learned from the Mt. Vernon FISH program as they build their own elementary STRIDE program. Acronym stands for Students Taking Responsibility in Developing Excellence. Southern Hancock already has a STRIDE program at New Palestine High School.
“The cost is virtually the same,” Eastes said.
Wes Anderson, district communications director, said Southern Hancock is better equipped to serve the special needs of most students than it was when the area’s special-education cooperative, Hancock Madison Shelby Educational Services, dissolved in 2017.
“We used Mt. Vernon mostly for students who had some behavioral disorders,” Anderson said. “We’re creating a couple of different programs to be able to serve those kids.”
The district’s kindergarten students through sixth grade will be served in a STRIDE classroom to be housed at Sugar Creek Elementary, while the STRIDE classroom at the high school will serve students in seventh grade through 12th grade. District officials said the decision to get the SH students back home has been sometime in the making.
“Our administrators and teachers are constantly re-evaluating our programming for students so that we can best meet their needs,” Eastes said. “We are very excited for this small group of students to return to learning in Southern Hancock and we will continue to work with other districts and community resources as needed to meet the needs of all of our students.”
Officials are not yet certain whether they will have to hire another special education teacher to handle the increase of students coming back into the district.
