Approximately 14% of Hilliard Schools’ student population has been identified with a disability. Many students with disabilities’ needs can best be met by classroom teachers who differentiate instruction with the support of intervention specialists. Hilliard City Schools is committed to providing students with special needs specially designed instruction and services with real-world experiences, accommodations, and access to the curriculum, targeting those skills necessary to prepare them for tomorrow.
The district believes every child can learn and provides services and supports based on the least restrictive continuum. District intervention specialists and related services staff work cooperatively with classroom teachers and other school personnel to ensure a common understanding and response to all students with special needs. The district provides students with disabilities a free and appropriate education and follows state and federal guidelines for students with disabilities.
- Autism
- Emotional Disturbance
- Hearing Impaired (including deafness)
- Intellectual Disability
- Multiple Disabilities
- Orthopedic Impairment
- Other Health Impairment (Minor or Major)
- Preschooler with a Developmental Delay (ages 3-5 only)
- Specific Learning Disability
- Speech or Language Impairment
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Visual Impaired (including blindness)
Consultation – Licensed intervention specialists provide assistance to and collaboration with the general education classroom teacher, developing instructional or behavioral strategies for students with disabilities, selecting and/or developing instructional materials, and assisting in the development of appropriate classroom and instructional accommodations and/or modifications of the general education curriculum.
Direct – Licensed intervention specialists provide specially designed instruction and evaluation of instruction based on the general and/or functional curriculum in areas identified in the student’s IEP. Instructional methodologies include, but are not limited to, differentiated instruction, modeling, guided practice, multi-sensory instruction, corrective feedback, progress monitoring, a provision in small group settings.
Support – Licensed intervention specialists provide instruction in collaboration with the general education classroom teacher that supports the student in the instruction of the general curriculum in areas identified on the student’s IEP. The provided supplemental instruction focuses on assisting students in becoming independent in the “process” of learning through the use of compensatory strategies, intervention support, and study/organizational techniques.
Related Services
Related Services are supportive services required to assist students with disabilities to benefit from special education. These services may include, but are not limited to:
- Adapted Physical Education Services
- Audiological Services
- Interpreter Services
- Occupational Therapy Services
- Orientation & Mobility Services
- Physical Therapy Services
- School Psychological Services
- Speech and Language Services
- Specialized Transportation
- Transition Services
- Jeff Sloat, Hilliard Schools Parent Mentor 614-921-4002
- Hilliard City Schools Special Needs Preschool
- Hilliard City Schools Dyslexia Information
- ODE: A Guide to Parent Rights in Special Education
- Ohio Department of Education: Office for Exceptional Children 614-466-2650
- The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities 740-382-5452; Toll-free: 844-382-5452
- Special Olympics
Debbie Cochran
Director of Special Education
Support Staff
Jamie Lennox, Assistant Director of Special Education
Special Education Coordinators
Deana Adams
Davidson High School, Weaver Middle School, Alton Darby-Darby Creek Learning Campus
Amy Case
Darby High School, Heritage Middle School, Avery, Ridgewood Innovation Campus
Mindy Colburn
HCSD Preschool, Station, Tharp, Hoffman Trails, Washington
Shelli Miller
Beacon, Britton-Norwich Learning Campus, Brown, Crossing, Scioto Darby
Sabra Qualls
Bradley High School, Memorial Middle School, Horizon, JW Reason
Brian Hart
HCSD Preschool Principal
