Meg Thurman, Director of Special Education

102 E. Fifth Street  PO Box 80                Mackinaw, Illinois   61755

Telephone:  1-309-359-5480            Fax:  1-309-359-5603

Our goal is to enhance the educational experiences of all students with unique learning needs by providing a broad range of high quality programs and services.

Director’s Welcome:

Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year, an exciting time to be involved with education.  We now have the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 04’) federal regulations and the Illinois special education rules/regulations.  No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and state-wide regulations have now been aligned to promote positive student outcomes for all students.  Designing an instructional intervention from data, based on student performance is an integral component of IDEA ’04 and the newly revised state rules/regulations 

One of the changes in IDEA ’04 that influence the way services are provided to students is called “Response to Intervention” (RTI).  RTI is a component of a school-wide system of assisting all students, including those who are “at-risk” learners and those who have a disability.  It is an intervention system that better enables all staff to work together to assist students experiencing school difficulties.  Additionally, RTI is embedded in the federal and state special education rules.  It is also identified as an alternative to traditional learning disability identification and eligibility.  

Last school year Dee-Mack was recognized as being on the cutting edge in the implementation of this new service delivery program, presenting at two state-wide conventions.  This year the district continues to be acknowledged and will be presenting at a nation-wide conference.  Currently, early intervening service needs are identified through an early identification screener called “Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills” (DIBELS) which assess all students from Kindergarten through Sixth grade.  Identified at-risk students are then placed into research based instructional intervention groups that meet regularly throughout the week.  This process of identification and service delivery continue to be fine-tuned and expanded at the turn of each new school year.