Waterford Education Cooperative:

Waterford Education Cooperative was created in 2005 after the dissolution of the Western Racine County Special Education Services. The cooperative consists of these surrounding area schools - North Cape, Washington/Caldwell, Waterford Graded and Waterford Union High School.  

All disability services are offered at the individual schools except the early childhood program for children 3 and 4 years old. Children 4 years old will also be services at their home schools.

Educating Young Children with Disabilities

Each school district in Wisconsin is responsible for providing a continuum of Special Education and Related Services to Children with Disabilities and who need special education. Children are evaluated to determine if they met the one of the state's eligibility criteria. Special education and related services may provide consultation to staff, direct services to the child, training related to the disability, and other services that are identified in the child's Individualized Education Program.

The cooperative offers special education services in these areas:

Specific learning disability - Specific learning disability (SLD) means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or perform mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, motor disabilities, cognitive disabilities, emotional disturbance, cultural factors, environmental, or economic disadvantage. When someone suspects a student has a SLD, a referral for a special education evaluation is made. A team, which includes the student's parents, conducts the evaluation and decides if the student meets state and federal eligibility criteria for special education. (serviced by a licensed teacher)

Emotional behavioral disability-Emotional behavioral disability (EBD) means a disorder where a child exhibits social, emotional or behavioral functioning that so departs from generally accepted, age appropriate ethnic or cultural norms that it adversely affects a child's academic progress, social relationships, personal adjustment, classroom adjustment, self-care or vocational skills. (serviced by a licensed teacher)

Cognitive disability- Cognitive disability (CD) is a disorder for students who exhibit significant delays in measured intelligence, adaptive functioning, and academic functioning.
(serviced by a licensed teacher)

Speech & language (serviced by a speech and language pathologist)
Orthopedic impairment (serviced by either a licensed occupational and physical therapist)
Visual impairment (serviced by a licensed visual teacher)
Hearing impairment (serviced by a licensed hearing teacher)
Traumatic brain injury (serviced by a licensed teacher)
Significant development delay (for children under age 6)(serviced by a licensed teacher)
Other health impairment (serviced by a licensed teacher)
Autism (serviced by a licensed teacher)

Programming For All Students
A child who has been evaluated and found to meet the eligibility criteria and needs special education and related services has an individual education program (IEP) developed. The IEP is based on the individual needs of a particular student and the placement for the child is developed to implement the IEP in the least restrictive environment.

Students with disabilities are educated using a variety of educational program options according to the individual needs of each student. These may include self-contained programming, individual and small group programming in regular/special education classrooms and through cooperative/collaborative teaching arrangements between regular and special education teachers.

Early Childhood Special Education
Child Find: School districts and other early childhood programs are working together through informed referral networks to identify children who may need additional developmental support and to provide information to parents about their child's development.

Waterford Education Cooperative offers child find opportunities several times a year. Please contact the North Cape School office for further information at (262) 835-4069.

About Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards:

It's More Than Content: Early Learning Standards
As early childhood education continues to rise to the top of federal, state, and local policy makers' agendas as a "tool" to improve children's academic performance in the later grades, many researchers and experts within the field are raising cautionary flags to ensure that policy makers understand the uniqueness that exists within the early childhood years. These stakeholders want to ensure that policy makers do not simply push down K-12 education reforms for the early years.

Children who meet the developmental expectations outlined in the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards will be prepared to master Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards.