Specialized District Programs
Specialized Programs in Columbia Public Schools
Columbia Public Schools is dedicated to helping students with disabilities by providing specialized programs throughout the district. These programs provide more intensive support for students who are not making sufficient progress in a traditional school setting, as decided by their Individualized Education Program (IEP) team.
Program Placement
After the IEP team decides what supports and programs a student needs, they may recommend a specialized classroom. These classrooms are in different schools across the district. The district will choose the school location based on:
- Student profile
- Classroom availability and staffing
- Peer match considerations
- Proximity to home, when feasible
CPS regularly evaluates and adjusts program locations to better serve students across more schools, allowing greater access to specialized supports closer to home.
Parent Involvement
Parents are invited and welcome to be involved in their student's district classroom special events and parties per CPS Board Policy. Check with your building administrator for guidelines.
Community Outings
Community Outings are an integral part to a district classroom. Community outings provide age-appropriate, regular and systematic instruction that occurs in various community settings using naturally occurring materials and situations to help students generalize skills. Unlike field trips. community outings are considered an extension of the classroom environment and therefore parent participation is allowable only for field trips and not for community outings.
Frequency of community outings varies by classroom but occur with increasing frequency and vocational focus as students progress into secondary school.