Pleasanton Independent School District's new special education team is looking forward to the new school year as the district welcomes Janice Knott, Master of Education, as its new director of special education.
She began her career as a teaching assistant in the special education classroom.
“When my kids were in school, I went to school with them, and that's where I fell in love with special education,” Knott said. “Ever since I've been in education, I've been involved in the special education process. Whether I was a principal's supervisor, a classroom teacher, an assistant principal or a principal, special education has always been near and dear to my heart.”
Born to a disabled father who lost an arm and a leg in Vietnam, Knott grew up watching his father overcome challenges in life because of his disability, so when the position became available, she knew it was the place for her.
Knott joined PISD last summer when her daughter and grandchildren moved to the district. She also has a son with Asperger syndrome who will finish his computer science degree in December.
She has held a variety of roles over the years, including chief academic officer and vice president, giving her perspective from many disciplines, and she also trains other staff in PISD.
“For me it's about helping them really understand how they can best serve their kids and making sure they have everything they need to do that,” Knott said.
Nate Kindig is the district's licensed school psychologist.
“I've been interested in this field since I was a child, and going through the assessment process to understand how my brain works, how I learn, and the social-emotional skills I can use to further develop myself. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to do that as a child,” Kindig said.
As he grew older, he began to think how great it would be to help his students realize that about themselves.
This is his sixth year in the field, including graduate school and practice, having attended Trinity University in San Antonio for graduate school and spent the past five years working in various neighborhoods in the San Antonio metropolitan area.
As he entered his fifth year, he began to wonder if he should seek out a bit of a change. It had been a great experience for him to see the different ways special education and assessments were handled, but he missed the strong community feel that Pleasanton offered. Knott, he said, made it hard for him not to work in PISD.
“I really enjoy the team she has led and we work hard together,” Kindig said.
Knott explained that in public education, special education is about meeting the academic and educational needs of students who require assistance in a variety of capacities.
“The needs are so wide-ranging, so it's important to give kids the support they need to be as successful as possible, based on their abilities. For me it's always about finding the capabilities of my students and being able to support them with the tools they need to be successful in the classroom,” Knott said.
Because students have a wide range of types and severity of disabilities, it is important to provide equal opportunities for all students and ensure they receive the support they need to be successful.
The special education program serves students ages 3 to 22, and services are also offered to children ages 0 to 3 through a program called ECI on Camino Real.
Parents can ask to have their children referred at any time, and the process involves collecting feedback, analysing data and evaluating.
Knott emphasized that their staff is an extension of the campus.
“Each campus has a para-teacher who is here every day and gives his all to his team. They are dedicated to their students and their team. The special education team is much larger than 23 of us,” Knott said. “And that's the important part, because we support the people who are actually working one-on-one with the students. So our job is to help them do what they need to do for all the kids that are in the special education program.”
As a school district, we are required to provide all the services a student needs, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, support from teachers who are hearing impaired, specialists in visual impairments, orientation and mobility, and speech services.
“We're very fortunate this year in that the majority of those people are actually employees of the school district, so we're only contracting for occupational therapy and physical therapy,” Knott said. “Everyone else is in Pleasanton because they're employed by the school district. We're also very fortunate because our associated services personnel, our occupational therapists and physical therapists, are the same people who previously served our kids through the co-op, so they're going to be seeing the same people.”
They offer support to parents in a variety of ways and Knott is always available to talk to parents. She has started with parent conferences and has participated with parents in ARDs, which are a great way to meet with parents one-on-one.
Upcoming trainings will also be available for parents. Knott plans to have opportunities for parents to visit, attend lunches and learn, but also offer evening training to fit everyone's schedules.
“I've spoken to some parents and they felt like a simple conversation about what special education is and what my rights are as a parent was enough. To me, that's really important because parent advocates are a powerful tool for me and I want to get parents as involved as possible because we are a partnership. We are a team,” Knott said.
She added, “There's an individualized education team that supports students, an entire team on an IEP. Every child has a team of people that make decisions for that child. So I want to build those partnerships and build strong relationships between the school district, the parents and myself.”
For Kindig, working directly with students and explaining everything to parents is the most rewarding part and what motivates him – it motivates him to work harder.
Knott added that it's all about the kids.
“We do this because we love kids and we want them to be successful and have great lives outside of school,” Knott said. “When they graduate, we want to set them up to be successful. In education, it should always be about the student and making sure we're giving them the best.”
Visually impaired staff and orientation/mobility staff work together at Special Olympics.
“We're planning on hosting the event here this year and in the future we'd like to get official Special Olympics certification as well so the kids can travel and go to local events and things like that. We want to go to as many events as we can. That's my goal,” Knott said.
Once established, they can start thinking outside the box, such as hosting teacher-kid games.
“When you're building a program, the possibilities are really endless. And I feel like I'm well supported. If I have an idea like that, I can present it and they'll say, 'OK. Go ahead and try it. Sounds good.'”
They are excited to share this program with everyone. They have had a very busy summer, Knott said.
“Everybody's here and we're all working hard. It's fun to see everything coming together. We've done a lot of training before school started to get ourselves and the team in tune. So it's a really exciting time. And now that the kids are here, it's perfect.”