Specialty Teams
Harnett County's Exceptional Children's Program currently has four specialty teams to support schools as they plan for students with unique needs. Our specialty teams are as follows:
Assistive Technology Team
The Assistive Technology Team is made up of Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Pathologists, Educators, and a Physical Therapist. We collaborate with related service providers at individual school sites to identify student needs, make recommendations, and ensure carry over of technology use and strategies. The Assistive Technology Team:
Observes students in the school environment and assesses low and high tech needs
Interviews teachers and identifies their areas of concern
Identifies the student's strengths and weaknesses
Considers the student's cognition level and receptive and expressive language
Assesses and observes student active range of motion, positioning, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills
Works to identify which low or high technology strategies might be helpful for students to function more independently in the school environment.
We attempt to use classroom resources that are readily available to our students. If these resources are not providing the needed assistance, we will use resources from our assistive technology library.
Autism Team
The mission of the Harnett County Schools Autism Team is to provide our students with autism and their teachers a safe, structured learning environment, where all can be empowered and learn critical academic and functional skills that will lead to positive adult outcomes.
We offer on-site coaching and problem-solving assistance to individual teachers, as well as professional development and training for school faculty. We offer assistance with IEP goal development/writing and data collection. We maintain a resource lending library with 75+ titles. We help coordinate and facilitate continuing education opportunities for teachers seeking professional development opportunities specific to autism.
Behavior Support Team
The Behavior Support Team provides direct services to students eligible for PRC 029 services. PRC 029 is a special grant that provides funding for direct support services to EC students most at risk for behavioral difficulties in the school setting. Our Behavior Support Team also provides consultation to schools regarding behavioral issues on a limited basis.
Feeding Team
The Feeding team is comprised of speech/language pathologists, a nurse, an occupational and physical therapist, a registered dietician, and a special education coach/teacher. The role of the feeding team is to evaluate children who have eating problems and to develop mealtime plans in collaboration with the child’s IEP/IFSP team or 504 team.