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WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | AUGUST 11, 2021
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Special education program expands to Buckeye
BY LAUREN SERRATO
West Valley View Staff Writer
T
he school year is underway, and a Liberty Elementary School District school has welcomed a nationally accredited special education program to its campus. Freedom Elementary School is the first school in the West Valley to be a satellite campus for ACCEL. The private, nonprofit organization provides innovative, individualized and comprehensive education, life skills, behavioral and transition services to students with a wide range of abilities and challenges including autism; intellectual disabilities; learning disorders; and emotional, physical and health impairments. Two classrooms at Freedom Elementary will provide ACCEL’s services to
students K-8 for the entire West Valley. Easily put, it’s a private school within a public school. “We’re excited to move to Buckeye, because we’re able to keep these students now with their peers, with their siblings and their traditional school district,” said Jessie Bustamante, ACCEL’s chief advancement office. “We’re going to be able to kind of provide the services to them, where we want them to be and really want them to stay.” The two classrooms will be available to the community, with programs that provide students with educational, behavioral, vocational and therapeutic services. Bustamante said the classrooms have a high staff-to-student ratio, allowing for individualization in academics from functional to grade-level education pro-
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grams, vocational and independent living skills programs. Physical, occupational, speech and language, music therapy services, adaptive aquatics, vision and nursing services are available to students based upon individual needs are all available within ACCEL’s program. “When you have kids who have severe levels of needs, it’s really important that they get the support services that they need,” said Toni Reynolds, Freedom Elementary School’s principal. “It’s very difficult for any one school district to be able to provide the level of service for students that have the most need. And so being able to have that available on the west side for kids who have that level of need — and there aren’t that many, but the ones that do ACCEL’s program, the only Arizona special education need it — it’s nice to be able to school program to achieve accreditation from the National Commission for Accreditation of Special provide that.” With 38 years of experience Education Services, will be offered at Freedom Elementary School in Buckeye. (Photo courtesy of ACCEL) serving individuals with special the growth of ACCEL, she said it will needs, 400 individuals served each year and five campuses, ACCEL greatly help the Buckeye school with its is the only Arizona special education students and special education programs. “It will help the teachers and staff to school program to achieve accreditation from the National Commission for kind of see how to work with children Accreditation of Special Education Ser- who have unique needs or unique chalvices and recognition as a School of Ex- lenges,” she said. “It will help them to see our staff once cellence from the National Association with these children, and then to be able of Special Education Teachers. One of the program’s goals is to pro- to replicate that in their own classrooms vide students with the skills and opportu- for any kind of students.” nity to return to their regular classroom. Additionally, the program is a benefit “The curriculum is going to look a for the community, Bustamante said, as little bit different,” Bustamante said. there isn’t a similar program in the area. “We’re going to focus more on behav- ACCEL allows for families to keep their iors and making sure that they are ready children close to home for a lower price to learn. There will be a class, for exam- than programs farther east. ple, all about STEM, but it’s not going “For staff and the administrators of the to be fifth grade STEM-level education; school, they’re thrilled because they can it might be a basic STEM-level learning keep these kids in their own school,” she to get them ready, ideally to go back to said. their regular classroom.” ACCEL...continued on page 21 While this expansion is beneficial for
