Special Education
Mission Statement
The Mount Carmel Area Special Education Department strives to educate students with special needs in the least restrictive setting with collaborative effort to ensure student success.
Surveys for Students and Parents
The Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education (BSE), monitors all school districts and charter schools in the state at least once every six years to ensure that they are complying with federal and state regulations for special education. Your school district/charter school will be reviewed this year. As part of this monitoring, the BSE is seeking parent opinions about the special education services being provided. In addition to surveying parents, we are also interested in hearing directly from students about their educational experience. If your child is 14 years of age or older we invite them to complete a student survey. Although parents and students 14 years of age or older are not required to participate in the survey, the BSE encourages them to do so. Please click on the appropriate link below to participate in the survey. Your participation is great;y appreciated.
About Us
The Mount Carmel Area School District, along with the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, and other contracted agencies, provides services for children indentified as having special needs. The need for special education services is based upon data gathered by a multi-disciplinary team and reviewed by an Individual Education Planning (IEP) Team. The Special Education Program at Mount Carmel Area is a multi-disciplinary effort, involving many professionals completing independent and overlapping tasks. Parents of the child recommended for special education are involved throughout the screening and evaluation process, and are encouraged and expected to be part of the development of an individual education program for their child. The Mount Carmel Area School District offers the following special education services within our district or within outside agencies:
autism, intellectual disabilities, learning disability, emotional disturbance, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, hearing impairment, deafness, deaf-blindness, speech or language impairment, other health impairment, orthopedic impairment, and multiple disabilities.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires Pennsylvania to ensure that the total number of students assessed in each subject using the PASA does not exceed one percent of the total number of all students in the state assessed on the statewide assessments. Each local educational agency (LEA) must submit justification to BSE if it anticipates that more than 1.0 % of its students enrolled in grades 3-8 and 11 will be assessed using the PASA. A list of LEAs who anticipate exceeding the threshold will be made publicly available on the PDE website, in accordance with 34 CFR 200.6 (c)(3) regulations. LEAs must also make the document publicly available upon request, removing any personally identifiable information. The Mount Carmel Area School District anticipates exceeding the 1.0 percent threshold for PASA participation for the 2021-22 testing cycle. The necessary justification information has been submitted to the Bureau of Special Education. Questions on the Mount Carmel Area School District participation rates should be directed to Nicole Lucas Edmondson, Special Education Director, at 570-339-1500 or edmondsonn@mca.k12.pa.us.
Special Education Department
600 West Fifth Street
Mt. Carmel, PA 17851
(570) 339-1500 Ext. 3145 or 3149