The St. Agatha Catholic School Special Education Department serves two very distinct populations. One, through our Padre Pio Program,  strives to serve students who demonstrate average or above average intellectual ability, who have no severe physical handicaps, who are not classified as mentally handicapped or emotionally disturbed, but who may have academic deficits in one or more of the following areas: reading, mathematics, language arts and/or writing. Our second group, in our Mother Teresa Program strives to serve the educable mentally handicapped and/or developmentally delayed.   These students have no emotional and/or severe physical handicaps.

 

We are very proud to be the pioneers in the area of learning variances amongst the other schools in the Archdiocese of Miami. While many of our schools have part-time “pull-out” programs to help students with learning issues, both of our special education program offerings are full-time and self-contained. The Padre Pio Program began during the 1999-2000 academic year with four students. Now we boast of an enrollment of 36 children in three classes. This year we began the Mother Teresa Program, the ONLY general education school in the Archdiocese of Miami to serve the educable mentally handicapped.

 

Each class has a full-time, teacher, certified in the appropriate area of special education, and a full-time teacher assistant. We take advantage of every opportunity to integrate our special education students with the general population.  This occurs mostly in the areas of physical education, music, and art.  Our maximum class size is 12.

 

We begin accepting applications for admission the first week of February each year.  Parents are asked to provide a copy of the complete psychoeducational battery of tests, the public school matrix (if applicable) and any other documents that would help the administration determine whether the needs of your child can be met by our program. Individual interviews with the teacher may also be requested.  St. Agatha School does accept state funding for special needs students through the McKay Scholarship Program.

 

 

              

 

Plan of Study

 

The Padre Pio program plan of studies is based on the Sunshine State Standards and any appropriate modifications needed by the individual student.  The content of the curriculum includes, but is not limited to the following:

 

a)      religious formation

b)      reading competencies

c)      writing competencies

d)      communication competencies

e)      language competencies

f)        mathematical competencies        

g)      learning skills and strategies

h)      social and personal strategies

 

Eligibility Criteria

 

The eligibility criteria for the Padre Pio program includes, but is not limited to, these points:

a)      grade/age criteria determined on need

b)      review of social, psychological, medical and achievement data evidence of academic achievement, which is significantly below the student’s level of functioning documented by a psychologist’s evaluation. (discrepancy between IQ and academic achievement)

c)      documented evidence which indicates ineffective interventions

d)      documented evidence of a processing disorder in one or more of the following areas: reading, language, writing, and arithmetic

e)      documented psychological examination performed by a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist

f)        documented evidence that learning problems are not due to other disabling conditions

 

 

 

 

 

Plan of Study

 

The Mother Teresa Program is based on the Sunshine State Stand Performance Objectives for elementary Student receiving a special diploma.  The content of our curriculum will include, but will not be limited to the following:

 

a)      Religious Formation

b)      Functional Mathematics

c)      Functional Language Arts (Receptive/Expressive Language)

d)      Functional Computer Skills

e)      Vocational Skills

f)        Daily Independent Living Skills

g)      Social Skills

 

 

 

Eligibility Criteria

 

The eligibility criteria for the Mother Teresa Program includes but is not limited to the following:

 

a)      A psycho-educational evaluation by a licensed psychologist

b)      A chronological age of eight or higher

c)      An intelligence quotient of 60 or higher

d)      Toilet trained