34—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 6, 1973 % *} ft ?M-W <V"> Xfd- : 4 : ’ ; I < '' t \ s\ V s < N ’K \ *\ Mrs. Alfred Warner.... Driving Exceptional Children To School One Of Her Contributions Farm Writer > Mrs. Charles! McSparran Governor Shapp has proclaimed next week, October 7 - 13, as Exceptional Children’s Week. What do we mean by ex ceptional children? How many do we have in our area? What do we have to offer these children? How are they educated and trained? How is the program funded? The state code says “Every child of school age is entitled to an appropriate school program. If the school district doesn’t provide it then the intermediate unit shall.” In 1971 Pennsylvania reorganized. It now has 29 in* termediate units. Lancaster* Lebanon is Unit 13. There are 22 school districts in Unit 13. At the present time we have 548 students in special education classes in Unit 13 and a total of over 6000 which includes all in the itinerant classes. Mrs. Dorothy 0. Diem, Lampeter, is administrative supervisor in charge of special class services for Lancaster- Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. She is very competent, dedicated and enthusiastic about the program and works many very long days which accounts for the fine job she has done and is doing. Unit 13 has a total staff of 200. They have six case workers who work with the individual child and decide where he should be placed, 13 psychologists who work with the various super visors, 135 professional (teachers) and 65 pari professional (teacher aides and secretaries) workers. Mrs. Wanner is a natural hostess and no one loves to be entertained more than her two-and-one-half year old grandson Andrew. Mrs. Alfred M. Wanner, Narvon RD2, drives this school student station wagon 93 miles a day to a special education class. In Intermediate Unit 13 there are 63 special education classes, each with a teacher, then there are 53 teacher aides who assist in many of the classes. Mrs. Diem says “All of our professional staff members do carry proper cer tification in appropriate area of special education. This year due to teachers not being able to get a school, we are using some college graduates for aides.” Mrs. Diem says “Our philosophy is-‘Children should be with their own age group but sometimes due to their handicap should be sheltered,’ They should be in their own school districts but sometimes due to the severity of their handicap they must be in special education classes ” The services are listed under Consultative Itinerant Basis and on Full Time Basis. Consultative Itinerant Basis services are: (1) the school psycological services; (2) the mental health services; (3) the school case worker ser vices; (4) programs for visuallv impaired; (5) speech clinicians; (6) hearing clinicians; (numbers 4, 5 and 6 benefit many children) (7) program for mentally gifted; (8) consultant service to district special classes; (9) in-service education to district staff; (10) « the work experience program of diversified vocations with vo tech; (11) the itinerant learning disabilities resource program. Full Time Basis services are: (1) secondary learning (Usabilities resource rooms; (2) learning disability classes; (3) pre-school classes (there are two) multi-handicapped classes. They are in them for a short time for diagnostic service, then referred to a class. Unit 13 has nine classes for “Trainables”. There are several at Mifflin Center which is located in Mifflin School in Lancaster. There are two classes at Leola; (4) detention home class (they operate for boys and girls detained by the law. Unit 13 uses Barnes, HaU which is located at 900 East King Street, Lan caster. Unit 13 provides the education program for them but Lancaster County Com missioners provide the building); (5) adjustment classes for socially maladjusted and emotionally disturbed—nine classes; (6) deaf classes-operate with Pennsylvania School of Deaf— six classes in Martin Mylin School and one at Lampeter Elementary School; (7) trainable and multi-handicapped trainable retarded classes (they never become totally independent. They must stay in school till 21 years of age. In the case of the trainable students who can stay in the Trainable classes only till 14 years of age they then go to an adolescent trainable class. After they are 16 the administrator hopes to get them in a shelter work class. This year they have some students at Goodwill In dustries of Lancaster County, located in Lancaster city and some at Lebanon County Workshop which is located in the Cornwall District. These students are still under the guidance of a teacher and yet getting some valuable experience in in dustry.); (8) pre-school program for hearing impaired-project C H I L D; (9) physically han- dicapped classes (three classrooms for them); (10) pilot secondary brain injured vo-tech program lat Willow Street vo tech for secondary pupils); (11) summer occupational ex ploration for secondary educable retarded students (in cooperation with vo-tech schools and operating only in summer). All funding for these programs comes from the state. There are, however, many independent pre school nursery programs, which are operated mostly in churches, which are not funded by the state. There are instances where unusual students must travel long distances due to their par ticular need. All elementary special education students in Catharine Wanner's busy fingers knit sweaters for gifts in her moments of relaxation. One of her prized antiques is this melodeon. I ' > r}K<ik . ■ Mrs. Wanner especially likes her Grecian pitcher but has many cherished ones in her collection. Lebanon County come to Lititz. There are two secondary ad justment classes in Eastern Lebanon High School. There are three classes for physically handicapped. There are instances where unusual students must travel long distances due to their par ticular need. All elementary special education students in Lebanon County come to Lititz. There are two secondary ad justment classes in Eastern Lebanon High School. There are three classes for physically handicapped. There are 75 vehicles owned by 11 contractors who transport these special education students in Intermediate Unit 13 and every student is transported door to door from his or home to the school. William Sweigart owns 36 vans and station wagons which transport the children to special education schools in Lancaster County. One of his 36 drivers is Mrs. AlfredM. (Catharine J.) Wanner, Narvon RD2, who is the wife of a dairy farmer. This is her eleventh year to drive a station wagon to Leola Trainable Class which is located on the second floor of Leola Memorial Building. She hauls six children, between the ages of six and 12 years, this year and travels 93 miles a day taking them to school and back to their homes again. She spends about three and one-half hours a day driving. She covers the eastern central section of Lan caster County. Her area is coded D-2. D stands for Conestoga Valley and 2 stands for the two classes in Conestoga Valley. This coding is necessary to briefly state the area and the schools wheri necessary, particularly for school closings in snow and similar emergencies. Mrs. Wanner is also a sub stitute teacher’s aide for the same school. Mrs. Diem says “Mrs. Wanner is a very fine driver and a very helpful and successful teacher’s aide.” Mrs. Wanner was associated with public school cafeterias six years prior to driving special education students to school. She started in 1957 as the manager of the White Horse School cafeteria and worked there two years. She fed about 50 students of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades of the public school who were on the first floor of the building and seventh and eighth grades of Amish students a day who were on the second floor. Following that she was manager of the Pequea Valley High School cafeteria for four years. She had five helpers plus some extra help at times to serve the meals there. They fed approximately 500 students from seventh to 12th grades. Catherine, better knows as “Kitty”, is the daughter of Mrs. Viola and the late Corson Stephens. She grew up on their farm at Sandy Hill on Route 340. It is located in West Cain Township in Chester County. It was a general farm with a small dairy and about 300 laying hens. She helped with the chickens, the care of the lawn and the housework. She graduated from Coatesville High School then worked in the service department of Sears, Roebuck & Co. at Coatesville. After she was married she helped with the farm work and cleaned the dairy utensils. She still drives a tractor in the field sometimes. Wanners farm 450 acres of ground—ll 3 acres at their farm on Wanner Road, Salisbury Township, where they live, 122 acres on their farm at Sandy Hill (Continued From Page 36) a I- A*
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