Summit Atlas Student Support Services
Special Education Program
Child Find
Child Find is a process designed to locate children, birth through age 21, with a suspected disability to evaluate and identify a need for special education and related services.
Summit Public Schools conducts specific activities for the purposes of locating, evaluating and identifying students ages birth to twenty-one with suspected disabilities. Activities for Child Find are directed at:
- Children enrolled at Summit Public Schools: Atlas;
- Children who have contacted Summit Public Schools: Atlas regarding Child Find;
- Highly mobile children (such as homeless, foster care and migrant children);
- Children who have a disability and may need special education services, even though they are advancing from grade to grade; and,
- Children at home or home-schooled if enrolled in the Summit Public Schools: Atlas.
Approximately ten to fifteen percent of all children have a disability which hinders their educational development. Early identification of disabilities assists parents, students and schools in the design of appropriate educational services.
Child Find Process
Once a Child Find appointment is scheduled either with the Executive Director or Special Education Program Specialist, parents will be sent an appointment confirmation. Once the screening is completed, one of three things will happen for each child and his/her family.
For some children, their screening will indicate that a full developmental assessment to determine eligibility for special education services is not necessary.
For some children the screening may indicate a need to re-screen the child in six months to determine he/she is continuing to develop adequately. In these cases, parents will be provided with community resources and home program suggestions to strengthen any areas of minor weakness.
Other children for which the screening determines that future assessment is required, will then be referred on to a formal, in-depth special education evaluation. This special education evaluation will determine if a child is eligible to receive special education services. This may be delivered in the form of single services, such as speech therapy, or through receiving services in the Special Education setting.
For general questions regarding Special Education, please contact Ashley Pimentel at (253) 987-1535.
Child Find for School Age Children
If your child is in school and you believe a disability may impair his or her educational performance, please contact the Executive Director at school or the Program Specialist for Special Education at (253) 987-1535.
Highly Capable Program
Washington State law, students identified for Highly Capable Program services are those who “perform or show potential for performing at significantly advanced academic levels compared with others of their age, experiences, or environments. Outstanding abilities are seen within students’ general intellectual aptitudes, specific academic abilities, and/or creative productivities within a specific domain.”
At Summit, students who participate in the highly capable program will have time each day to work on their Personalized Learning Plans where they have the tools, time and resources to drive their own learning at their own pace.
In addition, highly capable students participate in electives where students get to select courses that align to their personal passions and career interests.
