A wide variety of Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Services are available at Sumter County Public Schools. We strive to meet the needs of each and every student in order to provide them with an equal-opportunity academic experience. 

         ESE Services:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder ( ASD): is defined to be a range of pervasive developmental disorders that adversely affects a student's functioning in the need for specially designed instruction and related services.  
• Deaf or Hard of Hearing ( DHH): A student who is deaf or hard of hearing has hearing loss aided or unaided, that impacts the processing of linguistic information and which adversely affects performance in the educational environment. The degree of loss may range from mild to profound. 
• Dual-Sensory Impairment (DSI): A student who has dual-sensory impairments affecting both vision and hearing, the combination of which causes a serious impairment in the abilities to acquire information, communicate, or function within the environment, or who has a degenerative condition which will lead to such an impairment. 
• Emotional/Behavioral Disability (E/BD): A student with an emotional/behavioral disability has persistent (is not sufficiently responsive to implemented evidence-based interventions) and consistent emotional or behavioral responses that adversely affect performance in the educational environment that cannot be attributed to age, culture, gender or ethnicity. 
• Hospital Homebound( HHB): A homebound or hospitalized student is a student who has a medically diagnosed physical or psychiatric condition which is acute or catastrophic in nature, or a chronic illness, or a repeated intermittent illness due to persisting medical problem and that confines the student to home or hospital, and restricts activities for an extended period of time. 
• Intellectual Disabilities (IND): An intellectual disability is defined as significantly below average general intellectual and adaptive functioning manifested during the developmental period, with significant delays in academic skills. 
• Language Impairment (LI): Language impairments are disorders of language that interfere with communication, adversely affect performance and/or functioning in the student's typical learning environment, and result in the need for exceptional student education.
• Occupational Therapy as a related service (OT):Occupational therapy means services provided by a licensed occupational therapist or licensed occupational therapy assistant and includes improving, developing, or restoring functions impaired or lost through illness, injury, or deprivation; improving ability to perform tasks for independent functioning if functions are impaired or lost; and preventing, through early intervention, initial or further impairment or loss of function. 
• Other Health Impairment (OHI): Other Health Impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment that is due to chronic or acute health problems.  
• Orthopedic Impairment (OI): Orthopedic impairment means a severe skeletal, muscular, or neuromuscalar impairment. The term includes impairments resulting from congenital anomalies, and impairments resulting from other causes. 
• Physical Therapy as a related service (PT): Physical Therapy means services provided by a qualified physical therapist responsible for the assessment and provision of school-based physical therapy as a related service. 
• Specific Learning Disabilities( SLD): A specific learning disability is defined as a disorder in one or more of the basic learning processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest in significant difficulties affecting the ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematics.  
• Speech Impairment ( SI): Speech impairments are disorders of speech sounds, fluency, or voice that interfere with communication, adversely affect performance and/or functioning in the educational environment, and result in the need for exceptional student education. 
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): A traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects educational performance. 
• Vision Impairment (VI): Students who are visually impaired include: students who are blind, have no vision or little potential for using vision; students who have low vision; students who have a visual impairment after best correction that adversely affects their educational performance; or students who have a progressive condition that will most likely result in a visual impairment or no vision after best correction. 

         Resources:

• Academic Advisement Flyers- What Students and Parents Need to Know (Revised September 2003)
• A Parent's Introduction to Exceptional Student Education in Florida
• A Parent's Guide to Access Points, Access Courses and Resources
• Transition from Early Steps at Age Three
• Pathways to Success: College and Career Readiness
• Florida Statutes and State Board of Education Rules: Excerpts for Special Programs (Vol. I-B). 2009
• Notice of Procedural Safeguards for Parents of Students with Disabilities
• Aviso de Salvaguardas Procedimentales para Padres de Estudiantes con Discapacidades
• Evaluations for Special Education Services: Information for Parents – 2010
• Center for Parent Information and Resources
• Accommodations and Modifications – What Parents Need to Know
• Project 10-Transition Planning for Students with Disabilities
• Use of Seclusion and Restraint on Students with Disabilities: Information for Parents Brochure
• Exceptional Education Plan
• Florida Diagnostic Learning System (FDLRS)
• Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD)
• Vocational Rehabilitation: FLDOE Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
• Center for Autism and Related Disabilities
• Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilties
• Central Florida Parent Center
• Florida Inclusion Network
• Florida School for the Deaf and Blind

504 Plans
A Parent and Teacher Guide to Section 504

As a parent of a student with a 504 Accommodations Plan, which is valid for more than six months, you may be eligible for a McKay Scholarship to request a different public school within your district, request a public school in an adjacent school district or receive a scholarship for your child to attend a participating private school. For more information, please visit https://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/ or call the School Choice Hotline (toll-free): 1-800-447-1636.

Gifted Student Education

• Parent Flyer: What is Exceptional Education for Children Who Are Gifted?
• Procedural Safeguards for Exceptional Students Who are Gifted
• Salvaguardas Procedimentales para Estudiantes Excepcionales Superdotados
• Resource Guide for the Education of Gifted Students in Florida
• Florida Association for the Gifted (FLAG)
• National Association for Gifted Children
• Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Talented and Gifted (TAG)

Social Worker Support Services for Pre-Kindergarten Students
Jeanne Harris-Lively
(352) 793-9444 ext. 52219

Home Educator & English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Support Services
ELL Family Support Contact: Kimberly Green
(352) 793-2315 X50210
(352) 793-6061 (Spanish Line) 
1-800-206-8956 (Florida, Linea Telefonica Para Padres)

• Sumter District ELL Plan
• Rules and legislation
• Florida CELLA Information for Parents (English) (Espanol)
• Title III - Part A:Language Instruction for English Learners & Immigrant Students

Response to Intervention (RtI)

• Response to Intervention Video for Parents: https://www.florida-rti.org/
• RtI Parent Brochure  (English) (Espanol)

The external links on this webpage are not controlled by the Exceptional Student Education Department or Sumter County Schools, and are subject to change at any time. Their inclusion does not in any way reflect the policy of Sumter County Schools. These links are made in good faith that the people in control of them have only the best intentions.