COMMACK MIDDLE SCHOOL

Our Learning Centers:

• Provide individualized support for students in all academic subjects.
• Offer direct, individualized instruction in learning strategies and study skills.
• Serve as the liaison among teachers for children’s special needs on the interdisciplinary teams.
• Maintain a 1 -to- 5 teacher-to-student ratio.
• Maintain a number of computers for student use.

Our special integrated classes:

• Give identified students in grades 6, 7, & 8 instructional support within the mainstream settings.
• Address individual needs in the areas of math, science, social studies, and English or reading/language arts.
• All integrated students will participate in a skills class to acquire the strategies in the content area classes.

Our self-contained classes:

• Offer instruction in smaller class settings that include additional support personnel.
• Modify the curriculum to address students’ individual rates of learning.
• Provide opportunities for appropriate mainstreaming experiences.

Our Special Services Department also offers:

• Speech/Language instruction.
• Occupational Therapy/ Physical Therapy.
• Counseling.
• Services for the visually or hearing-impaired.

Students are offered Special Services when all of the following conditions are met:

• They are referred to the Committee on Special Education for a suspected learning disability or for suspected multiple disabilities,
• They take a battery of tests to diagnose a specific learning disability or disabilities, 
• The tests show a discrepancy between what the child is expected to achieve according to his/her age and grade and his/her actual performance in school, and
• The child is approved by the Committee on Special Education for placement in a program. At that time, the student’s IEP(Individual Education Program) is written.
• Students’ IEP goals are reviewed yearly and modified as appropriate. A student who has met all his/her IEP goals my be discontinued from the program, after review and determination by the Committee on Special Education

Highlights of Special Services

• Achievement Awards Breakfast – a program that invites parents to share our pride in the extraordinary achievements of their children, over breakfast, in the late spring. Each deserving student receives an Award of Distinction certificate.
• A highly qualified staff that includes teaching assistants who hold teaching certification and who are qualified to substitute in the event of teacher absence.
• An extensive Inclusion Program – wherein learning-strategy specialists are appropriately placed across all grades and in all academic disciplines.