A new early childhood classroom, where early childhood educators in Yuma County can learn how to work with young children with special needs, has opened on the Arizona Western College campus.<\/p>\n
First Things First, Yuma School District One and Arizona Western College recently partnered to open an inclusion classroom in the college\u2019s Kathryn Watson Child Development Early Learning Lab. Inclusion classrooms offer opportunities for students with disabilities to learn alongside their non-disabled peers in general education classrooms.<\/p>\n
The FTF Yuma Regional Council invested through its Start Up, Expansion and Learning Lab Strategy, which seeks to add early childhood classrooms in the community and increase the number of spaces for young children in quality early childhood education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis strategy allowed the council to focus on one of the priorities identified during recent FTF town halls, where the community said they wanted a focus on children with special needs,\u201d said FTF Yuma Regional Director Rudy Ortiz. \u201cAfter an initial investment, you have a model that is self-sustained and ready for Yuma to learn and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early childhood classroom, which serves 10 students with special needs and 10 typically-developing students, provides additional quality early learning to preschool-aged children in Yuma County. \u00a0The classroom is also used as a lab for early childhood education students to learn best practices in a classroom environment. It is the school district\u2019s responsibility to provide services to students with special needs, but before this classroom, the district didn\u2019t have enough preschool classrooms to provide for a true inclusion classroom, said Yuma School District One Superintendent James Sheldahl.<\/p>\n
Working with the FTF Yuma Region and the college, Sheldahl said they were able to braid different funding sources \u201cto get a good cross section of children in a classroom.\u201d The school district is paying for the classroom teacher, along with bussing the students to the classroom, while the college provides the teacher assistant and the classroom space for the teachers and students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our partnership, but we could not do it by ourselves,\u201d said Linda Elliott-Nelson, vice president of learning services at Arizona Western. \u201cJamie and Rudy came with a \u2018we can do it together through collaboration\u2019 attitude. This project shows how collaboration can benefit families, students and our community as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for our early childhood professionals to learn and grow,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cThere\u2019s never been an opportunity like this in our community at a lab school to have a full-inclusion classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the inclusion classroom should be a reflection of society, said Mary Beth Turner, the preschool coordinator for the Yuma School District One Exceptional Student Services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in an inclusive world,\u201d she said. \u201cFrom the youngest ages, we have to bring these children in and provide more opportunities. It\u2019s the way of the world and how we should live.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new early childhood classroom, where early childhood educators in Yuma County can learn how to work with young children with special needs, has opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74,162,288,290],"class_list":["post-22558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-early-learning","tag-yuma","tag-early-care-and-education","tag-ece-for-children-with-special-needs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n