Valley Center- Pauma Unified School District is dedicated to identifying, locating and assessing all students within the district from birth to 21 years of age who may have disabilities, and providing appropriate support and/or related services to those students determined by an educational evaluation.

Therefore at Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District we strive to provide the most effective methods of service delivery to the students enrolled in our programs. To this end, we have taken a research based approach to determine the methods that seem most appropriate, given the nature of our student population, the goals the IEP team has established for each student, and the ultimate goal we have for all of our students, which is to be as independent and successful as possible within the larger community.

Our program believes in the collaborative service model. This model emphasizes the provision of instruction by both classroom staff and support service specialists within the classroom setting. 

Each student’s individual program is data driven, with ongoing data collection and data analysis. Our data driven approach coupled with ongoing collaboration between parents, support staff, support agencies and classroom staff is a critical element in the ongoing assessment of student progress.

Special Education is specialized instruction provided for children from birth to age 22 who qualify according to the laws and regulations outlined by the state and federal government. A student may qualify for special education services as an individual with special needs in one of thirteen areas identified by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) [idea]. These are:

• Autism

• Deaf

• Deaf-Blind

• Emotionally Disturbed

• Hard of Hearing

• Intelectual Disability

• Multiple Handicapped

• Orthopedically Impaired

• Other Health Impaired

• Specific Learning Disability

• Speech-Language Impaired

• Traumatic Brain Injury

• Visually Impaired