Written by: Chad Shaner

Curiosity took the better of me as I walked by Ms. Post’s moderate to severe functional skills class one recent afternoon. A quick glance revealed smiling students glued to Chromebook screens; one student clapping joyfully at his desk while others seemed unphased by his antics. Rachel Post, one of our special education teachers at Perris High School teaches a self-contained functional skills class for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Somebody who might not have known better might assume that students were cheering at an entertaining video on their Chromebooks, but knowing Ms. Post, I knew that wasn’t the case. Upon closer inspection, I saw visual coding blocks displayed on the overhead projector, and I knew I had to step inside.

Ms. Post excitedly told me that her students were using tynker.com, an online visual coding website that teaches kids basic programming logic through a drag and drop interface. What makes Tynker great is the gamified aspect, taking students through levels of greater complexity using compelling characters that the user navigates through a series of obstacles. Ms. Post’s students were fully engaged in the activity, challenging one another to see who could pass the next level first. I was enthralled that these students were learning basic computer science and had the ability to understand the logic behind the coding blocks, but I was not surprised. Having taught a special education computer applications class for several years, I know that many students with intellectual disabilities have talents that are locked away given a traditional classroom setting. But given the right tools and proper guidance, these students can blow you away with what they can create.

According to the United States 2010 Census, approximately 2.4% of school-aged children in Southern California have a cognitive disability, defined as a child having serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions. Given these statistics, it’s not difficult to see why these students represent an often forgotten and underserved population. Despite these challenges, special needs students in the Perris Union High School District are granted access to technology tools that minimize accessibility gaps and unlock hidden potentials. In addition to free online sources like Tynker, Ms. Post uses Khan Academy to help her students learn basic math facts, and text-to-speech Chrome extensions like SpeakIt! to make text accessible to her students.


Some might question the value of teaching introductory computer programming to students with intellectual disabilities, perhaps assuming that these students would never have the capability of becoming professional software engineers or game designers. I beg to differ. Many scholars have speculated on the presence of intellectual and psychological disabilities amongst some of the world’s greatest geniuses. In today’s app-driven world, all it takes is the release of a simple smart-phone game (case in point, Flappy Bird), to turn someone with a little coding knowledge into an instant millionaire. Regardless of disability, socioeconomic status, race, or gender, all it takes is a little knowledge, patient guidance, and access to technology to unlock anyone’s potential genius. Ms. Post told me that once her students get good enough at the guided games on Tynker, they will start moving on to designing their own games using platforms like Scratch. Don’t tell Ms. Post’s students that they can’t learn computer programming. They’re already doing it!

Chad Shaner served as a special education teacher for 15 years and currently serves Perris High School as an educational technology coach. Find him on Twitter: @Chad_Shaner

The Perris Union High School District (PUHSD) continues to be a state model for providing full inclusion, full access, and full opportunity for students enrolled in special education. All students in PUHSD deserve the best and we provide the best. Nationwide, we see a call for equal opportunity for all people in all walks of society. Schools are no exception to this call. In past decades, students with disabilities were often sent to “special schools” in America. If allowed to remain on campus, special ed students were often relegated to isolated portable classrooms on the edge of campuses which segregated them from the daily activities of regular ed students. Oftentimes, these students were not allowed to participate in the same courses as regular education students, much less enroll in classes that prepared them for college. This is not the American way and it is not the PUHSD way.

At PUHSD, we ensure that all students have the opportunity to not only earn a high school diploma, but also graduate A-G eligible and are ready to apply for college if they choose. For those students choosing the career world, our rigorous school-to-career curriculum prepares them to compete for jobs in our society. At PUHSD, all special ed students are challenged to take regular ed classes alongside regular ed students. Our special ed students are not held back and excluded.  Instead, they are pushed forward and included.

For students seeking to earn a diploma, students participate in six periods of regular academic and elective courses designed to prepare them for college and the career world. Students are encouraged to take A-G college prep courses alongside their general education classmates. Depending on their disability, their core academic classes are taught by a general education teacher alone or a general education teacher with support from a special education teacher or a paraeducator. All educators in the classroom work collaboratively, meeting the needs of all students, not simply those in special education. This additional support allows special ed students to be successful in the general education environment. With this “push-in, full-inclusion” model of instructional delivery, special ed students are exposed to rigorously challenging curriculum. During seventh period, special ed students take a study skills class called Student Organization and Resource (SOAR). This class is designed to help special ed students stay organized and prepared for all of their classes. The course is taught by the student’s special education case manager which gives them daily access to this vital person everyday.

Special education students who will not earn a high school diploma, but function in high enough cognitive levels to live independently in society, are enrolled in as many core academic and elective courses as possible. These students are often referred to as “Special Day Class” students. They have a case manager who has a classroom that serves as their “home base.” However, these students are mainstreamed into as many general education courses as they can manage during the school day. Typically, these students begin by enrolling in physical education, Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC), art, and music courses. Initially, the content may be intimidating for some of the students, but as the semester progresses, they learn to adjust and handle the content. In addition, they learn that they can take classes alongside general education students and learn that they don’t have to remain in the same classroom throughout the entire school day. In some cases, these students will take a core Math or English course with their case manager. Consistent with our PUHSD philosophy, when mainstreamed into regular classes, these students are included in challenging activities along with other college prep and diploma-bound students. In most cases their grades are modified, however, they are still exposed to the same high-level instruction as those students who are preparing for college. As a result of this “full access and full-inclusion” philosophy, we often see students who had not planned to earn high school diplomas be successful in earning a diploma. Students who don’t earn diplomas end up transferring to one of three local “18-22 Year-Old Life Skills Transition” programs. By exposing these students to rigorous courses in our high schools, our students often thrive in the local “18-22 Year-Old Life Skills Transition” programs.

Students who are enrolled in our severely handicapped program also experience the full access and full-inclusion atmosphere. Severely handicapped students are assigned to a severely handicapped teacher and classroom. This classroom serves as their “home base” during the day. In this facility they can attend class, eat lunch, and socialize with others. However, they are not required to complete those activities in this room all day. In fact, our severely handicapped students are encouraged to leave the room with supervision and eat lunch in the quad with the general education students.  They are also encouraged to visit the library and student store and socialize with as many students and staff as possible. By encouraging our severely handicapped students to be out on campus, they are learning to interact with others. Just as equally important, our general education students and staff members are learning to interact with our severely handicapped students. Our full access and full-inclusion model prepares everyone on our campuses for living and interacting together in society.

Sports Challenge

In terms of campus activities and extracurricular activities, our special education students are invited and encouraged to attend athletic events, take roles in plays, participate in pep rallies, and participate in community service activities. Oftentimes, special needs students are some of the most excited fans at our athletic events. Each year, the PUHSD holds the “Sports Challenge,” a Saturday field event where our severely handicapped students have the opportunity to participate in different athletic events. These events are hosted by athletes from different athletic teams in our schools.  The event is well attended by students and spectators and serves as another example of our district’s effort to include all students in school activities.

PUHSD hosts a districtwide prom specifically for our special needs students. Students dress-up, eat together, socialize, and of course, dance together. It’s an exciting event where our students feel safe and supported. In addition, our special needs students are also encouraged to attend the regular prom at their home school. In most cases, the special needs students attend as groups and are escorted by their teachers and paraeducators. These proms are merely one more way to provide full access and full opportunity for our special needs students.

The Perris Union High School District values the education and experience of all students. Students enrolled in special education are constantly challenged, encouraged, and provided full access and full inclusion to the same opportunities as general education students. For this reason, PUHSD continues to stand as a model of equal opportunity and equal success for all of our students. We encourage our community to provide ideas as to how we can continue including our special education students in activities in our local schools and communities.

Once regarded as expensive and scarce, the well-planned technological implementation at PUHSD in recent years has made resources available and accessible to students with disabilities like never before. As part of the Scholar+ teaching and learning initiative, PUHSD’s 1:1 Chromebook deployment is one such example of getting needed resources in the hands of students for daily use.

There are many teachers at PUHSD who have spent decades supporting students with disabilities who struggled to gain equitable access to the mainstream curriculum. At times, this uphill battle seemed insurmountable. Now, technology brought about by Scholar+ has been helping PUHSD students close this gap, increasing the possibilities for students with disabilities to equally participate in the general curriculum. The reality of students with disabilities at PUHSD having equitable access to learning experiences is one of the desired outcomes for Scholar+. It is great to see desired outcomes become a reality.

Scholar+ has provided accommodations to students with disabilities that were once expensive and rare. For instance, SpeakIt! is a Google Chrome extension that reads selected text using Text-to-Speech technology that has language auto-detection. SpeakIt! can read text in more than 50 languages and can assist students with learning disabilities and visual impairments to read text. Voicenote is also a Google Chrome extension that uses speech recognition software to take spoken words and convert them into typed words on the screen. Students with fine motor impairments who find it difficult to use a standard keyboard or grip a writing utensil can use Voicenote to complete written compositions. A glowing example of this is that recently a teacher sat down with a student who had visual impairments and was struggling with writing and worked to provide resources. After helping the student install Voicenote on the Chromebook, the student went from writing a paragraph in one hour to composing three pages in half the time. The student’s ability to participate in English class was transformed and this would not have been possible without Scholar+.

Video creation can be extremely beneficial to students with autism or those with more severe cognitive disabilities. There are a number of online tools that allow teachers to create cartoons, comics, screencasts, and live-action videos that can be used to create an assortment of helpful teaching and learning resources. These short demonstrative and informative videos can help students learn how to appropriately act in certain social situations, instruct students in an entertaining way about personal hygiene or safety, or reinforce appropriate behavior by depicting expected behavior. Our teachers are now using this technology to improve the lives of students.

Our students with disabilities live in incredible times where access to technology can result in life changing moments. Everyday, more and more of our students with disabilities are taking control of their lives through technology. Scholar+ at PUHSD continues to provide opportunities for students with disabilities to have equitable access to the curriculum and enrich their lives like never before. Technology is the great equalizer that is making all the difference.