Paula Rosen, Northeast Regional Director of Lutheran Special Education Ministries

Lutheran Special Education Ministries has been serving children with special needs in Lutheran schools for over one hundred years. We stared first as a residential school for the deaf in Detroit, Michigan and now we provide special education services to Lutheran and other Christian schools in six states.

Since 1992 Holy Trinity Community School in Hollis, Queens, New York has been a partner with Lutheran Special Education Ministries. Together we work to serve children with special needs whose parents have chosen a Christian school. The program began with a special education consultant teacher who worked one half day a week at Holy Trinity. Today two Lutheran Special Education Ministries teachers work at Holy Trinity providing services to as many as 35 children. Nicole Dupre and Angela Lukas do a wonderful job of modifying curriculum to meet the special needs of their students. Sixteen children spend the greater part of their day with the special education teacher because their learning differences make it very difficult for them to keep up with their peers. The goal for each child is to build their skills so that they can be mainstreamed back into the general education classroom. This has been a very successful model for the students. Other children come into the SCIL (self contained individual learning) room for resource room services. Some come for two, three or five days a week for about 30 to 45 minutes. They receive extra help targeting areas of weakness. Additionally, the two teachers consult with other teachers to brainstorm strategies to help children in their classrooms.

Children are evaluated by the local public school district, a local college or the Lutheran Special Education Ministries psychologist to determine if they have special learning needs. Then the LSEM teacher meets with each parent to devise an IEP (individual educational plan.) This IEP describes the skills to be targeted and provides the basis for lessons. Special education teachers use a child’s strength’s to remediate their weak area. For example, if a child is a strong visual learner the teacher might use pictures or models to represent a lesson. Sounds like ‘oa’ are paired with a picture of a boat and the word ‘boat ‘.

Holy Trinity Community School and Lutheran Special Education Ministries have served over 300 children since we began programs nine years ago. Lutheran Special Education Ministries receives no funds from public sources. We rely on donations to keep our fees affordable to schools so that they can keep their doors open to children with special needs. Our primary mission is that all children have the opportunity to know the love of their Lord and Savior.

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