Old Rochester Regional High School takes pride in its full-inclusion program for special education students, avoiding segregating them from their peers by providing appropriate academic and social supports throughout the day as students attend regular education classes. Placing students with special needs into substantially separate classrooms is simply not the philosophy at ORR, says Heather Kidney, a teacher at ORR.
In Kidney’s learning center as she called it, the phrase ‘full inclusion’ is being redefined to encompass more than just academic support and social integration – meaningful relationships are formed and lives are forever stamped with the lasting imprints of friendship.
Over a dozen ORR students have opted to utilize their directed study time (study hall for us older generations) to volunteer as student-tutors and classroom buddies for special education students who benefit from the added support during times such as gym class along with the added opportunities for socialization with their peers.
Kidney pairs the student-tutors up with her students according to need and mutual interest, and the kids take it from there.
The program has really taken off, said Kidney, merely by word of mouth. Some students chose to volunteer because they have been attending school with Kidney’s learning center students for years – some even from preschool – and the chance to spend more time together is what Kidney says is the driving force behind the success of the program.
“The students are friends and they are important to each other,” said Kidney. “And the program has just flourished.”
Kidney recalled a senior from last year – Haakon Perkins – who participated in the student-tutor program and appreciated the experience so much that he included it in his graduation commencement speech.
“He spoke out about how tutoring in my learning center had an impact on his life,” said Kidney. When Kidney asked senior Brian Noone why he wanted to participate in the tutoring program, he told her it was because one of the students in the learning center was his best friend.
Some of the student-tutors this year have decided to pursue careers relative to special education and specific related therapies.
Student-tutor Angela Weigal said she is inspired to pursue a career as a dance/movement therapist for children with special needs. She and a few other student-tutors described their experiences volunteering in the learning center in writing and submitted them to The Wanderer.
“We laugh. We smile. We learn. Never have I learned so much in a single hour as I have being a tutor with special needs students in the learning center,” said Weigal, who has known two of Kidney’s students since elementary school, and now considers herself a part of her “new family” at the learning center.
“When I first signed up to be a tutor, my main reason was to work with the teens I knew beforehand, along with a boy who will occasionally greet the school beside me in his soft but bright voice saying ‘good morning everybody!’” wrote Weigal. “But the relationships I have created with the other students have created memories and lessons that will follow me until the day I die.”
Weigal said the staff she has met through the program have also inspired her.
“All of their actions are for the benefit of the students, not because they have to, but because they want to,” said Weigal.
Annie Henshaw, now a junior, has been helping in Kidney’s learning center since she was a freshman. She said she loves volunteering as a student-tutor and she has made some amazing friendships with the students she tutors and with the staff as well.
“My favorite thing to see is the students succeed every time they spell something right, say something perfectly that they struggled to say before, write better and even write their own name correctly,” said Henshaw. “I commend all of these kids for making it through what they do every day that to someone else is just natural.”
Tutoring has been the most rewarding experience of Heather Nadeau’s years at Old Rochester Regional High School.
“Connecting with the students while helping them accomplish their goals means a lot to me. Nothing feels better than starting off the day with such joyful and energetic peers,” said Nadeau, who says that in addition to being her favorite part of the day, the experience has her on a path to one day earn a Masters degree in occupational therapy. “Tutoring in Mrs. Kidney’s room gives me an opportunity to get experience in such a field. It also helps reassure me that I am choosing the right path for a career.”
Will Lynch Jr. started helping out at the learning center during his sophomore year when he was asked to be a “gym buddy” to a student who needed support to complete his physical education credits.
“To say that I enjoy my time in Mrs. Kidney’s Learning Center would be an understatement,” said Lynch. “On my first day, I was introduced to the student and quickly became acquainted, and it eventually became one of the classes that I looked forward to and enjoyed the most.”
Kidney said that she did not expect to work with any regular education students who were not on her roster when she first started at ORR about two years ago.
“I think it’s the most important part of my job to see how the students and the tutors fulfill each other’s social and emotional needs,” said Kidney. “It’s an example of how all the students at ORR accept inclusion. It gives me hope for the future.”
By Jean Perry
