Highlands School District is expanding a program to allow children who can't be taught in a regular classroom setting to stay in the district.
This past school year the district partnered with Family Services of Western Pennsylvania and started a program that kept secondary students with mental disabilities from being bused to special needs schools.
Some of those schools are over an hour away.
District Superintendent Randall Kahler said it saved the district about $50,000, and kept the students from having to deal with long bus rides.
"They live in the district and they are our kids," Kahler said.
Officials rented a suite in a medical building along Freeport Road near the Highlands mall to conduct the class. At least two other school districts also brought students to Highlands for the program. Those districts paid Highlands to teach the students.
On Monday, the school board approved a plan for the 2005-06 school year to also keep elementary school students with mental disabilities in the district.
Deb Layhew, district director of special education, said they won't have to rent a facility for the elementary program and will hold classes in the middle school.
She was unsure Tuesday what kind of cost savings the district should expect.
Layhew said there are about five elementary children within the district who fit in that category and she said district officials have already been contacted by neighboring districts about sending some of their students to Highlands.
The maximum number of students that can be in the classroom at any given time is 12.
The class includes a teacher, an aide and counselors from Family Services. She said Family Service officials do the mental health evaluations. Most of the students are in the program for a semester to a year, and are then assimilated back into the general school population.
"We have some good success stories," Layhew said.
