Why Goal

The Exceptional Student Services Department at GOAL is comprised of four separate programs. These four programs include Gifted Education, School Health, Section 504, and Special Education.

Gifted Education
GOAL Academy defines gifted and talented high school students as those whose aptitude or competence in abilities, talents, and potential for accomplishment in one or more domains are so exceptional or developmentally advanced that they require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs.

Gifted students also include students with disabilities (i.e., twice exceptional). Exceptional abilities or potential are present in all ethnic and cultural groups, across all socioeconomic strata and in all arenas of human endeavor.

Gifted students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior by virtue of one or any combination of the following areas of giftedness:

• General or specific intellectual ability
• Specific academic aptitude
• Creative or productive thinking
• Leadership abilities
• Visual arts, performing arts, musical, or psychomotor abilities

GOAL Academy believes that gifted and talented students have unique academic and affective needs. Administrators and teachers support a philosophy that emphasizes the need for a challenging learning environment that focuses on high achievement for every gifted and talented student, as well as meeting their unique social and emotional needs.

• Programming for gifted and talented students must be responsive to individual needs and must recognize the multiple talents, challenges, and cultural and linguistic diversity of the school’s population.
• GOAL supports researched-based strategies that provide opportunities for optimal learning to ensure that gifted and talented students will perform at levels commensurate with their abilities.
• Gifted and talented students should be provided dynamic and challenging educational programming at every level throughout their school career.

School Health
Registered Nurses: There are registered nurses at GOAL Academy High School providing guidance and consultation to staff at each site throughout the state of Colorado. These nurses provide support for students with health needs when they are present at a site through training and delegation to onsite school staff. They also consult with staff to provide for health needs when students are participating in school sponsored trips.

Illness Guidelines: If a student becomes ill while at a site, GOAL Academy High School follows the Illness Guidelines from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment/Children’s Hospital Colorado. This document details when a student should be sent home or remain at home due to illness. Document

Please provide the school with current emergency phone numbers and update this information as it changes throughout the year so we can reach you in the case of illness or emergency.

Health Care Plans (HCP): Health Care Plans are developed for students with chronic health conditions such as asthma, severe allergy, seizures, diabetes, or students with health conditions that require monitoring or intervention/medication when they are onsite or on a school sponsored trip. Please contact the school nurse for your region if your student will need an HCP developed. If your student has one of the chronic health conditions listed above and we do not have a HCP on file, a school nurse will contact you to develop a Health Care Plan. Students may not self-carry medication onsite without a Health Care Plan or Medication Order with a doctor signature and parent signature on file at the school site.

Medication Policy: Please be aware that Colorado State Law governs our medication policy. If your child must take medication during school hours (including medications your student may carry with them such as an inhaler, Epi-Pen or over the counter medications), you must provide the following before the student or staff can administer it. This applies to medication administration onsite or during a school sponsored trip such as GOAL Ventures:

• A written Medication Order or Health Care Plan (including drug name, dose, route, time, duration of treatment, physician, and parent signature). This includes all over the counter, prescription, and homeopathic medications. The physician may fax Medication Orders and Health Care Plans to the school site or school nurse.
• If a student will be self-carrying a medication with them while on site, they must also have a Self-Carry Contract completed and on file. This form can be provided by a school nurse or administrative assistant.
• Medication must be in the original prescription bottle or packaging, complete with label. Medication cannot be taken or given on site if it comes in a baggie, envelope, unlabeled bottle, etc. PLEASE NOTE: The pharmacy label applied to the medication bottle will not suffice for a Medication Order.

Immunizations: All students must have an immunization record on file per Colorado law. An immunization compliance review will be completed for all newly enrolled students. You will be contacted by a school nurse if there are any immunizations out of compliance, meaning your student has not received the appropriate number of immunizations and/or has not had the immunizations appropriately spaced. The nurse will provide information on immunizations needed to be compliant and have the maximum protection and immunity to disease. If your student requires a series of immunizations over time to reach compliance, you may submit a Process Plan from your student’s doctor stating the plan for bringing your student into compliance.

The law also allows for parents to opt out of immunizations for personal, religious, or medical reasons. For a medical exemption, a Medical Exemption Form must be completed and signed by a physician and submitted one time upon enrollment. For a personal or religious exemption, a Non-Medical Exemption Form must be completed by the parent/guardian annually at the beginning of each school year per Colorado law.

All exemption forms can be found at this link. You may also ask the administrative assistant or a school nurse for an exemption form. Non-medical exemption forms can be completed by a parent/guardian and a copy provided to your student’s school site so your student’s records can be updated. This requirement can also be met by providing a written or emailed document indicating your student’s name, DOB, type of exemption (personal/religious), immunization(s) you are choosing to exempt, and your signature to the administrative assistant or school nurse at your student’s site. Please note that personal/religious exemptions expire annually on June 30. These exemptions must be renewed annually.

Vision and Hearing Screenings: We are required by Colorado law (C.R.S. 22‐1‐116 School Children Sight and Hearing Tests) to perform screenings on all 9th grade students, new students, students being evaluated for an Individual Education Program (IEP) or students referred for screening by a parent or school staff. Parents or guardians shall be informed when a deficiency is found. The parent/guardian may choose to opt out of screenings based on religious or personal grounds. If you choose to opt your student out of the screening, please notify the administrative assistant or school nurse for your site and a waiver will be provided for you to sign. Also, inform your student so they can refuse any vision or hearing screenings offered.

All documents and School Health forms mentioned above can be located here. Click on the link to obtain the appropriate form:

• Allergy/Anaphylaxis Care Plan
• Asthma Health Care Plan
• Asthma/Allergy Self Carry Contract
• Diabetic – 201-Provider-Orders-Injections 8.29.19
• Diabetic – 202-Provider-Orders-Pump 8.29.19
• Seizure Health Care Plan -> Choose Seizure
• Medication Health Care Plan -> Contact nurse for form
• Immunization Non-Medical Exemption Form

Please contact the school nurse for your region for any questions regarding your student’s health needs.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) is a civil rights statute that protects persons with disabilities from discrimination. It states that:

“No otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) contains similar prohibitions against discrimination.

Under Section 504, school districts are required to make their programs and activities (including non-academic and extracurricular programs and activities) accessible to all individuals with disabilities and to provide students with disabilities a free, appropriate public education (FAPE). Section 504 is a program that is administered within the context of the other regular education programs of a school building.  GOAL Academy High School staff members and parents work cooperatively to develop a Section 504 Plan that will help the student benefit from the educational program and activities of the school.

GOAL’s process of determining a student’s eligibility includes:

• 504 staff receive concerns from teachers, parents, nurses, counselors, students, or others.
• The 504 Specialist convenes a group of persons knowledgeable about the student to collect and review information about the student from a variety of sources.
• A team works together to review the data and determine if the student has a mental or physical impairment which substantially limits a major life activity. The team then decides whether the student’s educational needs are being met as adequately or less adequately as the needs of non-disabled students.
• When the team determines a student is eligible, a 504 plan is developed, and accommodations are decided based on the student’s needs as they relate to the identified impairment.
• Information about differently abled students is only shared with relevant instructional staff and in a confidential manner for the purpose of ensuring accommodations are being provided.

Please reach out to the 504 Specialist at GOAL if you have questions or need support. As a charter school authorized by Falcon 49 School District, further information about the district’s procedures for Section 504 Plans can be found here

GOAL High School welcomes students with disabilities whose needs can be met in this alternative educational setting. Students at GOAL who have an Individual Education Program (IEP), Section 504 Plan, or Advanced Learning Plan (ALP) for being identified as gifted, are general education students first and afforded the same rights and care as any student. All students work on courses individually, and all students have general education teachers to help them be successful. Information about differently abled students is only shared with relevant instructional staff and in a confidential manner for the purpose of ensuring accommodations or modifications are being provided.

Special education teachers and related providers support students within and outside of general education classes based on their individual needs listed on their IEP. Some of the offerings may include, but are not limited to:

• Curriculum at adjustable instructional levels within general education courseware to better meet the individual academic needs of students.
• English and Math fundamentals courses to address IEP goals and helping students close the gaps between their abilities and their chronological grade level in school.
• Transition curriculum to ensure post-secondary planning, research, and activities can be completed with students.
• Social Emotional support through affective needs instruction which supports students with long-term or circumstantial challenges in various areas of behavior and/or emotional needs.
• Modified courseware in core subjects such as Health, Social Studies, and Science for students whose IEPs identify the need for modified curriculum in a more restrictive environment.
• Individualized services from a related service provider which may include but are not limited to, a Speech Language Therapist; a Mental Health Provider; an Occupational Therapist; a Vision Specialist; or a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Specialist.