School is special place for special need students
CRANBERRY TWP — Parents and family members of special needs children got a special look Friday at a school for those kinds of children.
The Linda Lanham Zeszutek School Program of Easter Seals Western and Central Pennsylvania hosted an open house at its facility on Rowan Road next to Rowan Elementary School.
The school serves children ages 3 to 8 with autism, cerebral palsy and other mental and physical disabilities. It was previously in Ross Township, Allegheny County, and moved to Cranberry Township in October.
It is a state approved private school for special needs students that gets 60 percent of its budget paid by the state Department of Education and the remaining 40 percent paid by the school districts where the students live. There are about 30 such schools in the state.
Patty Braendle, Easter Seals director of education said, “These children come with such an array of needs. If not an approved private school, where else are they going to go? Usually their other options have been exhausted.”
The school has a 3-to-1 teacher-to-student ratio, but including other support staff, the ratio of staff to students is actually 2 to 1.
Some of the specialists in the building who work with students 1-on-1 include speech specialists, occupational therapists and integration specialists.
About 98 percent of the students are non-verbal, so learning to communicate is one challenge they face. Through the school some students receive devices that talk for them when they press a button.
It moved to Cranberry from Ross Township, Allegheny County, in October to better serve Butler and Beaver counties by being more accessible.
