Our History and Philosophy

OUR HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

In 1965, the Illinois General Assembly passed House Bill 1407 which mandated special education for all handicapped children. Implementation of this legislation was effective July 1st, 1969. One of the provisions in HB 1407 was the creation of a state-level committee that would approve or reject the comprehensive plans that were required from each county in Illinois. One criteria of acceptance was a minimum student population of 15,000 criteria that could be met by neither Stephenson nor Jo Daviess counties. Because of this population requirement, school districts in Stephenson and Jo Daviess counties joined together and began to combine the two county plans into one document. During this process, three school districts from Carroll County Shannon, Mt. Carroll and Savanna requested to join and be included in this cooperative plan. They were accepted. A comprehensive plan that included fifteen districts was submitted to the Illinois Office of Education and approved by the State Advisory Committee. The Northwest Special Education District began on July 1st, 1969. Due to a realignment of school districts, there are currently eleven districts in the Northwest Special Education Cooperative.

The primary purpose of the Cooperative is to help local districts provide a meaningful, free, appropriate education for students who have special needs. The Cooperative adopted a decentralized organizational structure which encourages local school districts to provide as many of the special education services as possible.

The Northwest Special Education Cooperative is governed by an Executive Board made up of a representative from each of the participating eleven districts. The Board is responsible for establishing policies for the effective operation of the Cooperative. The Board hires a Director who is charged with the responsibility of implementing Board policy. The River Ridge School District serves as the Administrative Agent for the Cooperative and acts as the legal entity for employment of staff.

Northwest provides administrative, supervisory and consultative services to member districts as well as psychological and social work services, physical and occupational therapy and services for visually and hearing-impaired students. The Cooperative also operates a Behavioral Disorder Program in Jo Daviess County. This is open to eligible student from the participating districts. Other programs are operated by the local districts. Another responsibility of the Cooperative staff is to provide staff development activities for special education and regular classroom teachers as well as for principals, superintendents and parents. Special Education and Response to Intervention assistance is provided to the staff and administration of the local school districts.

There are a few students whose educational needs cannot be met within the Northwest Special Education Cooperative. These students appear in such a small percentage of the total population, that a much larger student population is needed to provide effectively and efficiently for their needs. The Northwest Special Education Cooperative has joined with other districts to form the Northwestern Illinois Association. This is a ten-county program that is primarily concerned with the identification, diagnosis, evaluation and educational placement of a child with severe hearing and/or multiple disabilities. Local districts pay tuition for students attending private facilities if there is no appropriate program available locally. Sheltered workshops have also been used as a resource. Although workshops are not under the auspices of the public school, they do offer an additional alternative in our attempt to provide meaningful programs for all students.

Fully providing for the educational needs of children continues to be a challenge. It has been said that the best index of maturity in a society is the attention it pays to its poor, its abandoned and its disabled. More progress has been made in special education during the last 40 years than in all of the previous history of education. The efforts made by schools in the Northwest Special Education Cooperative are a part of this progress. We will continue to strive towards the goal of an appropriate educational program for every student and to meet the special needs of all students in Northwest Illinois.