Adaptive Physical Education is a diversified program of physical education having many of the same goals and objectives as regular physical education, but modified when necessary to meet the unique needs of each individual.

APE is the art and science of psychomotor assessment and prescription to ensure that an individual with a disability has access to programs designed to develop physical and motor fitness, fundamental motor skills and patterns, and skills in aquatics, dance, and individual and group games and sports so that the individual can ultimately participate in community based leisure, recreating and sport activities and more importantly, enjoy an enhanced quality of life.

Shelby County Schools serves students who are deaf or hearing impaired. Most of these students are served in their home schools with personal interpreters, if appropriate.

We have 2 teachers for the hearing impaired; one is an itinerant teacher based at SSC who travels throughout the county and the other is based at TMS. We also have teachers in the local schools that are certified in Deaf Education and serve deaf students in addition to other students with disabilities.

The role of the OT is to provide the teacher or paraprofessional with strategies and equipment to enhance their academic environment. OT focuses on fine motor, visual motor, assistive technology, sensory processing, and self-care skills as it relates to the school routine. The services include contact with the child and activities that relate to the child, such as phone calls to vendors and doctors, IEP meetings, working with equipment needs, assistive technology, and accessibility issues, and training/consulting with parents, teachers, and paraprofessionals.

A Psychometrist is a multidisciplinary team member, who is responsible for participating and recommending appropriate assessments during the referral and eligibility process. The primary responsibility of a Psychometrist is to administer and score intellectual and behavioral assessments. During the eligibility meeting, a Psychometrist is responsible for interpreting the assessment results and relating it to learning. As an assessment resource, a Psychometrist is available to assist all special education staff, including gifted, on the administration and scoring of assessments. Recently, Psychometrists have begun conducting vision and hearing screeners in addition to some achievement testing in order to increase the instructional time speech language pathologists and special education teachers spend in classrooms.

School-based physical therapy services are provided to students across the county spanning from preschool to age 21. Physical therapy services may include consultation with the student’s teacher/classroom staff, consultation with Adapted PE staff, evaluation for adaptive equipment, evaluation of school accessibility, coordination/collaboration with other services providers, communication with doctors and parents, and direct physical therapy services. Direct PT services must address a student’s potential to reach a higher level of functioning within the school environment. PT services in Shelby County Schools are provided by physical therapists or a physical therapy assistant.

The impairments of students in Shelby County Schools range from total blindness to mild/moderate visual impairment depending on the student. The vision teacher determines the student’s needs by assessing them in the classroom. The outcome of the assessment determines the extent and frequency of services that the vision teacher will provide to each student. The services may include direct contact with the student, staff training, parent training, school in-service training, assessment of Assistive Technology needs, recommendations for the purchase of equipment, set up and training on the use of the Assistive Technology Devices.

Students are served in general education classrooms and/or resource classrooms. A student’s speech skills must adversely affect classroom performance. This means documentation of an adverse affect must be presented (for example, a writing sample where the student substitutes w for r).