A school counselor, an intervention teacher, and a clear Response to Intervention process help us notice a struggling child early.
How support works
When a child starts to struggle, the first person to notice is usually the teacher who sees them every day. At Huda Academy, that is also where help begins, and it grows step by step only if a child needs more.
We use Response to Intervention, usually shortened to RTI. It is a way of teaching that many American schools use: the teacher watches how each student is doing, gives extra, targeted help to a student who is falling behind, and then checks whether that help is working. It is meant to catch a difficulty early, before a child has spent a year feeling lost.
At Huda Academy, classroom teachers provide RTI in their own lessons first. That might mean more practice on a skill, working with a small group, or explaining something in a different way. Many children need nothing more than this.
If a child needs more than the classroom can give, our interventionist, also called the educational support specialist, gets involved. They give pull-out support: the student leaves the classroom for a time to work on the skills they need, based on what that student needs.
We also have an RTI Committee. It looks at how a student is responding and decides whether they need continued support, or more intensive support. The Learning Support page sets out these steps in more detail.
The school will confirm
How and when parents are told that their child is receiving support at each step, and whether a parent can ask for their child to be referred to the RTI Committee.
The support team
Behind the classroom teacher, we have staff whose work is supporting students. These are the roles a family is most likely to meet.
Guidance
Huda Academy has a school counselor.
For older students, the counselor also helps with planning ahead. Today, the principal, the vice principal and the counselor guide high school students through college planning together, and we plan to hire a dedicated high school academic counselor later.
The school will confirm
What the counselor offers students at each stage, and how a family can ask for a meeting.
Academic support
The intervention and academic support teacher works with students who need more help than the classroom can give. They take students out of class for focused sessions, planned around what each student needs, and work alongside the classroom teacher so the help carries back into lessons.
We also have a special education teacherNeeds fixing.
The school will confirm
What the special education teacher does and which grades they work with, and how a family whose child already has a diagnosis or a learning plan from another school should share it.
Accommodations and therapy
Some children need more than extra teaching: a change to how they are tested or taught, or a therapist’s help. Here is what we can arrange, and what falls to families.
An accommodation is a change that helps a student show what they know, such as extra time or a quieter place to take a test. At Huda Academy, accommodations are given only after a meeting with our administration, under certain conditions, and with proper documentation. Bring any reports or evaluations you have to that meeting.
Speech therapy, occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) can sometimes be provided through the Little Rock School District (LRSD), because of our affiliation with the district. This depends on whether LRSD has openings to support students outside its own schools, so it cannot be promised.
More often, parents arrange these therapies with an outside center and bill their insurance. Parents can ask that center whether its therapist would come in to school to work with their child. If so, the family pays for the sessions, and the therapist needs the administration’s approval before providing services at school.
The school will confirm
What documentation the school needs before a meeting about accommodations.
Health and safety
Parents ask about this before almost anything else. Here is what to expect, and who to call.
We have a security officer on staffNeeds fixing, part of making sure the building is safe and that only the right people come in.
The school will confirm
The security officer’s role and hours, how visitors sign in, and who may collect a child from school.
If your child’s temperature rises above 99°F during the school day, or your child vomits at school, we will call you to collect them right away.
Please do not send your child to school with a temperature of 100°F or higher. A child who has been sick must stay below 99°F for 24 hours before coming back. If your child has had diarrhea in the 24 hours before a school day, or is coughing and sneezing a lot, please keep them home until they are no longer contagious.
We give medicine during the school day, prescription or over the counter, only when a signed medication authorization form is on file in our office. Without that form, no medicine is given.
The school will confirm
Whether we have a nurse, and who gives first aid and looks after a child who falls ill.
Tell our office early about any allergy, medication or health condition, so staff know before it matters. The office is on 501-565-3555, and our email is principal@thehudaacademy.org. Our Health, Safety & Emergency Procedures page, in the Parents section, sets out more.
The school will confirm
The role families should contact about a health matter, if it is someone other than the school office.
Support starts here
An early conversation helps us plan the right support before a small worry has a chance to become a big one.
