Student Services

Welcome to Valley View Schools' Student Services Department.  Kevin Phillips is the Student Services Director and he can be reached at (937) 855-6581, dial 5 for student services, then dial 2 for his office.  He can also be reached through Lisa Minton, the Student Services Administrative Assistant at (937) 855-6581, dial 5 for Student Services, then dial 1 for her office.  

School Psychologist services are provided through the Montgomery County Educational Service Center (MCESC) for preschool - 12th grade.  To reach our school psychologists please contact Lisa Minton at (937) 855-6581, dial 5 for student services, then dial 1 for her office or email her at Lisa.minton@valleyview.k12.oh.us.

MCESC also provides our Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapist, a part-time Adapted Physical Education teacher, some of our Speech/Language Pathologists and other related services.

For assistance, please contact us at one of the phone numbers or email addresses listed above.  

The Student Services department serves students who have been identified as having disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA 2004). Services are provided in accordance with Ohio’s Operating Standards for Children with Disabilities and the Special Education Model Policies and Procedures.

Valley View is focused on locating and evaluating, and possibly identifying all children in the community who may have a disability from birth through 21 years of age.  

For infants and toddlers, a disability means that a child has a delay in one or more of the following developmental areas: adaptive behavior, cognition, communication, physical development, vision, hearing, and/or social-emotional functioning.  

Children ages 3 through 5 may have a disability if a child has a documented deficit in one or more of the following developmental areas: communication, motor skills, adaptive behavior, social emotional functioning, hearing impairment, visual impairment, developmental delay, cognitive ability and/or autism. 

For school age students, a disability means that a student has been identified as having one or more of the following disabilities: autism, deaf-blindness, hearing impairment including deafness, orthopedic impairment, multiple disabilities, cognitive disability, emotional disturbance, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, other health impairment and/or visual impairment including blindness.

According to Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act, any student with a handicap will not be discriminated against and may qualify for special services. An individual with a handicap means a person who has, or had, or is regarded as having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his/her major life activities.

Valley View Local Schools continues to seek the assistance of parents and guardians of children with suspected disabilities who are not presently served. District personnel will request information about the child. Information may be collected in several ways including interviews, observations, screenings and testing. 

School-age students, ages 5-21, who qualify for special education services, under IDEIA, are identified as having disabilities in the following areas: Autism, Deaf-Blind, Emotional Disturbance, Hearing Impairment, Intellectually Disabled, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Handicapped, Other Health Impairment, Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech/Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, Visually Impaired. Preschool students can be identified with these same disabilities and the additional category of Developmental Delay can also be considered.

Special education services for each student with disabilities are written into each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). Services may be provided in a variety of settings, with the goal being to educate each student in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE); which means providing services in the regular classroom environment to the maximum extent possible.

Preschool children with disabilities, beginning on their third birthday, are entitled to the same type of services as are school age students. Preschool students can be served in a center based delivery model or an itinerant delivery model with a visiting teacher. Questions concerning this program should be addressed to Denise Kovacs at (937) 855-6581.

Each building operates under an Intervention Model to help determine if a disability exists. Our schools utilize MTSS (Multi-Tiered System & Supports) to help teachers design and document the use of interventions in their classrooms.  These interventions are designed by the building MTSS team to positively impact the student’s educational program by enhancing his/her chances to make progress in the general curriculum.  Screeners are in place to look at all children to determine the need for tiered intervention.  However, parents who have concerns about their child’s educational progress should contact their child’s principal or classroom teacher to discuss those concerns.  

Sometimes the interventions designed by the MTSS team are not enough to meet the needs of an individual student. Based upon the student’s response to the interventions or the student’s apparent need for special instruction, the student may need to be referred for an evaluation to determine eligibility for special education.  In such cases, the school psychologist will become involved and relevant data will be collected including the various interventions tried and the results of those interventions.  If the information seems to warrant it, a meeting is held and a building team, including the student’s parents, meets to determine if the student is suspected of having a disability.  If that is the case, parent permission is received and the process for a multi-factored evaluation is started.  After completion of this evaluation, the team (including the parent) reconvenes to determine if the child meets legal criteria for eligibility for a specific disability.  If the child meets eligibility criteria, the team (including the parents) will develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with specific goals and objectives, specialized services, accommodations as needed and a determination of where the services will be provided for the child. 

For special education or psychological records, please contact Lisa Minton at (937) 855-6581, Option 5 Student Services, before 1:00 pm or email her at Lisa.minton@valleyview.k12.oh.us. She will need the date of birth of the person you are requesting records for, and that person will need to come in and sign a “Release of Records” in order to get copies.

Reference “A Guide to Parent Rights in Special Education” and more information on the Ohio Dept. of Education website at www.ODE.state.oh.us.

Parent Notification of Scholarship Programs for Students with Disabilities

Your child may be eligible for a scholarship under the Autism Scholarship Program or the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program to attend a special education program that implements the child’s individualized education program and that is operated by an alternative public provider or by a registered private provider.

Information on scholarship programs are available from the Ohio Dept. of Education website at www.education.ohio.gov. Or for additional information or questions on these scholarship programs, contact: Office of Nonpublic Educational Options (614) 466-5743 Toll Free: (877) 644-6338 or e-mail autismscholarship@education.ohio.gov or peterson.scholarship@education.ohio.gov

Any Parent who may suspect their child, birth through 21, has a disability, should call the Valley View School Special Education Director, Kevin Phillips, at 937-855-6581 ext. 3010 or Lisa Minton, the Special Education Secretary, at (937)855-6581, Ext. 5010.

• Valley View School District is attempting to identify, locate and evaluate all children in the community who may have a disability.
• Children age three through five may have a disability if child has a documented deficit in: communication skills, hearing abilities, motor functioning, social emotional behavior functioning or vision abilities.
• School age students – a disability means a person having one or more conditions such as autism, hearing impairment, intellectually disabled, orthopedic and/or other health impairment, severe emotional disturbance, speech or language impairment, a specific learning disability, traumatic brain injury or a visual impairment.
• According to Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act, any student with a handicap will not be discriminated against and may qualify for special services. An individual with a handicap means a person who has, or had, or is regarded as having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his/her major life activities.