The Individualized Specialty Education Classroom (ISEC) room has doubled in size and changed how they teach and learn in their classes in the 2024-2025 school year.

The ISEC room size increased a large amount due to incoming freshmen. They had to add a second teacher and change a lot of their practices. According to the Nebraska Department of Education, there are a lot of factors surrounding the Special Education programs of Nebraska.  

“(The growth) made more schedule conflicts because we have to figure out different groupings then what we were used to in the past,” Advisor Heather England said. “We had to add more kids to the schedule so more things are happening in a day then what we were used to.” 

In the classroom with special education there are a number of factors that go into the way teachers have to consider their teaching methods. With a range of abilities, andmore kids, there are more factors in the way the class will be taught. This is highlighted in the Education Career Alternatives Program (ECAP). 

 “We added two teachers that split the days,” Advisor Amy Joseph said. “We have grouped the kids into smaller groups, a little more one on one, and we have another group to do more life skills things throughout the school.” 

 With all change comes the challenges. Among the challenges, there seems to be a common pattern on what many believe to be the biggest challenge. England, Hein, and Joseph gave very similar ideas on the challenges within the room. 

“I think some of the hardest struggles we have had is learning about the new kids,” England said, “What behaviors they may have, what concerns and medical needs they may have. Those kinds of things. If they need routines, strict structure, schedules and all that, and putting it in place.” 

The future of how the program may fluctuate has a lot of potential. According to ECAP, a large thing to be thought about is all the different ways one will need to teach to incorporate the needs in the room. They highlight the different ways they have to think about how to teach from general education classrooms. 

“I think there will always be changes just because of the different levels of kids we have,” Joseph said. 

With the talk of change comes the readiness for such change; with the adding of two teachers this year. The idea of what could happen is up to debate. 

“I think, if we are going to get more kids next year,” sophomore Marissa Hein said, “I think we are going to need another teacher.” 

Even with challenges the general feeling of the changes comes down to the attitude of the room. The teachers seem determined to stay positive. 

“I think there are ups and downs to it, but overall it’s running pretty smooth,” England said. 

Change goes along with time. The overall viewpoint is change happens over and over and gets easy as it is repeated. 

“We are still trying to figure a few things out, but every week it starts to flow a little bit better,” Joseph said. “I think everyone is figuring out everybody’s different things the kids can do and what we can do for the kids.”