Special Education

Welcome to the Special Education Department

The WISD Special Education Department provides services and programs to support the efforts of 9 local school districts, 14 private school academies and 20 private schools. In collaboration with these districts, families and students, WISD provides leadership, professional development, program options, transitional services, early childhood supports and early intervention services through Early On, classroom support services, parent support, assistive technology, and legal requirements to ensure the individual needs of all students are addressed.

The Special Education department directly implements services for approximately 300 students with moderate to severe disabilities, emotional disabilities, visual impairments and the deaf and hard of hearing from birth to 26 years old in addition to the Washtenaw County Court Involved Youth program.

PDF DocumentPolicy Guidelines for Delivering Personalized Services to Students with Specialized Needs 

The public school districts in Washtenaw County, working together with Washtenaw ISD, envisions a future whereby all children have equal access and educational opportunity to learn with high expectations, within a meaningful and challenging curriculum, employing a differentiated instructional approach using multiple assessments to gauge student learning.  All children are to be recognized for their unique needs, interests, and aspirations and have a sense of belonging in their school and community.  This requires a responsive and coordinated educational system that will focus on the diverse needs of all children as well as allocate resources to build the capacity of districts, schools, and teachers to provide the services and programs necessary for success.  

The purpose and need for this policy is to establish the relationship between this countywide collaborative vision and services for students with specialized needs for support.  Ensuring equity and access to the instructional frameworks established in the vision requires that challenging expectations be set for all students.  It also requires that instructional and related service staff work in concert and with mutual responsibility to ensure success for all students. A focus on prevention, without labeling students before providing personalized instructional services is a key dimension of this policy statement:  we can no longer wait until students fall behind before providing them with personalized instructional intervention.  

The public school districts in Washtenaw County, working together with Washtenaw ISD, envisions a future whereby all children have equal access and educational opportunity to learn with high expectations, within a meaningful and challenging curriculum, employing a differentiated instructional approach using multiple assessments to gauge student learning.

ADA & Accessibility

Our School Strives To Ensure Our Website Is Accessible To All Our Visitors 

Washtenaw ISD is committed to providing a website that is fully accessible and we are currently in the process of developing a new website to better meet the needs of our customers. Our new website will include improvements to ADA compliance and accessibility, and during this transition, we remain committed to maintaining our existing website's accessibility and usability. 

ADA Compliance

Non Discrimination

It is the policy and commitment of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, age, height, weight, familial status, marital status, genetic information, sexual orientation or any legally protected characteristic, in its educational programs, activities, admissions, or employment policies in accordance with Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments, executive order 11246 as amended, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and all other pertinent state and Federal regulations.

Non Discrimination Information

ADA and Title IX Coordinator ADA and Title IX Coordinator
Brian Marcel
Associate Superintendent
1819 S. Wagner Road 
Ann Arbor, MI  48103
(734) 994-8100 ext. 1402
Cassandra Harmon-Higgins
Executive Director, HR & Legal Services
1819 S. Wagner Road 
Ann Arbor, MI  48103
(734) 994-8100 ext. 1311