Episode #16: A Look at SFSD's Special Education Program - Part 1 (with SPED Director, Dr. Kristy Feden) & Part 2 (with Parent Bekah Cheppenko)

The Sioux Falls School District provides specialty and individually designed instruction to eligible students with unique needs from birth to age 21. These services are embedded within our schools and serve nearly 4,000 students. Services are designed to meet each student’s unique educational needs as identified in their Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) or Individual Education Program (IEP).  In Part 1 (0:20-12:25) of this Spotlight episode, listen as Superintendent Stavem sits down with Director of Special Education, Dr. Kristy Feden, to talk about the different opportunities SFSD’s Special Education program provides to achieve its mission of providing quality special education and related services to help every student succeed. They discuss how the terms “services” and “supports” can mean various things, including intensive developmental delay services to Occupational Therapy or Physical Therapy for speech and physical function. They also discuss the importance of early intervention for students with unique needs and parents as partners.  In Part 2 (12:28-27:51), Dr. Stavem talks with Bekah Cheppenko, mom to Skyler Dohrewend. Skyler started receiving special education services and supports when he was very young after being diagnosed with Autism at age 3. Now all grown up and about the transition out of the SFSD Special Education program, Skyler is thriving in society and will be attending college at Southeast Technical College for Graphic Design. Listen as Bekah shares how she started to suspect that Skyler may need additional support, what life was like after his diagnosis, and all the people, including the SFSD Special Education program, that helped them along the way. Bekah hopes Skyler’s story will provide reassurance for the future for families who may be experiencing something similar. She also hopes to be a resource for families during a time that may feel a little uncertain. “I would love for people to look at Skyler and say, look, he went to school, he graduated National Honors Society, he has a job, he is functioning in society…he is going to college, he is going to do all the things that he wants to do. And that might not be everybody, but it’s nice to know there is that hope, there is that peace, that your child is going to be fine.”