November 14, 2019 3:35 a.m.
The Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education program of the Douglas Education Service District has partnered with Roseburg Public Schools to open Douglas County’s first-ever social-emotional learning classroom for preschoolers, starting in January.
An ESD release said the classroom is designed for preschool students, ages 4 and 5, who experience social-emotional developmental delays. The release said its designed to help the students prepare for kindergarten through the use of high-quality SEL curriculum, small group intervention and parent education. The classroom will also have same-age peers with well-developed social skills, with a 1 to 2 radio of students with social learning needs and peer role models.
Examples of social-emotional developmental delays include anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and students who come from traumatic backgrounds.
Douglas ESD Special Education Coordinator Angela Keeran said the classroom is a huge puzzle piece into making public education in Roseburg more equitable for all students. Keeran said “we’re not just breaking barriers in local public education, but we’re breaking barriers for these students”. She said if a child has a developmental delay at an early age that isn’t addressed, it could have an effect on how they interact with their peers and how they learn in the classroom. Keeran said “this curriculum will address those barriers so these students can excel from kindergarten and beyond along with their peers”.
The release said the program is just for preschoolers who live in the Roseburg School District. It will serve students four days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with no sessions held on Wednesdays. The classroom will be located at Eastwood Elementary School.
Parents who are interested in signing up a preschool student for the program can get more information and apply on the Roseburg School District website: www.roseburg.k12.or.us.  The deadline to apply is November 30th. The classroom was made possible through a grant from the Ford Family Foundation.