PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee last week voted to pilot the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System. 

 

For the past seven years, teachers have been looking at different programs to assist in educating children with disabilities. 

 

The program is designed to be used with students in "substantially separate" classrooms to teach basic and advanced language skills to students diagnosed with autism. Many of these students have severe cognitive needs, some of which are nonverbal, in the classroom. 

 

Teachers requested to pilot the PEAK system because they were struggling meeting the needs of these students with the current resources. 

 

Schools have been having a good size turnover rate due to the struggle to find programs that would support them and the materials needed to push these students forward, said officials. 

 

"This was a piece of the backlog that we had from before COVID. [Special Education] Director [Jennifer] Stokes started looking at these programs last year, and the teachers made the decisions to explore them all through September through January and we weren't able to get a training date until January," autism specialist coordinator Danielle Allessio said. 

 

The program is made up of four modules: direct training, generalization, equivalence, and transformation. Each teacher in the pilot received a kit with the necessary materials. 

 

The PEAK program allows teachers to match what students are learning in the home with what they are learning in the classroom.

 

"With the PEAK program, it's a nice match between school and home. So many of these families have applied behavior analysis at home. So they have [registered behavior technicians] coming in, they have [board-certified behavior analysts] coming into their home," Stokes said.

 

School Committee Chair William Cameron noted that Individualized Education Plans call for services not programs and asked how the PEAK program enhances the services students receive. 

 

The PEAK program ensures that each student who is on an IEP receives specialized instruction, Stokes said. 

 

It is not a program that happens all day; rather participating students go through discrete 15-minute trials twice a day and then move on to other curriculums and programs in the classroom, she said. 

 

"It's a program that allows students to gain skills in the classroom, and then match the skills training that's going on at home so that they can gain skills across different settings," Stokes said. 

 

"As we know, students with autism have a very difficult time doing skill in one setting and transfer it to the other setting. So if we can match the settings that are happening in the home, and settings that are happening in the classroom, and allow the students to carry that across."

 

While working in the Pittsfield Public Schools, School Committee member Alison McGee said she encountered a situation where it was difficult to find a program shareable with paraprofessionals to assist students with autism. 

 

Although McGee was able to have training in applied behavior analysis, not all of the staff members could. Adding a program that gives teachers and paraprofessionals the "tools to be able to do something that takes a lot of training and expertise to design and implement yourself is really valuable," she said.

 

She did note, however, that having the program is important to add to the department's repertoire but it should not be the only program used. 

 

"Each decision should be based on what that student needs and the nature of the individualized education program," she said. 

 

School Committee member Vicky Smith will be visiting a school on Tuesday, Feb. 28, to see how it functions in the classroom and will report back. 

 

If need be, the committee will make changes to the adoption of this program during the second reading.