Private School Teacher Leverages Expertise

From Classroom Therapists to Benefit All Students

Jennette Harren holds a special place in my heart. Nearly a decade ago, she welcomed my daughter into her kindergarten classroom at North Phoenix Baptist Weekday Preschool in Phoenix. To an outsider, this might have seemed like a risky choice compared to a public school with all its services, but Vanessa couldn’t have been in better hands.

I first met Jennette a few years prior when she taught my son. From this experience, I knew how much she loved her students, how she prioritized relationships with parents, and how intentional she was about allowing families to share with her their thoughts and concerns so they could collaborate to meet the child’s needs. This is her approach for every student, and it works.

Vanessa is now in middle school, but her inclusive education in Ms. Harren’s kindergarten class still stands out as exceptional. I recently spoke with Jennette to find out what advice she might have for other private schools and teachers as they seek to offer high-quality, inclusive educational experiences for students with disabilities.

Prioritize Family Relationships

If Jennette has one piece of advice for teachers who have students with disabilities, it is this: Build a relationship with the family. She suggests that teachers meet with the child's family–allowing them to share ideas and concerns–and establish how the teacher or school can collaborate with the child’s therapists, instructional coach or any other service providers to meet the student’s needs.

“One of the best gifts from Vanessa’s mom was an introduction letter, letting me know all about her,” Jennette remembers. “This letter included basic skills that Vanessa knew, goals they were working on in therapy and any information that would help me while working with Vanessa.” A parent is the child’s first teacher, and Jennette believes that tapping into and listening to a parent is the best preparation any teacher can get.

Collaborate with Therapists

Jennette has taught dozens of students with disabilities in her career, including some with developmental delays, emotional disabilities, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and high functioning autism. Throughout the years, she has found one of her greatest assets to be the therapists that visit her classroom to serve her students. And this is one of the advantages of private schools. In public schools, private or outside therapists are unable to come into classrooms or interact with staff.

In Jennette’s classroom, the therapists are there for an individual child, yet she has been able to collaborate with them, carry over concepts they are working on with individual students, and work on those same concepts with the entire class. Some of the best inclusive situations over the years have been because the therapists are in the classroom. 

“One year, all the students thought the therapist was there for everyone,” Jennette recalls. “It was the most amazing experience. Weekly, the children would greet the therapist at the door. Since the child receiving services was working on turn taking and social skills, some of the therapy time was spent playing games and working on conversations during games. Each week, all the students were excited to find out what game was being played. Not one student knew who the therapist was really there for since everyone could join.” 

Celebrate How Inclusion Benefits All Students

Over the years, Jennette has witnessed the benefits of inclusion come full circle. She has seen individual needs met, collaboration between the adults on a student’s team, parents receive support to navigate special services, the creation and development of education plans, classmates of all abilities form friendships, students exchange learning, and classrooms that function on kindness to all. 

Jennette believes that the inclusive, kind classroom culture she has experienced cannot be taught; it just happens when students of all abilities are able to learn with one another. “We teach how to treat each other,” she says. “But our students’ love for their friends and each other has shown what a beautiful world this is. One of our mottos in our classroom is to show God’s love to others. I cannot think of a better way to show God’s love than to be inclusive of all.”