Lopez Exceptional Center

Welcome to Lopez Exceptional Student Center. Our school was originally built as an annex to Lopez Elementary School and was established to serve Exceptional Student Education (ESE) students that required a small center-based approach to meet their individual needs. In the past, Lopez ESC served the students with Severe and Pround Mental Handicaps, Autism or Emotional/Behavioral Disorders. Today, we are proud to serve students with Intellectual Disabilities (InD) and students with Autism. Placement is based on the decision of the IEP team for the student and specific criteria must be met for placement to occur. This team will convene at the student's neighborhood school with a district-level staffing specialist conducting the meeting.

Our center-based approach allows our 60-70 students to receive instruction in small groups or 4-7 students, with the support of a teacher and paraprofessionals assigned to assist the students. We are also fortunate to have an outstanding Nursing staff to meet the health needs of the students and an ESE Specialist, School Psychologist and School Social Worker to help support the students and their families. In addition, based on needs identified as educationally relevant services on the student's Individual Educational Plan (IEP), various other services and therapies may be provided including physical therapy, occupational therapy, orientation and mobility, vision services and speech and language therapy.