Skip to main content

Navigating Down Syndrome

School Aged

Education

Most parents of school-aged children worry about how their child will do in school. Will my child find friends?  Will they succeed academically?  In addition to these same concerns, parents of a child with Down syndrome are also faced with educational placement. They choose between mainstream, special education, inclusion, or a mix of options.  Which one is right for your child depends upon your child's needs and what programs are offered in your school district.  Therefore, UDSF recommends that you reach out to other parents who have a child with Down syndrome in your community through UDSF's Facebook page to find out what they have done and learned from their experience.  Article.

What You Need to Know

Federal Law (IDEA). A federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that all children with disabilities have a right to a free, appropriate public education in the "least restrictive environment."  Under this law, states provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities.  

Individualized Education Program (IEP).  An IEP is a written statement of the educational program designed to meet a child's individual needs.  If you want your child to receive special education services in school, they must have an IEP.  The purpose of the IEP is to (1) set learning goals for your child and (2) specifically identify the services that the school district will provide to your child.  Learn more about IEPs here. 

Your Child's Education in Utah

Child getting off school bus

Are you new to Utah and wondering about education for your child with Down syndrome?  Contact your specific school district by clicking on the button below.  In addition, the Utah Parent Center has Parent Consultants assigned to seven school districts namely Alpine, Canyons, Davis, Granite, Nebo, Salt Lake City and Tooele County. The District Parent Consultant can help assistant you in preparing for IEP meetings, provide you support during IEP meetings, and much more. Learn more by clicking on the button below. 

UDSF's Education Programs

Peer Presentation Tool Kit

UDSF's Peer Presentation Tool Kit.  The Utah Down Syndrome Foundation provides an educational program for parents and school teachers called the Peer Presentation Tool Kit.  This educational program promotes tolerance and acceptance of children with Down syndrome in the classroom.  It helps school age peers understand what Down syndrome is and how they can help their friend with Down syndrome learn in an inclusive setting. The kit can be personalized and offers activities, books, and learning tools. World Down Syndrome Day in March or Down Syndrome Awareness month in October are perfect opportunities to use this tool and do a presentation. Oder your kit today!  Learn More.

Online Educational Resources

The following are examples of some online resources for you to research on your own, UDSF is not specifically recommending or endorsing these programs:
 

Education & Support for Caregivers

The more you know and feel supported as a caregiver, the more successful you and your child will be. The Utah Parent Center can direct you to resources in the community that provide support and education for caregivers who are raising a child with special needs.  Learn more. 

Health Care Information: Ages 5 to 13

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) created the following guidelines for parents to help them with the special health care needs of their child with Down syndrome. This document can be downloaded and shared with your child’s doctor.           

Medical Check List (ages 5-13 yrs)

 

Additional Community Resources (Compiled by Utah Parent Center)

  • Beaver, Iron, Garfield, Kane and Washington Counties

  • Cache, Box Elder & Rich Counties

  • Davis Morgan and Weber Counties

  • Juab, Millard, Piute, Sanpete, Sevier, & Wayne County

  • Salt Lake County

  • Summit County

  • Tooele County

  • Utah County

  • Additional Statewide Activities

© 2024 Utah Down Syndrome Foundation
Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
  4. How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us? Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
  5. What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
  6. How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies? We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users. Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
  7. Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
  8. How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website. Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  9. How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
  12. What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
  13. Permission to Use of Materials The right to download and store or output the materials in our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.
Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

Powered by Firespring