Classroom Teacher:	Jennifer Bluestein
Classroom Teacher:	Karinne Defanti
Principal:	Lynzie Brodhun
Program Specialist:	Lisa Godleski
Director of Special Education:	Rachel Allen

Our classroom is Cotati-Rohnert Park’s first ever co-taught TK classroom, consisting of one general education teacher, one special education teacher, two paraeducators, and 16 incredible students. Our classroom is a true inclusion classroom, in which all students, regardless of disability, are in the general education classroom at all times. We support all students through the use of core boards, a classroom calm corner, flexible seating options, sentence frames, visuals, AAC devices, co-teaching, and sensory breaks. Through these supports, we meet all students’ needs so that they can feel regulated and have equal access to the grade-level general education curriculum. In the 23-24 school year, our co-taught model will expand to accommodate two new co-taught kindergarten classes within our district!

Being teachers in this classroom has exceeded every expectation for how much we would learn, grow, and develop as educators in the first year of this program. Working with this diverse population of students has taught us that true educational inclusion can change so much about the treatment, care, and understanding of students with disabilities in both the classroom and larger community for the better. We feel truly honored that we were trusted with such an immense responsibility of being the two teachers that were able to support this class during its inaugural year. Our classroom receives so much support, love, and care from our community, school site, and district. Research shows that true inclusive settings, such as ours, benefit not only students with IEPs, but students without IEPs as well. We believe that full inclusion classrooms are truly a gift to all students and adults involved, promoting a more inclusive and neurodivergent-affirming environment that yields a community where people who are different are a valued part of the community and embraced, celebrated, and respected just as much as neurotypical peers. This classroom, the students, and our community give us hope for a more inclusive, diverse, caring, and loving world for future generations.