Our All Day Kindergarten provides a safe, nurturing environment that sets a solid foundation for a student's future education. By starting your child within the same school system that he or she will attend in elementary, middle and high school, you set the foundation now for future success and lifelong friendships.

Instruction is based on meeting the needs of children in all developmental areas to provide the foundation of future learning. Language development, self-expression, creative thinking, physical and social development are major goals of this program. A student must be at least five years of age on or before August 1st of the current year to enroll in a kindergarten program.

Need to Schedule a School Tour? Call us at 812-926-2090

Our unique "No Excuses" College Program sets the expectation for all kids that you can go to college. This interactive, fun program allows each class to "adopt" a university and learn more about college in general.

Preparing students for college is a common thread throughout all of our schools. From K-12, our students are engaged in programs that set the tone for potential college aspirations and include college visits during Middle School.

While college isn't right for everyone, we believe that all students should understand the opportunities that exist. For those that choose to follow the college path, we offer an award winning Dollars for Scholars program that has awarded an impressive $1 million dollars of scholarships since its inception. For those who opt for a technical route, our students have access to numerous vocational opportunities at the Southeastern Indiana Career Center.

Language Arts
The elementary language arts program includes instruction in the areas of phonics/decoding, vocabulary strategies, reading fluency, reading comprehension, writing/grammar, and spelling. Our teachers use a variety of scientifically based resources including Orton-Gillingham to ensure that students receive instruction aligned to the adopted state academic standards.

NWEA (Grades K-6) and mClass (Grades K-2) assessments are administered to students three times a year. These ongoing diagnostic assessments provide data to guide instruction and meet individual student needs.

Teachers use digital resources such as iXL, Read Works, Reading Eggs, Moby Max, and Math Seeds to supplement the language arts curriculum.

Our Language Arts curriculum is aligned with Indiana's State Standards.

Math
The elementary teachers at SDCSC use a variety of scientifically research based resources to meet the instructional needs of all the students. Teachers use digital resources such as Accelerated Math and Math Facts in a Flash along with other web-based sites to supplement math instruction.

Inspect (Grades 2-6) and mClass (Grades K-1) assessments are administered to students three times a year. These diagnostic assessments provide data to guide instruction and meet individual student needs. In addition, teachers utilize standards based assessments to ensure student mastery of the adopted state math standards.

Our Math curriculum is aligned with Indiana's State Standards.     

How Do You Determine if a Child is High Ability?
A High Ability Student is one who: "performs at, or shows the potential for performing at, an outstanding level of accomplishment in at least one domain when compared to other students of the same age, experience, or environment; and is characterized by exceptional gifts, talents, motivation, or interests."

SDCSC High Ability Philosophy
We believe that High Ability students have a right to:
• Know about their giftedness
• Learn something new every day
• Seek guidance in the development of their talent(s)
• Feel good about their accomplishments

We also feel that High Ability students should have access to:
• Education grounded in recognition of individual differences and unique learning needs.
• Instruction responsive to their individual learning rate, style, and complexity.
• Learning environments that incorporate activities to help these students develop independence, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

We provide an appropriate range of educational services to effectively meet the cognitive and affective needs of all high ability students. All students will have equal access to high ability programming, including students with limited English proficiency, students with cultural or socioeconomic differences, and students with unique learning needs.

SDCSC High Ability Program Goals
Goal 1:
High Ability students in grades K-12 will be successfully identified regardless of gender, race, age or socio-economic background.

Goal 2
All staff and stakeholders will be trained in the academic, social, and emotional needs of High Ability students.

Goal 3
We will provide a challenging academic education that develops critical, creative, and evaluative thinking processes in order to provide the necessary tools for effective problem solving.

Goal 4
We will provide an environment for high ability students that fosters their social and emotional needs by promoting an appreciation of giftedness.Content needs to  be discussed.

Keeping open lines of communication between teachers and parents is a top priority. Our classroom teachers will happily meet with you during the school year to discuss your child's progress and address any areas of concern or focus. To schedule a parent teacher meeting, simply contact your child's teacher via e-mail. Click below to access the Staff Directory page.

Staff Directory

We believe in serving every child's needs and work diligently to provide an exceptional educational experience for students who require additional assistance. South Dearborn School Corporation is a member of the Ripley-Ohio-Dearborn Special Education Cooperative (ROD), which provides trained staff and program support for special needs students.

To learn more about our Special Education department, please contact us at 812-926-2090.

Visit the Ripley-Ohio-Dearborn Special Education Cooperative web site.

Good speech, language, and communication skills are an important part of school success.

Speech & language therapy is offered throughout the entire South Dearborn School Corporation, including each elementary school, the middle school, as well as at the high school level.

Every child is unique and has an individual rate of speech/language development. Children learn speech gradually and as they mature and get older, they often correct speech errors on their own without intervention. If a child is unable to correctly produce sounds when he/she reaches a certain age, speech therapy services may be needed.

Speech and language services are available to students that qualify under Indiana's Article 7. These services focus on remediating skills in the areas of articulation (speech sound production), expressive & receptive language (grammar, vocabulary, word retrieval, listening comprehension), fluency (stuttering), voice disorders, as well as pragmatics (social skills). A student may be referred for an evaluation in the area of speech and/or language impairment by the speech-language pathologist, a teacher, or a parent. Speech and language therapy offers students the ability to participate in individual and group therapy type situations.

At South Dearborn Community Schools speech screenings are given at the kindergarten level either at pre-registration (Kindergarten Round-up) or at the beginning of the school year. If a referral is needed at any stage in a student's school career, you will be contacted by the school's speech-language pathologist. If you have concerns about your child's speech-language development do not hesitate to contact the school speech therapist.

Important early intervention speech therapy evaluations/services are also offered to students who qualify, prior to entering kindergarten, from ages 3-5 by contacting the ROD Special Education Cooperative at 812-623-2212.