History of Student Services
Student Services is a team of nine full-time faculty and staff members committed to supporting students with learning obstacles at Falk.“ It became an official team at the school around the time of the expansion to the building in 2010, when the school’ s enrollment grew from 270 students to the almost 430 students we have today,” says Joanna Newlin, director of Student Services.
The team now includes three learning support specialists, one academic interventionist, one behavioral interventionist, two counselors, one school nurse, and Newlin. Lindsey DePra and Amanda Venesky are the first-ever academic and behavioral interventionists, respectively. Both were hired during the 2024 – 25 school year to address a gap that the core learning support and counseling teams were stretched too thin to fill.
“ There’ s a good handful of kids that needed more individualized, really intensive supports because they might learn differently and think differently than their peers in the classroom,” DePra says.“ My role is to really look at those individual kids and provide intensive instruction based on how they learn best— taking their strengths and using those to really accelerate their growth.”
As behavioral interventionist, Venesky works with students and faculty to foster healthy behavior for learning and relationship-building. Much of her work revolves around“ making sure that [ students ] are safe, [ and ] their bodies are calm and regulated,” which includes providing breathing and coping strategies they can bring back to the classroom with them.
Venesky’ s role also involves partnering with classroom teachers to troubleshoot behavioral concerns. If a teacher is stumped or having a hard time with a group of students, Venesky says she’ s available to observe, offer strategies, and brainstorm potential solutions.
TIER 3: INTENSIVE
TIER 2: TARGETED
TIER 1: UNIVERSAL
Academic Support
In both academic and social-emotional contexts, Student Services provides support on three levels— Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3— based on the individual strengths and needs of the student.
TIER 1
Tier 1 academic support refers to flexible learning environments and research-based practices employed by classroom teachers for their students. During the 2024 – 25 school year, for instance, Director Jill Sarada announced a targeted focus on Universal Design for Learning( UDL), a practice that helps teachers plan accessible lessons for a wide range of students. For more on UDL, visit page 8.
TIER 2
Tier 2 academic support is a collaborative approach involving a classroom teacher, a learning specialist, and occasionally, support staff from the Pittsburgh- Mt Oliver Intermediate Unit. Tier 2 support often occurs in targeted small groups and can be either“ push-in,” where students remain in the classroom, or“ pull-out,” where an individual or small group is pulled from the classroom to receive lessons in a distraction-free environment.
The Tier 2 support team at Falk currently includes three learning support specialists: Maggie Rooney( grades K – 2), Danya Lang( grades 3 – 5), and Gina Henderson( grades 6 – 8). The three contribute to student learning in several critical ways, including literacy interventions, targeted math support, and push-in classroom visits throughout the day.
TIER 3
Tier 3 academic support, referred to by Student Services as“ intensive intervention,” provides individualized support for students experiencing significant difficulties making academic progress. As academic interventionist, DePra leads the majority of these sessions.
Intensive interventions involve“ looking at the whole child and really addressing the deep core of where they’ re struggling,” DePra says. To accomplish this, she works with some students daily and others just two or three times a week. The ultimate goal, she adds, is to get her students to a point where they no longer need individual support and can transition to less intensive, push-in intervention with learning support specialists.
FALK LABORATORY SCHOOL | UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH 11