Northern Suburban Special Education District (NSSED)
The Northern Suburban Special Education District (NSSED) is a special education cooperative providing programs and services to eighteen (18) member districts throughut the northern suburbs of Chicago. NSSED operates three programs. The Early Childhood Program serves students age 3-5 with a myriad of strengths and needs in both classroom and inclusion settings. The Educational and Life Skills Program serves school age children 5-21 (up to the day before their 22nd birthday) with more profound and multiple areas of need. The North Shore Academy serves students age 5-21 (up to the day before their 22nd birthday) with needs related more to emotional and behavioral issues. NSSED nurtures relationships with its students, parents, staff and other stakeholders to develop and provide educational programming within these three programs as well as offering services to support students within their local district’s programs and Interns spend time working collaboratively with all.
NSSED works jointly with the Low Incidence Cooperative Agreement (LICA). Its mission is to provide diagnostic, educational and related services to students who are deaf and hard of hearing, ages birth to 21(up to the day before their 22nd birthday), who reside in this area and whose needs can be met most efficiently and effectively on a regional basis. This includes children with other disabilities in addition to hearing loss.
NSSED provides numerous support services to member districts including coaching support related to Problem-Solving/Response to Intervention. Interns at NSSED spend approximately half of their time in one of the programs mentioned above and the remainder of time is spent within the additional programs and services. Interns work with their supervision team to more fully develop their internship activities based on their goals and the district’s needs.
Interns receive ongoing training and supervision from both licensed and certified psychologists focusing on developing meaningful and effective intervention components through best practices in assessment, prevention/intervention, consultation and supervision. Opportunities for research and other interest areas are limited only by what is in the best interest of students. Interns avail themselves of the many professional development opportunities afforded on a nearly daily basis throughout our cooperative.
Interns receive a stipend of $17,000 and a competitive benefits package as part of their compensation. The Interns hours are the same as the programs that they work in, typically 8:00-3:30 with some variation and follow the District calendar.
A typical week:
2 hours direct supervision with licensed psychologist
2 hours direct supervision with certified school psychologist
12 hours direct service (e.g., individual/group therapy, individual/group intervention)
12 hours indirect service (e.g., individual/systems level consultation, meetings)
4 hours report writing and other paperwork responsibilities
3 hours professional development activities
3 hours prep time (e.g., intervention planning, research, case notes)