Jim Thorpe Area School District is moving forward with a free, state grant-funded program aimed at improving how teachers, staff and students embrace classmates with disabilities. The best part, officials said last week, is that it won’t cost the district a dollar.

The program, called “Include Me,” is run by the ARC of Pennsylvania and funded through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

District Superintendent Robert Presley presented the initiative Wednesday night at Jim Thorpe’s committee meeting, describing it as a low-risk opportunity the district had been pursuing for several months.

“How do we include students that have disabilities? What can we do to make the culture better?” Presley said.

The district has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the ARC of Pennsylvania outlining the program’s scope and confirming that there is no financial obligation.

The MOU is on the agenda for approval at the board meeting tonight.

Under the agreement, the ARC will send representatives directly into district buildings to work alongside teachers and, with parental permission, students. The professional development offered through the program spans inclusive classroom practices, positive behavior supports, assistive technology, and disability awareness and acceptance.

Professional development, Presley said, can be delivered live, virtually or through an online catalog that teachers can access independently.

District officials said they are considering ways to make the training individualized, allowing teachers to select sessions most relevant to their classrooms rather than sitting through a one-size-fits-all presentation.

“We could say, we’re struggling, we really need to do trauma care for all,” Presley said. “A lot of our students come here with trauma. How can we do that? Maybe that’s something we put in.”

The program also includes a classroom-based component in which ARC representatives use children’s books centered on students with disabilities to lead discussions about inclusion and acceptance.

Presley described one example shown to district officials during an earlier presentation.

“The book talks about a student who’s in a class who has a disability,” he said. “It’s all about accepting every student that’s in this district.”

The district met with an ARC of Pennsylvania representative roughly six weeks ago and has since worked to finalize the memorandum of understanding. An ARC representative also plans to visit district classrooms before the end of the current school year to observe and identify areas where the program could be most useful.

“She’s willing to come in and do an assessment so we can target certain areas,” Presley said.

District officials noted the program carries minimal risk.

“If it works, great,” Presley said. “If we find out it doesn’t do what we thought it was going to do, then we just don’t do it the next year.”

Presley said the district views it as a natural extension of its broader effort to bring more special education services and programs in-house.

“Inclusion is a huge thing,” he said. “We keep bringing back more and more programs for students. It’s nice to make sure that they are included effectively into our culture and accepted.”