Welcome to the World of Students with Special Needs!


C.Denham, A.Bernal, J Carpentier

Who We Are (listed from left to right)

Corliss Denham, PPCD Teacher

Mrs. Denham has been a teacher at Garcia for 15 years—14 years in Kindergarten and 1 year in Pre-K. It is a lot of fun in this new position and there are many new things to learn. It is great being a teacher!  Come visit my class any time, especially if you want to read a book to the students.

Audrey Bernal, 4th & 5th grade Resource Teacher

Mrs. Bernal began her teaching career in 2005.  Her prior experience in the middle and high school settings will be an asset to the students as she can relate to what they will face in the future.  Although she teaches Language Arts, Math and Reading, another goal is to prepare the students academically and socially as they progress to middle school. 

Judy Carpentier, 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade Resource Teacher
Department Chairperson

Ms. Carpentier began her teaching career in 1992 at Garcia Elementary School.  She started out in the Multiply Impaired classroom and has worked in the Generic and PPCD classrooms as well.  Ms. Carpentier has worked with special populations since 1978, both in Texas and Massachusetts.  She believes that all children can learn and she strives to build her students’ sense of independence and confidence.

 What We Do

Garcia Elementary strives to make each child successful in school while meeting the needs of each individual student. The special education department assists the school towards the achievement of this goal.  We service children with disabilities in the core academic areas.  We provide a variety of services depending on each individuals needs. 

Our expectations are the same as in the general education classes.  We expect our students to follow classroom rules, come prepared to learn, be active learners and maintain appropriate behavior in all settings.  The 4th and 5th graders are expected to be able to walk to & from the resource classroom independently while lower grades work towards this level of independence.

Our goals are to

·          teach personal responsibility

·          reinforce social behaviors (if needed) and

·          mainstream students as efficiently and appropriately as possible.

We do this by

·          communicating with general education teachers,

·          routine observations for modifications, needs/updates and

·          communicating with parents. 


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