Jennifer Babiracki, special education supervisor, was nominated by Champlin-Brooklyn Park Academy Principal Brian Mann and other principals with a cognitive disabilities program at their school - Dayton, Jefferson, Ramsey, Rum River and Sand Creek elementaries.

Babiracki says her role as a special education supervisor is to be “a problem solver who helps facilitate the development of educational programs to meet the needs of our exceptional learners.” She also said meeting individual needs is key to this, “Ensuring staff have the needed resources to provide quality individualized programs to students is what I do each and every day.”

Mann said Babiracki’s most notable work has been the creation of STARS – Structured Teaching and Relations Strategies, which provides cognitively disabled students with solid schedules, independent tasks, finds improvement areas, and builds on strengths. “Jennifer’s passion for students with developmental and cognitive disabilities was and still is contagious,” said Mann. “She fights tirelessly to support students and families.”

Babiracki and Mann both talked about the Look For’s Observation Tool that was developed by Babiracki. Staff can use this tool to ensure key environmental components are in place within a cognitively disabled classroom. “The observations and discussions that follow, improve the learning areas for our students with special needs,” said Mann. Principals get a first-hand opportunity to see what this would look like at regular principal meetings. The group takes a peek into special education classrooms where the meeting is being held, practicing what they’ve learned from Babiracki.