Special Education Programming and Enrollment (30 minutes)

Transcript (~26 min @ 8:40)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 8:27 Speaker 1: miss razzie thomas all in favor and that passes with five in favor and two absent and that brings us to the work of our subcommittees first up is educational programs and personnel with mr selm

▶ 8:57 Speaker 5: Good evening and welcome to the Educational Programs and Personnel Subcommittee. On tonight's agenda, starting off, will be the Special Education Programming and Enrollment. Superintendent?

▶ 9:10 Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. Selm. As we discussed a few months ago, we thought it would be best if Patty White-Lambright, the Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personnel Services, came forward prior to the end of fiscal year to update you on um some of the achievements and challenges of this past year some of the changes we're predicting for next year and some of the anticipated needs so with that

▶ 9:44 Speaker 6: miss white lambright hello everyone um i shared with you i started off when i was thinking about my update um i shared with you just a little bit about the wonderful experience i feel like i have every time we have graduation i so enjoy going to that ceremony and sitting and watching as students go by and celebrate their accomplishments and i shared with you a couple of just emotions that i was feeling as I got to watch students who I know not everybody knows but at times I know the struggles that they have had as they have gone through the school the challenges that they've met and along the way how many people support them to earn their high school diploma and participate in that graduation and I love our tradition of asking anyone who students choose to hand them that diploma and I'm always impressed when not only are there many high school staff members but middle school staff members and even sometimes elementary school staff members and just kind of shows that culmination of the journey that students have taken so I just shared with you some of my experiences that day but I think it really highlights some of our basic premises in special education that our obligation to provide a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive setting and again I always like to remind those watching and the committee our obligation is to

▶ 11:39 Speaker 6: to provide services from students from the age of three until they earn a high school diploma or turn 22. so currently we have 656 students identified as being eligible for special education services they break out as 50 students at the preschool level 250 students at the elementary 145 students at middle school 127 students at the high school for post-grad so that 18 to 22 year old 45 students out of district and 35 students who we call service only so they are Melrose residents who attend schools other than the Melrose public schools but they're eligible to receive special education services so that's kind of our overall breakdown of how our students spread out by grade ranges so in thinking about special education always

▶ 12:45 Speaker 6: are working off our district beliefs of which it we talk about creating safe supportive and welcoming schools all schools staff and members of the community can thrive in that type of environment so I was thinking how can we create and support our students with special needs within our public school system and in order to do that sometimes we're looking at bringing in outside consultants to help us think about problems and we've had a successful relationship this year with Wodeco children services Wodeco is an organization that started off many years ago by providing summer programming for students who really could not find a summer program and so they started off through summer programming and they've developed into providing school year programming and consultation to districts so we started working with them and one of the reasons I thought about having them come in is that we have often we do a lot of good work and we know what we're doing and we talk

▶ 14:02 Speaker 6: about it but we don't always put that down in writing like what's that recipe for success and what we did was have Wodeco come in and work with the Roosevelt school staff for our therapeutic learning classroom our TLC program at the Roosevelt that services students on the autism spectrum and we

▶ 14:33 Speaker 6: met and we talked and we said what is it that you're doing that's helping our students to meet with success and through their input and through the guidance of Wodeco we came up with a logic model for the TLC program and I think that process the staff really felt invested in having those conversations and reinforcing what they're doing and why they're doing something it's a very valuable experience and now one that we have documented this is our recipe this is what's been working to make this a successful program my plan is to utilize that so we're here at elementary we need to go down to our preschool and up to our middle school and then high school with that same kind of process so all of that information has been captured in what makes successful programming so that's been an exciting body of work for the whole school year and then moving on

▶ 15:44 Speaker 6: to the middle school we have continued our work in having general education and special education teachers work together collaborate this continued collaboration between provides continuity of language and approaches for students whether they're in large group settings or small group settings and I did want to also highlight that we had a success at the middle school this year where under the leadership of interim principal Jamie Parsons and special ed coordinator Susie Diodis we had no students from the middle school go out for 45 day

▶ 16:36 Speaker 6: placements that's the first time in eight years okay so that was an accomplishment and I think again it talks about the type of programming that we have available at the middle school so that's been successful I was happy

▶ 17:03 Speaker 6: that see so at the high school we've been working with some changes also come opportunities so we have a high school special ed teacher who has been with us for many years Tim Morris who is retiring and has been our alternative education special ed teacher and so we started to think what do we need to do what can we do differently with that programming and the students who have been in our alternative program have been students identified on as having special needs they've been on an IEP and they are there to help receive their academic needs but also social and emotional support and as we talk with our school administrators and our teachers we continue to see a growing need for not only special education students but all students who maybe have periods of time when they're struggling with emotional needs and need some additional support and additional options so we wanted to think about how we could create a program in which all students needs could be met not only kids who have an IEP so next year we're looking at our alternative program and it's a little bit different way of thinking about things we're going to be having general education teachers coming into our what has been traditionally special education programming. So we have English teachers who have on their schedule a period of teaching within the alternative program. So bringing in that general ed component

▶ 18:53 Speaker 6: paired with our special ed teacher, we will be able to service both special education students and general education students. And ultimately, our goal is to provide for students what they need when they need it so this is an exciting new option for us we'll be doing some work over this summer with all of those staff who are involved with the programming so that people are prepared and ready to go for september so that's an exciting change for us

▶ 19:27 Speaker 6: so thinking about the future we always have to continue to look ahead assess what we're doing and keep thinking about the future our special education numbers have increased about 30 students from this time last year and i think in general reflect our increasing enrollment in the district but it's not just looking at the number of students it's again the needs of the students

▶ 20:01 Speaker 6: and i always look to the early childhood center as a good barometer so we continue to have students coming in to the franklin with more complex special needs and medical needs so as i think about that that kind of gives me a lens of what type of training do i need to plan for Thinking in the future about the need for potentially increasing specialist support, OT, PT, speech and language, augmentative communication, BCBA, social workers, psychologists, those type of positions.

▶ 20:47 Speaker 6: So that's kind of looking at our increasing needs as we go in district. district, but we also have to look at our needs for our out-of-district students as well. So around this time last year when I came to speak with you, we had 43 students out of district, and currently we have 45 students out of district. So that's not a significant increase in numbers, but again, numbers don't tell the whole story. about the type of need and the type of placement that is required for students I came earlier in the year and spoke with you about two students had who had moved into the district who were in collaborative placements and you recall that when students move into a district from a collaborative placement we immediately pick up both programmatic responsibility and financial responsibility so as soon as those kids move in we take that on I've also been I started to share with you at an earlier meeting that we've had two other

▶ 22:07 Speaker 6: students who have moved into the district those students are not in collaborative placements those students have been placed in residential programs by the districts where they were attending school so when those students move in we become programmatically responsible but we do not become financially responsible immediately but beginning on July 1st we will be financially responsible for those two residential placements and the total cost of those two residential placements are approximately five hundred thousand dollars so that again two placements numbers alone don't tell the story it's the total need these are clearly students with significant needs their previous teams including their families and the staff that knew them in whatever district they came from determined that these students require residential placement in order to have their needs met and as an administrative team

▶ 23:18 Speaker 6: working with the city we are exploring how we will meet that cost of the additional five hundred

▶ 23:29 Speaker 6: thousand dollars um so again that's our responsibility beginning um july 1st thank

▶ 23:39 Speaker 5: Thank you, Ms. Dwight-Lambright.

▶ 23:41 Speaker 6: On that note. On that note.

▶ 23:44 Speaker 5: Are there any comments or discussion from the committee? Ms. Rezzi-Thomas.

▶ 23:50 Speaker 3: Thank you for your inspirational note at the beginning of your overview. It warmed my heart when I was reading it and that rarely happens when I'm reading the packet.

▶ 24:02 Speaker 6: But I take a creative approach this time.

▶ 24:06 Speaker 3: I was wondering if you know and I probably should have sent you this question earlier and it didn't but if you know what the breakdown is for 504 plans versus IEPs in terms of special needs for students so I don't have that

▶ 24:24 Speaker 6: number off the top of my head we have far fewer 504 plans than we do have students identified in special needs but I don't have that specific breakdown but that's something you'd like we certainly could provide they're included in the

▶ 24:40 Speaker 4: total number though no not included the 655 so after a number is still classified as general ed okay yeah the definitions of 504 was considered

▶ 24:49 Speaker 6: general and not special ed so it's those are 656 students with IEPs okay but on a

▶ 24:54 Speaker 3: 504 plan you can be receiving services like counseling some other services too Yes. Even though you may not be receiving educational services.

▶ 25:06 Speaker 4: Right, so the difference is-

▶ 25:07 Speaker 3: So I just want to explain it for people at home.

▶ 25:09 Speaker 4: So the difference is whether or not the disability impacts your ability to make effective school progress. Okay? So you may be making effective school progress and not need an IEP, which would provide you either modified curriculum of some sort. So on a 504, you may have a disability that impacts your ability to perform life activities. So for example, if you cannot get around a building because you have some sort of physical handicap, you may be eligible for a 504, but you're obviously able to perform your schoolwork to the best of your ability, make progress. You don't need an IEP, you just need a 504 for accommodations. you have a 504 for students who have asthma or adhd not as many students with adhd end up on ieps as they did 25 years ago more of them are on 504s than they were sometimes we have kids on 504s who have anxiety because again they need some accommodations for life activities but not modifications for educational progress so miss landbright are you the one tracking all that or

▶ 26:29 Speaker 6: do they have someone else doing that that fall under you uh it ultimately falls under me yeah um however um how 504 runs within the district is each building principal at the elementary level is responsible for the 504s they are if you will the 504 building coordinators so each building principle organizes how the 504 process that whole information sharing meetings around 504 so elementary it's the building principles at the secondary level our director of guidance is the 504 coordinator for 6 through 12 could

▶ 27:11 Speaker 3: get those numbers absolutely thank you any further discussion mr o'connell just a quick question um

▶ 27:21 Speaker 1: through the chair and miss white lambright thank you for the presentation um illuminating as always um in terms of the process for the out of district placements and i i suppose i should know this but i don't know who decides where a student is going is that that the administrative team that's

▶ 27:41 Speaker 6: involved it's it's a team process so if the students needs can it's been determined through the team meeting that a student's needs can't be met in district then there's a discussion about possible placements so there is a number of special education approved schools within Massachusetts and depending on what type of need what age different schools take a certain population in a certain age and so there's a conversation at the team meeting about can the students needs being met at we always first go to collaboratives

▶ 28:24 Speaker 6: because collaboratives are an extension of public school and so can their needs be met at our case scene collaborative but sometimes it could be lab collaborative or accept collaborative but beyond that a student may need a different type of instruction so it's again it's a team process parents have to sign a release for where we can send referral packets you send that information to those programs and then the programs make a determination if the student is a match for their program or not and then we go through the process of parents visiting students visiting and then ultimately making a placement decision about should it be this place or that place so it's all through the

▶ 29:20 Speaker 1: team process that's great that's very helpful and a follow-up question if I may please who is typically on the team what are these teams comprised of so

▶ 29:27 Speaker 6: So each person has a person who can commit resources for the district. Typically, it's a team chairperson. We call them special education coordinators in our district, so that's an administrative position, the classroom teacher. Anybody who's been providing service, and in case of an out of district, the student would have been on an IEP. So it would be any service provider, special ed teacher, OTPT, whatever. School psychologists might be involved in, again, depending on the needs. The building principal would be at that table. If it's at the high school level, you'd have the school counselor there as well, the parents, and if a student's 14 years or older, the student.

▶ 30:20 Speaker 1: Great. Again, very helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 30:24 Speaker 5: Thank you.

▶ 30:29 Speaker 5: further discussion I did have a couple questions if there is no further discussion particularly liked your phrasing that we we have an obligation to provide free and appropriate education and the most unrestricted setting I think that really outwardly sets the tone of what we're trying to do I really appreciated that you send it I was curious with regards to I'm gonna to say this wrong. WEDECO? WEDECO. Does WEDECO fill roles that SEAM does not? Is that why we

▶ 31:09 Speaker 6: have that collaboration? Yes. So it's a different, I think SEAM fills a lot of our needs. But as far as consultation on certain types of programs so scene does not do that kind of logic model building so where you are doing a needs assessment of a current programming and you're figuring out what are those aspects seen doesn't do that type of work for us so with depending on the type of program I want to look at I might go to an added you know a different group I also have used like landmark school I've had consultants who come into both the middle school and the high school to provide consultation on language based programming so again it just depends on the specialty and what we're looking to accomplish who might be

▶ 32:09 Speaker 5: the best person to come and help us do that thank you for that and then would you for those at home that are watching would you elaborate on what 45 day placements are and expand on the significance of why we had none last

▶ 32:27 Speaker 6: year so um a 45-day placement can be a it's a short-term placement that again the school team along with the parents make a decision that for a variety of reasons sometimes we might have we might be in a situation where there's a continuing set of challenges that a student is having and requires we believe may require a higher level of support so we may go to a 45-day placement in which they're conducting an assessment to help us determine what level of support or what type of programming does the student need and in some cases they can go through that process and say gee I think our middle school access program if you could also do this component or they'll give us suggestions about what kind of pieces we can include on that students programming in district and the student can come back to district and we can work those in and support this student here other times it might be determined that the student's level of need is higher than what we can provide in district and they may recommend that the students stay in a day placement and go out of district for the next school year or the remainder of the school year oftentimes the 45-day component tends to be around social, emotional, and behavioral needs. And currently, I think for next year, just, again, we don't make the decision based on money. I'm just giving you this information. A 45-day placement for next school year at SIEM Collaborative will be over $11,000.

▶ 34:39 Speaker 6: dollars and so if you are able to not have the need to do 45-day placements you know it's a cost savings to the district but it's also telling me that at least given the current needs of students our middle school programming