Sharp Criticism for Special Ed
“I am not hearing that we are serving students today in an effective manner,” Board of Education member Colleen Cusimano said at a the Sept. 27 BOE meeting. Teachers and administrators met with the BOE to review an 84-page update report on special education in Frederick County Public Schools.
Last month, parents from the local chapter of Decoding Dyslexia asked the BOE for better teacher training, sharing the experiences of dyslexic students which showed inconsistencies in instruction. Since that meeting, Board Vice President, Liz Barrett said she had used social media to contact and meet with a group of 47 parents and teachers who shared quality concerns about special education services and advocated for improvement, especially in communications with parents. The conversation between the BOE and FCPS representatives on current special education practices at the nearly six-hour meeting was heated at times.
Keith Harris, Ph.D, executive director of accelerating achievement and equity, said 11%, or over 4,000 FCPS students qualify for special education services. Now, 18 months into a three-year special education action plan, FCPS has launched several initiatives. Central Office staffing has been restructured. The department has adopted a caseload model with class sizes of between 10 and 15 students.
Harris pointed out that staffing is allocated at the beginning of the school year and that up to an additional 200 students with special needs may be added through enrollment during the year. The department has also transitioned to standards aligned Individualized Education Programs “to accelerate achievement and increase the focus on working toward grade level.” He also noted the numbers of students with behavioral issues requiring intensive support have increased.
Carol Breeze, acting director of special education compliance, said FCPS had met all 2016-17 state requirements for compliance (with one line-item exception) such as the State Performance Plan (SPP), Annual Performance Report (APR), the MSDE Targeted Review and Bi-Annual Report. FCPS had also conducted an internal audit of some 400 IEPs during the year.
Barrett pointed out that only 54% of the IEPs had data points illustrating a student’s rate of growth. She said the special education teachers she had talked to over the last two weeks had expressed a desire to do better, and that having Central Office administrators check over the IEPs for completeness would be one way to implement teacher training at no additional cost.
Team Meeting Parent Survey Also at issue is the . Barrett, pictured right, identified herself as the parent of a special education student when she said that out of eight team meetings, she had been offered a Parent Survey only once. “There is a competence gap,” she said, “An IEP is a contract. We have basic compliance issues here. I don’t think parents have a way to engage.”
Referring to the parent survey, Board member Joy Schaefer pointed out that only 116 were completed out of more than 4,000 distributed,. “That’s not a huge return,” she said. Michelle Concepcion, director of educational instruction, said there were multiple reasons why, and her department had distributed surplus laptops to 22 schools that requested them, so that parents could take the survey. “We need a concerted effort to get the survey out,” Barrett said. “Our job is to find ways to engage with parents.”
The BOE also focused specifically on special education for students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia, pointing out that the 84-page update report only addressed dyslexia. Concepcion spoke to the difficulties with diagnosis since there had been multiple changes in directives from the state.
“The pendulum has swung,” Concepcion said. “In the 1990s we were teaching Alpha-Phonics and diagnosis was something only a doctor could do. A Technical Assistance Bulletin was issued last November and we are now permitted to identify dyslexia. We are still adjusting to this change.” She said a group had been meeting since the spring to explore instruction service delivery models for teaching dyslexic students. Deputy Superintendent, Michael Markoe, Ph.D, said a Central Office staff member with appropriate training had been meeting weekly with 12 severely dyslexic students. He added: “We need to be very intentional about this issue, taking action with the staff we have right now.”
As the BOE began a discussion on teacher training, Board member Dr. Ken Kerr proposed a pilot program to certify teachers in Orton-Gillingham when working with a diagnosis of dyslexia. The group from Decoding Dyslexia had previously advocated for this training.
Harris added that FCPS does have “folks in the system trained in Orton-Gillingham.” So Board member Michael Bunitsky followed up: “What do you need to make this work? We have the resources. How can we figure out a way to reach out?” Cusimano added: “How do we go beyond the tools we already have? We need to bring together individuals to start the process.” Schaefer added: “This needs to get to us sooner,” referring to BOE involvement.
“What is the barrier to compliance?” asked Board member Dr. April Miller. “What is the plan for a comprehensive approach?” In response to her own question, she suggested a comprehensive approach should be a tiered intervention, professional training, an evidence-based reading plan as “the all-important basis of learning,” and a mitigation and remediation plan.
“You can’t ignore the parent voices here,” Barrett added. “You have to ask if any of this monitoring is working.” In addition, Barrett recommended adding the role of ombudsman for quality control and active outreach. She also recommended adding training for administrators and a process to measure training effectiveness “so that we don’t confuse activities with achievement. We need the benchmarks.”
