At the Oct. 7 Grafton School Committee meeting, Nicole McDonald, the district’s special-education presenter, gave a step-by-step explanation of how placement determinations are made for students with disabilities and outlined the district’s in‑district and out‑of‑district program options.
McDonald said the district follows the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education special‑education regulations’ standard for least restrictive environment and quoted the regulation: "to the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities are educated with students who are not disabled." She added that students should be removed from general education only "when the nature or severity of the student's disability is such that it requires more than supplementary aids and services."
The presentation separated placements by age group and by percentage of time spent outside general education. For students ages 3–5 the district uses service‑provider locations (appointment-based speech and language, for example), inclusive early‑childhood programs and, in rare cases, substantially separate programs; for ages 6–21 the district defines full inclusion (20% or less of the school day outside general education), partial inclusion (21–60% outside) and substantially separate (more than 60% outside). McDonald said teams calculate minutes of pull‑out services to determine placement and that those minutes can include special-education teacher time, speech and language, occupational therapy, physical therapy, teacher-of-the-visually-impaired services or music therapy.
McDonald described the district’s integrated preschool model as typically enrolling about 15 students (8 community peers and 7 special‑education peers) and noted the staffing pattern is often one special‑education teacher and one paraprofessional, although many classrooms have additional paraprofessionals and related‑service providers. She said the district’s intensive needs classrooms are led by a teacher holding a DESE severe‑disability license and that many students in those classrooms receive one‑to‑one paraprofessional support that is faded over time as students gain independence.
The GAIN program (ages 18–22) is treated as substantially separate under placement rules, McDonald said, because participants are not in mixed general‑education classes even though they spend time in community job sites. She said the GAIN program currently serves about 14 young adults at 204 Worcester Street, and an additional three GAIN students with significant medical needs use space and equipment at Grafton High School.
On out‑of‑district placements, McDonald said teams consider public collaborative day schools (public separate day schools), private day schools and residential schools when district programming cannot meet a student’s needs. "It is not taken lightly," she said of out‑of‑district placements, adding that a residential placement means the student requires 24‑hour special‑education programming.
McDonald noted one specific service gap: the district does not have a teacher of the deaf on staff for direct services, and preschool‑age students who require direct teacher‑of‑the‑deaf services typically attend out‑of‑district programs that provide those services and the matching community environment.
She also reviewed parents’ roles in placement decisions, telling the committee: "We are a team. That includes parents. That includes the student." McDonald explained that families must accept, reject or partially reject both the IEP and the placement page and that those rights are part of the team process; she said disagreements sometimes occur and that parents may exercise special‑education procedural rights if they do not agree with the district’s proposal.
Committee members asked where social‑emotional programs are located; McDonald said Millbury Street Elementary currently hosts the district’s social‑emotional and intensive‑needs space because it has more room than North Street, and that programming locations are determined by student need and available facilities. Committee members also asked about tuition students at the high school program; McDonald said two high‑school‑aged students and one GAIN participant are tuitioned in from other districts.
The presentation was informational; no committee votes were taken on special‑education placements at the Oct. 7 meeting. Committee members said the overview would be useful context for future budget and program decisions.