Independent review urges systemwide changes to special-education practices in Barre Unified Union School District #97

At a school-board meeting, Dr. Megan Roy presented an independent review of special-education practice in Barre Unified Union School District #97 and recommended systemwide changes aimed at improving classroom instruction, tightening evaluation timelines and aligning staffing and intervention models.

The review, commissioned by the district and delivered to the board by Roy with District Director Melody Frank in the room, found the district’s combined counts of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), 504 plans and education-support-team (EST) plans were substantially above typical benchmarks and pointed to weaknesses in the district’s multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Roy told the board the review was “proactive” and intended to provide an outside, bird’s-eye assessment of district systems.

That finding matters because the report shows about 43 percent of students across the district were recorded as needing some level of additional support (EST, 504 or IEP) at the time of the review — a level Roy said is considerably higher than state and national norms and that signals the district can improve general-education…