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North Penn SD special education leaders outline expanded continuum, clerical plan edits and training
Summary
Special education leaders reported to the ECI committee on the 2024'—2025 special education plan, additional professional development, expanded elementary and secondary service continuums, and facility and transition work. They said clerical edits to the approved special education plan will be posted after consultation with the Pennsylvania
Dr. Kuchler and Dr. Bolden presented an overview of the North Penn School District's special education program for the 2024'—2025 school year, describing staffing, curriculum alignment, professional development and plans to expand services and facilities.
Dr. Kuchler told the committee that the district's special education plan—approved last July—includes a workable professional development schedule but contains clerical errors caused by auto-populated entries; the presenters said they have discussed edits with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and will update the plan on the district website within about a month. "We spoke with the Pennsylvania Department of Ed, and they suggested that we just inform our community here as we're doing. And then we'll, put the updated plan, back up onto our website when that's complete," Dr. Kuchler said.
Presenters highlighted the year'long professional learning series for special education staff, including training for supervisors, BCBAs, paraprofessionals and RBTs, and asynchronous learning used on snow days. For elementary services they described a deliberate effort to ensure a continuum of supports: teams will designate case managers in each school for students with social, emotional and behavioral needs, and the district will ensure a teacher is available to deliver full-block ELA or math instruction in a special-education setting when a team recommends it.
On numbers, presenters said district elementary leadership indicated roughly 19 specialized elementary classrooms across three categories (emotional support, life-skills/MDS, and autistic support); presenters specified "2 emotional support classrooms, 1 life skills MDS classroom, and then the rest are autistic support classrooms." At the secondary level they reported the district serves more than 1,200 students with nearly 100 special-education teachers and 17 specialized classrooms across middle and high school buildings.
The district has updated curriculum resources for specialized classrooms and required training for staff who support students taking state alternate assessments (PASA/DLM); presenters said the updates include academic and daily-living/soft-skill curriculum components and that the district has enhanced its student transition processes (elementary'to'middle and middle'to'high).
On facilities and programming, Dr. Bolden said the district is planning to create equitable sensory rooms across the three middle schools using grant funding and to provide staff training and coaching; the goal is to have rooms operational sometime in the next school year. Special-education administrators also said they are participating in planning meetings with architects on the new high-school design to ensure classroom placement and supports align with program needs.
Committee members asked for clarification on counts and program placement, and presenters acknowledged some on-the-spot number clarifications during the meeting. There were no formal votes during the update; presenters requested continued committee support for training and facility planning.
