Optimize presenters outline statewide plan to attract, prepare and retain Michigan special-education staff

LANSING — Consultants for Optimize, a state-funded special-education capacity project, briefed the House Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid and the Department of Education on progress Tuesday, saying the initiative aims to overhaul how Michigan attracts, prepares and retains special-education personnel.

Optimize project consultant Laurie Vander Ploeg told the committee the effort, funded through the School Aid Act (authorized under a 94d appropriation), began in 2021 and started work in 2022. “Optimize is a project that’s intended to build statewide capacity. This is not a project that’s intended to just build pockets of excellence across the state,” Vander Ploeg said.

The presentation outlined a mix of policy recommendations, marketing and program work designed to increase the supply of qualified special-education staff statewide and to reduce attrition. Kathy Fortino, project manager for Optimize, described the project as a partnership-driven effort that has convened roughly 500 partners and produced multiple action teams focused on barriers to staffing, credentialing, paperwork reduction, behavior supports and compensation.

Committee members were shown Optimize’s public-facing website and a job portal that the presenters said lists about 3,000 posted positions; presenters noted that is likely an undercount because about 14 intermediate school districts (ISDs) do not post openings externally. Vander Ploeg described outreach to those ISDs to upload openings at no cost so the portal better reflects statewide demand.

Optimize staff said they identified 127 barriers through an initial analysis, influence-mapped them, and prioritized five or six to drive action-team work. Among the project’s near-term accomplishments, Vander Ploeg highlighted that the State Board of Education adopted new K–12 special-education preparation standards on May 13, and Optimize is working with the Michigan Department of Education’s Office of Educator Excellence (OEE) on a proposed new special-education credential intended to streamline preparation into a four-year pathway with greater emphasis on literacy, numeracy and behavior strategies.

The presenters also described a behavior-action team that convened more than 70 participants and is exploring a statewide professional-development and coaching system intended to reduce reliance on seclusion and restraint, address disproportionality and strengthen multi-tiered systems of supports (MTSS). That work is being coordinated with multiple partners, including My LEAP, MAISA, SEILN, the Department of Education’s school mental-health division and local community mental-health providers.

Optimize said it secured U.S. Department of Labor funding for a hybrid school-psychologist model and that MACE (the Michigan Association for Curriculum and Instruction-related leadership work referenced by the presenters) is implementing recommendations for administrative and paraeducator credentialing. Presenters also discussed a proposed 18-month workforce study with Michigan State University’s EPIC group and CEPI to produce a more detailed, special-education-specific workforce data picture for Michigan.

Presenters shared marketing metrics tied to a youth-focused outreach campaign: they reported roughly 800,000 Snapchat impressions for January 2025 and about 17,000 high-school users who visited the Optimize site from that campaign, plus roughly 265,000 video views across platforms. Vander Ploeg said the project analyzes weekly metrics to target marketing where job postings are underrepresented.

Committee members asked about several items, including whether raising credentialing standards would make hiring harder; Vander Ploeg said listening tours with 14 institutions of higher education indicated that the previous categorical credential had been a barrier and that the new approach intends to increase rigor while shortening program length and improving alignment with classroom demands. Lawmakers also pressed on the ISD posting gap and heard that cost and use of district-hosted hiring systems were common reasons for missing external listings.

During the hearing the subcommittee approved earlier minutes by unanimous consent after a motion from Minority Vice Chair Representative Glanville, and later excused absent members by unanimous consent on a motion from Representative Markkanen.

The presenters asked for continued funding and reported that recent appropriations included $1 million to support Optimize’s work; they estimated that current funds could sustain work into 2027, depending on expenditures and future appropriations. Vander Ploeg said the project expects to have impact data from implemented recommendations within the next two years as evaluation work continues.

Representative Glanville thanked the presenters and emphasized the value of field-based partnerships in shaping recommendations; several members said they supported continued funding to keep implementation momentum.

Optimize’s leaders said they would provide follow-up materials and that committee members could find more detail on the project website, including the full list of identified barriers and action-team products.