CPAC urges regular special-education outcome reporting after Shining Light awards

The Duxbury School Committee heard an extended presentation from the Committee for Parent Advisory Council (CPAC) and honored special-education teacher Sarah Gaynor with CPAC’s 2025 Excellence Award, while CPAC leaders urged the district for clearer “child find” procedures and regular outcome reporting for students with disabilities.

CPAC co-chair Kate Reynolds read from nomination letters and presented the award, saying, "Sarah embodies everything this award represents, compassion, dedication, and the ability to truly see and support each student as an individual." Reynolds noted CPAC received a record 33 nominations from 46 people this year.

CPAC framed the discussion around two central points: confirming that the district meets its legal child-find obligations and creating a regular, public-facing set of outcome measures. CPAC members described current child-find activities—annual notices, preschool outreach and coordination with private schools—and asked the committee to insist on aggregated outcome data that show whether students identified and served are improving over time.

Teresa (the district special-education director) described the district’s processes: public posting of child-find notices, outreach to private preschools, agreement-based evaluations and three required consultations annually with private schools to ensure compliance. CPAC leaders said those processes should be paired with routine outcome metrics.

CPAC presented several candidate indicators it wants tracked and reported regularly, including discipline rates for students with disabilities (in- and out-of-district), chronic absenteeism, postsecondary outcomes required by Indicator 14 reporting, MCAS and iReady trends by subgroup, and social-emotional/behavioral outcome measures. The committee and CPAC members discussed forming a simple dashboard or spreadsheet of those measures for periodic review.

Committee members and CPAC also discussed administrative capacity: CPAC runs regular parent feedback channels, monthly board meetings with the special-education director, and an anonymous parent input form piloted this year that increased responses. CPAC reported roughly 470 Duxbury students are on IEPs (about 17% of enrollment) and said aggregated, longitudinal data would help the committee and public assess program effectiveness.

The presentation included family testimony about the impact of special-education staff; several parents who nominated Gaynor described significant academic and social gains for their children. Gaynor responded, “These kids and these families are my passion,” when presented with the award.

The committee did not take formal action beyond thanking CPAC and agreeing to maintain regular reporting cadence; members asked staff to bring candidate metrics to a planning workshop so the committee and CPAC can co-design reporting frequency and format.

The CPAC presentation and award highlighted both community appreciation for district staff and persistent parent requests for clearer, regular outcome reporting to show whether investments and programs are producing measurable results.