Upper Dublin SD presents special-education expansions and in-district transition proposal

Ms. Summers, a student-services staff member, told the Upper Dublin School District Education Committee on March 5 that the district is planning special-education expansions for 2025–26 to meet rising needs, particularly for students identified with autism.

The proposals described include adding special-education classrooms serving students with autism at the elementary level, expanding an itinerant emotional-support program at Sandy Run Middle School to include supplemental-level services, hiring additional board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) and school psychologists, and creating a possible in-district transition program for students age 18–22.

“Any parent can request a gifted evaluation at any time,” Ms. Summers said when answering a separate question about evaluation timing; she later described the special-education planning in more detail and the process that allows parents to request evaluations for services. Ms. Summers told the committee the district already has identified 15 incoming kindergarten families that include students identified with autism, and that Pennsylvania Department of Education guidance typically places autism-classroom sizes in the 8-to-11 range depending on program type.

District staff said the autism-classroom proposals respond to identified incoming need and to the district goal of keeping students in-district where appropriate. Expanding the continuum of services, staff said, could reduce reliance on out-of-district placements and allow more students to access general-education settings with appropriate supports.

Ms. Summers described the Sandy Run Middle School change in level of service this way: an itinerant level provides a smaller amount of special-education time, while a supplemental level involves more time in specialized instruction and can include short-term academic instruction inside the special-education setting. She said expanding to supplemental services would likely require a two-person teaching team at the middle school.

Staff also described an exploratory plan to create an in-district transition program for students ages 18–22 that would focus on vocational, independent-living and social skills while keeping students connected to the home district rather than sending them to external MCIU (Montgomery County Intermediate Unit) locations. Ms. Summers said the district will evaluate whether the projected cohort for next year would support an in-house program.

The presentation included staffing counts and trends: the district currently reports three BCBAs on staff, five school psychologists, 79 educational assistants this school year (up from 72 when the presenter arrived last February) and four registered behavior technicians (down from five earlier). Ms. Summers said school psychologists are spending a large share of their time on evaluations and that adding psychologist capacity would free time for collaboration, crisis response and professional development.

Committee members asked about related services (speech and occupational therapy) and about countywide trends. A board member who attends superintendent monthly meetings reported that nearby districts are seeing similar increases in early-intervention identifications and autism diagnoses and that several neighboring districts are adding classes to meet need.

Ms. Summers and other administrators emphasized the preliminary nature of the planning and said no formal staffing decisions or budget requests are final; the work was presented for information and initial feedback. The committee recorded no formal vote on these program proposals during the meeting.

Ending: Staff said they will continue to refine the proposals and present formal budget requests in the coming months with supporting data and cost estimates.