Harrison Central School District officials presented an overview of the district’s K–12 co‑teaching and inclusion work during the Jan. 22, 2025, Board of Education meeting, describing classroom models, professional development and student outcome data gathered during a recent Tri‑State Consortium visit.

The district’s interim director of English as a New Language (ENL) and world languages, Jen Rinaldo, told the board that “we have a systematic approach to co teaching that spans grades k through 12,” and that the district prepared for a multi‑day review that included classroom visits, teacher and family interviews, and artifact collection.

The Tri‑State visitors completed 25 classroom observations over two days, interviewed about 40 teachers and visited representatives across buildings, the presenters said. The district tied that review to a longer‑running strategy to expand access to International Baccalaureate (IB) coursework and to provide co‑teaching supports across elementary, middle and high school grades.

Presenters and data
Melissa Libertino, a special education teacher who co‑teaches IB language and literature, described a teacher‑created “toolbox” of supports aligned with universal design for learning (UDL). “I consider myself a teacher of IB Language and Literature who is in a co teaching partnership rather than simply the special education co teacher,” Libertino said, explaining the toolbox supplies vocabulary, organizers and sentence stems that all students can use.

Antonia Simeon, supervisor of secondary special education, framed co‑teaching as part of a full continuum of services. “I have to begin by sharing how much pride we have in the full continuum of services that we offer here in Harrison,” Simeon said, and then described how special educators are assigned by level: elementary special educators co‑teach throughout the day; middle school special educators follow cohorts across content classes; and high school special educators often co‑teach within one or two content areas.

District presenters gave several headline data points they said show the model’s reach and effect: 34% of English language learners exited the ENL program last year, with presenters saying 31% met exit criteria via New York State English‑proficiency measures and 3% via the district’s flexible criteria; roughly 68% of students with disabilities spend more than 80% of their school day in general education settings; and over 95% of students with disabilities participate in some general education classes. At the elementary level, the presenters said 18 of 89 sections (about 21%) run with a co‑teaching partner this school year.

Presenters also described course participation: although English language learners make up roughly 4% of the high school population, they estimated 8–12% of IB diploma candidates are current or former ENL students, and the proportion of students with disabilities taking IB or AP courses has risen since the district adopted “IB for all” curriculum elements in some grades.

Instructional models and professional development
Shannon Cipolla, who described district professional learning offerings, outlined six co‑teaching models the district expects to see in classrooms: one teach/one observe, station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching, team teaching and one teach/one assist. Cipolla said the district provides summer institutes, monthly PD, department sessions and a pre‑school year co‑teaching partnership workshop to prepare staff.

The district emphasized alignment among ENL, special education and general education work: presenters said ENL teachers create linguistic scaffolds that benefit all learners, special educators support content‑area instruction, and both groups participate in collaborative planning, assessment and reflection cycles.

Why it matters
Board members and presenters framed the work as a strategy to expand access to rigorous coursework and reduce selection by test score. The district argued that wider participation in IB and AP courses has coincided with rising participation and performance on state assessments for historically underrepresented groups.

Looking ahead and context
Presenters said a locally developed rubric and a study group of co‑teaching partnerships will guide next steps in classroom observation and partnership development. The Tri‑State Consortium visit was described as a validation and an outside review to identify strengths and next steps. Several teachers on staff were invited to the dais after the presentation to introduce themselves to the board.

The presentation included classroom examples, program percentages and district policy decisions (for example, the board’s practice of paying IB and AP test fees), all offered by district staff during the Jan. 22 meeting. No new board policy or formal action to change the co‑teaching program was proposed during the presentation; the session was given as an informational report and celebration of practices and outcomes.