Greece Central reports sharp drop in removals as district implements compliance assurance plan for students with disabilities

GREECE, N.Y. — Greece Central School District leaders told the Board of Education on Jan. 21 that a new compliance assurance plan and changed procedures for disciplining students with disabilities have coincided with a marked drop in incidents that result in students being removed from instruction.

Superintendent Bernadette Smalene called up Stacey Brindisi, executive director of Pupil Personnel Services, and Melanie Stevenson, director of Pupil Personnel Services, to present the plan and associated data. Brindisi said the district has been on a multi-year corrective track after state review flagged disproportionate removal rates, and she told the board, “We were notified by the state education department. It's not another citation, it's just a different level of citation.”

The board packet included charts officials said show a drop in the number of incidents resulting in removals districtwide from 598 during the comparable period last year to 180 this year — “about a 70% decrease,” Brindisi said. That overall improvement included declines across secondary campuses, district leaders said, while noting a separate ongoing state citation (Indicator 4B) for an overrepresentation of Black students with individualized education programs (IEPs) who were removed for 10 or more days.

Why it matters: the district is working under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reporting framework and New York State’s performance metrics. School officials said the district must follow procedural safeguards before imposing extended removals for students with disabilities; failure to show improvement can trigger progressively stricter monitoring by the state education department.

What the plan changes: Stevenson described procedural and practice shifts that prioritize convening required meetings and notifying families earlier in the process, and enacting a “pattern determination” and manifestation review before extended removals in cases where a student has reached the 10‑day threshold for removal. She said the district has begun documenting services provided to students during suspensions so the district can show that special‑education services were actually delivered while a student was out of class.

Staffing and training: district leaders said they have added two assistant directors for behavioral response systems (identified in the presentation as “Jess” and “Greg”), and added district behavior interventionists and crisis interveners — a net add of three positions in each of those groups, officials said. Stevenson said the district currently has roughly 12–13 TCI (Therapeutic Crisis Intervention) trainers, has certified 401 staff in TCI and registered 171 new participants in TCI training this school year. Officials also described new asynchronous and in‑person professional learning, digital badges, and a menu of interventions aimed at building staff capacity.

Alternatives to removal: as one practical alternative, the district is piloting a Saturday‑school program intended to operate as a consequence in lieu of an in‑week removal for certain lower‑level behaviors (for example, repeated skipping). Brindisi said, “It's gonna be starting the 1st week in February. I think we're a go for 1st week in February.” The program will start small (the presenters named Arcadia as an initial site) and district staff said they will work with families on participation; officials acknowledged the district cannot compel families to send students on weekends.

Scope and limits: presenters emphasized the plan targets reductions in lower‑level removals while maintaining removals for serious or dangerous incidents. Brindisi said long‑term and safety‑related suspensions continue to occur when warranted, and that the data showing reductions does not mean the district is eliminating removals for violent or otherwise serious conduct. She noted the state’s new interpretation requires meetings prior to some removals for students with disabilities and that the district has been changing the sequence of meetings and notifications to comply.

Equity and monitoring: the district remains on an ongoing citation for Indicator 4B for Black students with disabilities and is on year two of monitoring for that subgroup. Brindisi said the compliance assurance plan includes reserving and reallocating IDEA funds for early intervening services when required by the state; the presenters told the board that the business office already reserves funds annually for such supports. They emphasized that if the district appears again on the state list next year for any subgroup, it would enter a new level of monitoring and be required to redirect 15% of IDEA funds specifically for early intervening supports.

Board questions and concerns: board members asked for clarifications about the distinction between a “removal” (state reporting term encompassing in‑school suspension, out‑of‑school suspension and alternatives that remove a student from instruction) and the Saturday school alternative. Members also raised concerns about parents who decline Saturday options, how staff safety rights (including references to the SAVE Act and the Workplace Violence Prevention Act) interact with the new procedures, and edge cases in which a student who has already reached 10 days for removals later commits a serious act. Presenters said the state guidance has narrow exceptions for egregious incidents (weapons, serious bodily injury, drugs), but that those still generally require the meeting sequence the state now expects.

Next steps and reporting: administrators told the board they will continue weekly tracking of removals and will provide more detailed attendance and behavior reporting in future board packets, including breakdowns by behavior types that lead to removals. They also said hiring for open behavior‑support roles is ongoing and they expect additional staff to be in place as vacancies are filled.

Ending note: presenters framed the plan as both a compliance response to state monitoring and an effort to build district capacity so teachers and school teams have more tools to prevent removals by addressing behavior through instruction, intervention and training.