Somers Central reports steady special-education caseload, flags staffing and service needs

Stacy Conan, presenting the Somers Central School District annual special education report during the board's Jan. 7 workshop, said the district has 531 students with individualized education programs (IEPs) this school year and is meeting most state performance indicators for special education.

Conan said 465 of the classified students receive services in-district, 41 are placed out of district (including residential and day placements) and 25 are parentally placed, a group that includes students attending Kennedy Catholic. "We are meeting the criteria and oftentimes exceeding it for what the state expects for performance indicators for special education programming," Conan said.

The report gave a breakdown of classifications and performance: close to 40% of students with IEPs are classified with a learning disability, with speech/language and other health impairments accounting for much of the balance. Conan told the board Somers'reported a classified-student graduation rate of 95.8% under the state's indicators (the district noted the state counts only standard 4-, 5- or 6-year graduates and that some students remain in school through ages 21 or 22, which the district said makes the effective rate higher).

On state testing, Conan said Somers meets mastery thresholds for students with IEPs who take assessments but does not meet the state's participation target of 95% because some parents decline testing for children with extensive testing histories. "Parents are allowed to, to refuse testing," Conan said, and the district honors those requests.

Conan also reviewed least-restrictive-environment figures, noting that 65% of Somers students with IEPs spend the majority of their day with non-disabled peers, above the state's 58% guideline for school-age students. Preschool placements were lower by design and use a different state benchmark.

District trends show a small decline in classified students since 2018'19 (from 481 to 465 in the K'12 population) even as service hours for several related services have risen. Conan highlighted an increase in complex speech-language needs, particularly apraxia of speech, and said speech and language service hours have grown even while the number of students in some categories has shifted. Occupational therapy enrollment fell by six students while OT hours rose by 123 hours per month districtwide.

Conan said the district increased speech staff by one position in the last two years and currently has four speech therapists at Primrose (the district's early-elementary building) to focus on early identification and remediation. "We want those issues addressed for children as early as possible so that as we go up ' ' we can declassify many students as they progress," she said.

The presentation noted program changes and near-term staffing needs: Somers opened a new 8:1:1 self-contained instructional program at SIS this year with seven students (one student moved from homebound/hospital instruction into the classroom), and the district expects to need an additional 12:1:1 teacher and two teaching assistants next year because of projected enrollment coming up from Primrose. Conan said that smaller, more intensive classes typically require one teacher and two TAs, plus any shared or 1:1 aides assigned by individual IEPs.

Conan described out-of-district placements: 41 students are sent to external programs, about one-quarter of those in residential placements that provide intensive behavioral or clinical supports, and others in specialized day programs such as applied behavior analysis (ABA) classrooms. She added that the district provides homebound instruction where appropriate.

Other program highlights: districtwide expansion of co-teach classes in the middle school across the four core subjects; a newly issued special education parent handbook the district is making ADA-compliant with BOCES assistance; and a litigation resolution that includes ongoing training for bus attendants and new training on working with nonverbal students.

Board members asked clarifying questions about bilingual evaluations, preschool and early-intervention services, and the distinctions between ELL (English-language learner) support and speech-language services. Conan said bilingual evaluations are used for children whose home language is not English and that bilingual speech-language therapists are provided when the IEP indicates the child needs language services in their native language and English.

Conan closed by urging continued investment in early services and screening: she said the district had 77 four-year-old students on IEPs last year and only 27 of those still required IEP services when they entered kindergarten, underscoring the district's view that preschool intervention reduces later needs.

The board thanked Conan for the report and discussed related staffing and budget considerations as the district develops its preliminary budget for the coming year.