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Pupil services shifts to online registration, updates attendance procedures and reports special-education training gains
Summary
The district moved to full online student registration for rising kindergarten (rollout to K–12 planned July 1), is revising attendance ARs, and completed trainings and reviews in special education, the director said.
Dr. Brewer, director of pupil services and special education, reported the district completed a move from paper-based, in-person registration to a full online central registration portal (SAFIRE) for rising kindergarten families and expects K–12 rollout on 2025-07-01.
Dr. Brewer said about 117 kindergarten registrations had been entered in the portal at the time of the presentation; she said that number fluctuates and is typical for the time of year. Board members asked about support for families with limited technology and about language access; Dr. Brewer said parents may bring documents to the district for staff scanning and upload assistance and that the portal includes a home-language survey; she agreed to follow up on whether a quick language toggle exists in the portal.
The director described attendance work: recommended revisions to board policy 02/2004 and administrative regulations, development of a common attendance-letter language across grades, and a flow chart modeled on the Berks County attendance initiative. Dr. Brewer said the district is developing guidance on attendance thresholds for students with and without disabilities.
On special-education compliance and training, Dr. Brewer said the district advanced QBS safety-care training (seven district trainers and 32 trained staff so far), implemented a PCCD threat-assessment team and revised threat-assessment tools, completed the SHARS reimbursement submission this past September, completed civil-rights data collection for 2023–24, and conducted file reviews (including a March review of 40 files) with clean results. She reported Extended School Year (ESY) was underway: 83 students were eligible and 58 confirmed to attend.
Dr. Brewer outlined use of contractors for related services (speech-language, school psychology, occupational and physical therapy) and said the department participated in early-intervention visits for incoming kindergarten students. She characterized much of the department’s work as “in progress” with continued follow-up planned.
