Shawnee Heights reports 747 students on Dec. 1 special-education count; gifted enrollments rise

Kristen O'Brien, district staff member, told the Shawnee Heights Board of Education that the district's official Dec. 1, 2024 special-education headcount was 747 students, including 109 students identified as gifted.

O'Brien said the Dec. 1 count functions like an enrollment snapshot for special education and is not final until later in the semester. She told the board the district's total is slightly inflated by the gifted count and that students with disabilities (excluding gifted) are roughly 12 fewer than the 747 total.

The numbers matter for staffing and program planning. "It's our official count date for special education," O'Brien said. She told trustees the district saw the largest increases in autism diagnoses and that developmental delay counts have declined slightly compared with previous years.

O'Brien walked the board through how categories are counted. She said the developmental delay (DD) category covers ages 3 through 9 and that many students in DD are reevaluated by age 8 or 9 and moved to another eligibility category or exited from services. She clarified that the speech and language category shown in the packet includes only students who receive direct speech-language services as a sole eligibility category; students who receive speech services in addition to another primary eligibility are not included in that speech-only figure.

On entries and exits, O'Brien gave year-over-year comparisons: 68 students entered the district with an IEP in 2023-24 and 47 entered for the current count; 27 students were newly identified as having a disability in 2023-24 and 26 were identified this year; 50 students exited the district in 2023-24 and 41 exited this year. "So that tells you we're having fewer students move in," O'Brien said, summarizing the net difference in transfer-ins.

Board members asked whether the post-2018 increases were tied to COVID-era effects. O'Brien said there was no formal statistical analysis presented but that the district saw a COVID-related increase and that some of the rise stemmed from students transferring into the district. On staffing, she said the district continues to add staff but "it's not at the same rate" as student growth; she added the district's staffing ratios are generally in line with neighboring districts but fall short of an ideal target.

O'Brien also confirmed the district uses a student's primary exceptionality for counting (so one student is counted in a single primary category) and reiterated that gifted counts can shift the reported total without changing the number of students receiving special-education services.

The presentation was for information; no board action was taken on the headcount at the meeting. The board received the Dec. 1, 2024 snapshot and asked for further details on staffing ratios and enrollment trends as the district finalizes numbers later in the semester.