Maricopa Unified reports compliance gains, more inclusive preschool and plans to expand special education supports
Loading...
Summary
District officials said special education compliance improved after a period of low compliance, preschool inclusion rose sharply and the district plans in-person psychologists at all elementary sites and other staffing and training steps to support exceptional student services.
Maricopa Unified presented a progress report on superintendent Goal 6 — improving delivery of special education services — at the May 14 governing board meeting, outlining compliance fixes, inclusion gains and next steps in staffing, training and facilities.
Director Kristin Nash reviewed data and actions taken since she assumed leadership of the Exceptional Student Services (ESS) department. Nash told the board the ESS population in the district is about 19% compared with a national average she cited as 14% and that the district's preschool inclusion rate rose from 4.2% to 19% this year, a figure she described as a 352% increase.
Nut graf: Nash and cabinet members described a mix of administrative fixes, targeted hiring, professional learning and parent engagement that the district said returned ESS files to compliance after an initial ADE review found many files noncompliant.
Nash said initial ADE file review showed low compliance (described in the meeting as 8% compliant), and after the district used the allowed correction period the subsequent submissions met ADE standards; Nash credited the newly created lead psychologist role, a compliance position filled in late November, and revised evaluation review procedures. She said ESS will provide in-person psychologists at every elementary school in the 2025-26 school year and that transition plans for seniors now begin in freshman year.
Cabinet members then described complementary actions: facilities conducted an audit and added extra monthly deep-cleaning and carpet extraction for 43 special education classrooms and plans to move to LED lighting upgrades next year; communications redesigned the ESS web page and produced one-pagers (IDEA timeline, child-find flowchart) and will add analytics to measure use; HR and contracted-provider teams are building an approved provider list and screening process to free ESS staff to focus on services. HR reported about a 95% overall fill rate for positions as of July 2024 and set a target of 100% appropriately certified ESS staff by Feb. 19, 2027.
Board members asked about data collection for IEP goals, recording of progress data for parent access, stakeholder listening sessions (approximately five parents typically attended advisory meetings once or twice a quarter), training for teachers (behavior 101 and age-specific coaching planned before next school year) and how discipline and PBIS practices are coordinated with ESS. AP/TOSA and dean group staff said discipline data include incidents and that repeated incidents by the same students are being analyzed to prevent multiple out-of-school-suspension (OSS) occurrences; staff committed to a deeper end-of-year analysis and to share findings with the board.
Ending: Nash and cabinet members said the district has initiated systemic changes across staffing, training, facilities and communications designed to sustain compliance and improve inclusion; the board encouraged continuation of the work and requested follow-up data analyses.
