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USD 497 presents annual needs assessment: SEL, behavior and staffing cited as top barriers
Summary
District staff presented the state-required annual needs assessment showing 20 buildings participated; strengths include tiered supports and SEL work, while barriers include student behavior, mental health, attendance and staff shortages. Middle school disciplinary incidents drew particular attention.
Lawrence Public Schools (USD 497) presented its state-required annual needs assessment at the July 28 board meeting, summarizing building-level feedback on instructional systems, school climate and barriers to student achievement.
James Polk, the district’s director of data and assessment, told the board all 20 district buildings participated and roughly 200 staff members contributed to building-level reviews of systems and goals. Schools rated core systems on a four-point implementation scale: 1 (not in place) to 4 (fully implemented and data-driven).
Key findings: tiered systems of support, social-emotional learning and professional learning received average scores at or above 3 (operational or fully implemented). Kindergarten readiness and early learning averaged 2.75 (emerging). The district also reported that of more than 40 goals set last summer, 85 were judged operational or fully implemented this year.
Barriers and gaps: Building teams identified student behavior, SEL and mental health needs, attendance and staff shortages as the primary obstacles to improving student outcomes. Polk summarized building feedback as calling for clearer, more consistent systems: “The commonality that stood out… was that word, consistency and clarity,” he said.
Board discussion: Members asked for alignment between the assessment and budget decisions. Superintendent Janice Caris Swift said the district’s reorganization and staff alignment efforts are intended to direct resources to classrooms and address identified barriers. Board members also emphasized the pandemic-era shortfall in special-education funding: a board member noted a district shortfall of about $14 million for special education last year and urged continued advocacy for state and federal funding.
Discipline data: The assessment included discipline breakdowns; board members flagged notably higher out-of-school suspension counts at the middle-school level than at elementary or high school and asked staff to continue calibrating responses and supports across levels. Polk said the district will focus fall work with principals on updating goals and implementing tiered supports.
Next steps: The district will publish the assessment on its website, use it to inform fall budget and goal-setting work, and ask principals to update building goals based on the assessment’s findings.
