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Millbrae special education director reports caseloads, interventions and staffing challenges
Summary
Director Christina Passmore told the school board the district has 215 students eligible for special education, 53 referrals this year, and 82% of IEP goals met among reviewed files; staff vacancies and retention remain the main challenges.
Christina Passmore, the district’s director of special education, presented an update to the Millbrae City School Board on special education enrollment, interventions and professional development, and flagged staffing and retention as the program’s main challenges.
Passmore said the district received 53 referrals for special education this year and currently has 215 students eligible for special education services, including preschool and private-school placements under district oversight. She also reported that 12 students exited special education this year.
On academic measures, Passmore said 19.28% of the special education population met or exceeded standards in math and 21.43% did so in English language arts, based on state-aligned measures shown in her slides. She told the board the department is now pulling goal-level data from IEPs and reported that, across the IEPs reviewed to date, 82% of IEP goals were marked met. “We actually don't want to get at a % … because we want our IEPs to be reasonably calculated,” she said, describing the department’s approach to goal-setting.
Passmore outlined the district’s interventions and training: TouchMath and IXL for skill work; Zones of Regulation and lunch-bunch social groups; safety-care certification and crisis prevention training for paraprofessionals; cross-training on behavior intervention plans so substitutes or other paras can implement plans seamlessly; AAC training for speech staff; and summer and ongoing workshops for paraeducators and special-education staff.
She described two CERT (crisis response) teams formed from trained staff who respond to behavioral and mental-health emergencies, and noted the district hosted and participated in Special Olympics events this year. Passmore said the paraprofessionals are “the backbone of our special education department” and outlined targeted training efforts to support them.
Trustees asked for clarifications on counts and percentages. Passmore and staff provided estimates: 38 paraeducator positions exist in the district with about 35 filled; a later breakdown identified 17 direct hires and 19 contracted paraprofessionals. Trustees requested that staff return with a grade-level and program-level breakdown of IEPs, 504s and speech-only caseloads; Passmore agreed to provide that in a future board update.
Passmore closed by listing ongoing challenges—filling vacancies, retaining staff, and training for midyear hires on interventions and new math curriculum—and said the department will continue targeted training and cross-site collaboration.
