Portsmouth to launch "Compass" program and expand therapeutic supports as costly out‑of‑district placements rise

At the Portsmouth School Committee meeting on March 25, student services staff outlined a set of changes to special‑education programming intended to keep more students in‑district and reduce costly placements outside Portsmouth. Charity Shea, who led the presentation, said the district will launch a new Compass program for middle and high school students next school year and continue expansion of therapeutic academic supports.

Shea told the committee that 17 Portsmouth residents are currently placed in out‑of‑district placements. "Right now we are per pupil rate this year as of just shy of $95,000," Shea said, describing the financial and logistical challenge when children are placed in residential educational programs or other out‑of‑district settings that the district does not control.

The Compass program will serve students who do not qualify for an alternate assessment but function in the lower percentile range academically and require "a substantially adapted curriculum," Shea said. At the middle school the model will provide self‑contained, co‑taught literacy and math blocks; at the high school students would have similar self‑contained classes while still accessing electives and required social studies and science with supports.

Shea described other changes already in place: a second year of the Therapeutic Academic Program (TAP) at the high school and a corresponding "chill zone" at the middle school; "Patriot" intervention blocks at the high school that separate specialized instruction from core English and math classes; and an academic support center staffed every period to offer testing accommodations, reading or writing assistance, and other services for students with IEPs or 504 plans.

"Our progress monitoring data indicates that our students are making growth," Shea said of the Patriot block restructuring. She added that the district is waiting for spring assessment results to confirm whether the changes generalize to state assessments.

Shea also described shifts tied to a recent Rhode Island Department of Education change in criteria for alternate assessment eligibility, which led some students to no longer meet that specific threshold. The district has created the Compass option partly to provide a meaningful program for students who exited the alternate‑assessment cohort but still require substantially adapted instruction.

Superintendent Kenworthy and several committee members pressed for follow‑up data. Committee member Robert Ferber asked whether Compass students would be in the program full time; Shea said students would have self‑contained English and math blocks and, where appropriate, access electives or work‑based experiences. Committee member Charity Guillen said the TAP model looked promising and encouraged considering versions of the model for broader populations.

Shea also announced a pilot partnership to provide families access to educational advocacy services funded through a DoDEA grant and a virtual informational session on April 1. She asked the committee to give the district time to collect implementation data next year; "if it's not coming to fruition, then we need to come back to the table and we need to figure it out," she said.

The presentation included operational details Shea said the committee should note: continued life‑skills and intensive programming at every building; preschool integrated‑class options expanded to four days a week for some students but not a full‑day preschool because of space constraints; and the district's legal obligation to fund educational components when DCYF places Portsmouth residents in residential settings.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the program changes at the meeting; Shea said the items will move forward as implementation work and data collection occur next year.