Seymour schools report rising special-education caseloads, expand in-district programs to reduce costly placements

Dr. Boyle presented trend data showing a steady increase in students identified for special education and described steps the Seymour School District has taken to serve more students inside the district rather than placing them in out-of-district, therapeutic programs.

The presentation said the district’s special-education identification rate was about 16% for the 2023–24 school year and that the number of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) has grown roughly 27.5% since 2016. The district reported it currently places about 8.8% of identified students in out-of-district settings, below a cited state average of about 12.5%.

Dr. Boyle said the district has created more in-district options — preschool classrooms, ABA programming at multiple levels, an expanded high-school vocational program, a middle-school alternative and high-school alternative programs — and has added nine special-education teacher positions since 2016. She told the board the district now anticipates approaching 400 students with IEPs next year.

The presentation included academic performance trends for special-education students. Dr. Boyle highlighted noticeable growth in third-grade English language arts and smaller gains in fourth and fifth grades and in middle school, and she repeated the district’s goal of moving students from lower performance bands into higher ones on Smarter Balanced assessments.

On funding, Dr. Boyle said the district spends a larger share of its budget on special education than in the past but still below some state averages: special-education spending represented about 22.5% of the district budget in the 2022–23 year compared with a cited state average near 25%. She reported the district receives about $570,000 in IDEA grant funds; about 78% of that grant currently pays special-education teacher salaries, with the remainder supporting instructional supplies and required pupil services (for example, independent neuropsychological or psychiatric evaluations). She added that the federal IDEA allocation has been flat for years while local special-education needs have increased.

Dr. Boyle said out-of-district therapeutic tuition runs roughly $150,000 per student per year and that, at present, the district has 24 students in therapeutic placements (noting the number would be 21 without three non-educational placements that occurred this year). She described recent in-district alternatives created with board support — the RISE program at the middle school and the CATS program at the high school — and said those programs aim to reduce future out-of-district placements and to provide transition paths for students already placed elsewhere.

Board members asked for clarifications about how much of the growth is funded through IDEA versus local education agency (LEA) funds; Dr. Boyle said the majority of ongoing costs are LEA-funded and that IDEA covers portions of staffing but does not cover most tuition costs for therapeutic placements. She also described professional development and assessment updates planned for staff, including training on Woodcock-Johnson instruments and interventions tied to recent math and reading curriculum adoptions.

Dr. Boyle and board members discussed regional collaboration: superintendent-level meetings of Valley superintendents and special-education directors are planned to consider shared regional programs that could help manage rising placement costs.

Board members and Dr. Boyle emphasized both the educational benefits of keeping students with neighborhood peers and the budgetary incentive of replacing high-cost out-of-district tuition with in-district services.

Dr. Boyle concluded the report by saying she was proud of the staff’s work and that the district will continue to analyze identification drivers and academic results to guide future staffing and program decisions.