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Queen Anne's County Board Approves FY26 Special Education Staffing Plan and Multiple Therapy Contracts
Summary
The Board approved the FY26 special education staffing plan and budgeted contracts for occupational therapy, speech services and a temporary school psychologist to cover vacancies, citing provider shortages and caseload balancing across schools.
The Queen Anne's County Board of Education on Aug. 6 approved its FY26 special education staffing plan and several budgeted contracts to cover related services.
Jolene Smith, supervisor of special education, told the board the plan — required under COMAR and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) — is intended to ensure students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Smith said the district serves about 7,750 students, including 882 students identified with disabilities, and seeks to balance caseload and related-service needs across schools.
"The special education staffing plan is required per COMAR as well as MSDE," Smith said as she outlined proposed allocations. For FY26 she proposed 48 special educators, nine IEP chairpersons, 10 PAC special educators and a set of preschool and ACE positions. Smith said the district exceeded the state target for students spending 80% or more of the day in general education by roughly 10 percentage points.
Board members voted to approve the staffing plan by voice vote.
Because the district continues to face local shortages of specialized providers, administrators brought several budgeted contracts to ensure services start with the school year. The board approved a $101,175 contract with Williams Organization LLC for an occupational therapist to serve south-county schools; a $156,840 contract with Chesapeake Speech for two speech providers to cover Stevensville Middle School, Kent Island High School and infants-and-toddlers services; and a $126,350 contract with Pediatric Development Services for a speech-language pathologist to serve Kennard Elementary and Sudlersville Middle School. Board members discussed recruitment challenges and noted that some contractors provide traveling or virtual services.
The board also approved a limited-term $52,500 contract with Salient to cover a school psychologist FMLA vacancy from August through November. "It's a vacancy, an FMLA vacancy," the board noted when discussing the limited duration; administrators said the contract will be revisited when the district's FTE returns.
Rob Watkins, supervisor of finance, confirmed all contracts were budgeted and funded through FY26 restricted and unrestricted operating budgets as presented. Each contract was approved by motion and a voice vote.
What happens next: school staff will finalize provider schedules and begin deployments so services are in place for the start of the school year. The board will receive ongoing budget updates as part of monthly standing agenda items.
