Wakefield details special-education placements, opens SEAM Collaborative program review
Summary
Director of Special Education Rosie Galvin told the school committee that about 20% of district students (about 660) receive special education services and described program changes including a new STRIVE classroom at Woodville and a SEAM Collaborative pilot evaluation of STRIVE and the language-based program.
Rosie Galvin, Wakefield Public Schools’ director of special education, told the school committee on Nov. 12 that roughly 20% of the district’s students — about 660 in‑district students, as presented — are eligible for special education services. “Currently, we have about 20% of our student body of students who are eligible for special education on IUPs,” Galvin said, stressing that that figure refers to students receiving individualized plans, not the entire student population.
Galvin said about 80% of those students are in a full‑inclusion setting (spending at least 80% of the school day with general‑education peers), with around 15% in partial inclusion and a smaller cohort placed in substantially separate programs. She described five district programs for students needing partial or separate placements and noted changes this year to the STRIVE autism program: because of a high cohort at Dolbear last year, the district opened another STRIVE classroom at Woodville and hired a lead teacher there to keep cohorts smaller and students closer to home schools.
The district will pilot a program evaluation with SEAM Collaborative focused on STRIVE and the language‑based program, Galvin said. SEAM will conduct interviews, classroom observations and data review across the district during January–February, produce a report in March, and deliver final findings in April. “We want to rely on their experts … to identify strengths and challenges within each of our programs,” Galvin said. Superintendent Dr. Lyons described the effort as a collaborative pilot that pairs the district’s practitioners with SEAM’s expertise and said the process is intended to be formative and to build a replicable evaluation model.
Galvin also briefed the committee on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) integrated monitoring review for special education. She said the district submitted documentation in October, will host on‑site visits and interviews next week, and is in DESE’s continuous improvement tier (the district expects a report and subsequent corrective action or monitoring plan in the winter). “We have not been identified for any additional focus standards,” she told the committee.
Committee members asked whether families and students would be included in the SEAM evaluation. Galvin said CPAC (the Coordinating Parent Advisory Council) will be involved and that family and student perspectives are intended to be part of the interviews and observations.
The committee heard no formal votes on special‑education policy at the meeting; Galvin said the SEAM report would be shared once complete and that findings would inform program planning and long‑term decisions.
