Eau Claire board highlights gains in special-education family involvement and outlines steps to address disproportionality

Dana McConnell, the district’s director of special education, and Heather Griffith, special education family engagement coordinator, presented results from the federal/state Indicator 8 family-involvement survey and described a set of five priority focus areas the department will pursue.

McConnell said the survey — administered once every five years — is both a federal results-driven accountability measure and a DPI (Department of Public Instruction) tool for evaluating family engagement. “This survey is part of our results driven accountability procedural compliance from the federal government, as well as also from DPI to assess not only compliance, but student achievement in special education,” McConnell said.

The district reported 44 preschool responses and 140 school‑age responses, for an overall response rate of 10.5% (the district said the PI requirement is a minimum 10%). Presenters told the board that results improved in the categories measured (welcoming, respectful and supportive school environments) compared with the last cycle and that the data are being used to plan next steps.

Griffith described outreach and logistics for the survey and the district’s effort to reduce barriers to participation. “I created an action plan to try to reach as many families and eliminate as many barriers to that response as possible,” Griffith said, noting efforts to monitor response rates by race and disability category to improve representation of marginalized voices.

The special-education team listed five focus areas: increasing access to universal curriculum and least-restrictive environments; implementing comprehensive assessment aligned to specially designed instruction; refining tier-3 supports; streamlining IEP processes during a migration to a new special education management system; and expanding targeted professional learning for staff.

Board members pressed for trend data and more specifics about strategies to reduce disproportionate representation. The district reported that ECASD’s share of students in special education is currently 17.4%, compared with a state average of 15.3%. Presenters cautioned that small cohort sizes can cause large percentage swings and emphasized that the district does not want to deny services merely to change a headline percentage. They also said a recent root-cause analysis is informing targeted action planning.

McConnell and colleagues agreed to provide year‑by‑year demographic trend data and a memo summarizing the specific actions planned to connect family‑engagement improvements to student outcomes (R2, R3 and R4 in the district’s results framework). The team emphasized routines‑based interviews, early‑learning interventions, and culturally responsive professional learning as cornerstone practices.

The presentation closed with staff offering the full report (2018/19 and 2024 results) in the board packet and committing to follow up with additional data and an implementation memo.

The board did not take any formal action on the presentation itself; members asked for more detail in future reports.