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Special‑education metrics questioned; administrators cite reporting errors and promise evaluation
Summary
Committee members requested clearer metrics on special‑education enrollment and spending. Administrators said DESE/RADAR outputs contained an erroneous comparative district and Aspen reporting issues; they proposed cleaned data, a 100‑day assessment already underway, and an external program evaluation for autism/related disabilities.
Committee members pressed for more transparent, auditable special‑education metrics during the FY27 budget hearing, saying the public dashboards they consulted suggested large recent increases in students with disabilities and in specific disability categories.
Administrators, including BJ, responded that some public figures were incorrect. They traced the discrepancy to a mis‑filtered comparative district in the DESE RADAR tool and an Aspen reporting configuration that omitted or mis‑classified newly referred students in prior submissions to DESE. BJ said the district’s internal grant reporting and federal filings show consistent child‑count trends and that the apparent ‘‘explosion’’ in some RADAR outputs was a reporting artifact.
The administration described a 100‑day plan already begun to assess special‑education programming and said it will schedule an external program evaluation focused on autism and related disabilities. Administrators also offered to present cleaned data and a clearer breakdown of spending per special‑education student versus comparable districts.
Committee members asked for a formal appeals or correction process so that historical mis‑counts can be reconciled in public datasets; administrators said they have contacted state RADAR teams and will work with the Aspen data specialist to correct filters and provide a reconciled timeline for review.
