District 128 details inclusive special-education work, acknowledges achievement gaps

Kelly Hartwig, director of special services for CHSD 128, gave the board a detailed presentation on the district's special-education program on Jan. 27, describing models used to keep students in general education and summarizing outcome data.

"We are a high number when it comes to that type of percentage in a high school environment," Hartwig said of the district's inclusion rates, reporting that roughly 12% of students (about 375 pupils) are eligible for special education and that "nearly a little over 64 percent" of those students accessed general-education instruction for 80% or more of the school day last year. Hartwig said the district's top eligibility categories are specific learning disabilities, other health impairments, emotional disabilities and autism.

Hartwig described two primary strategies the district has scaled: inclusion facilitation, a coaching and consultation model that supports general-education teachers and paraprofessionals, and co-teaching, where a general educator and special educator jointly deliver a course with the same standards and expectations. She said the district has staff allocations to support facilitation and co-teaching and that co-teaching has been in intentional use for about 11 years.

Hartwig told the board that co-taught classes generally show students with IEPs "performing as well or sometimes better than the single-taught sections" and that referrals for special-education case study evaluations have "dropped drastically" as MTSS supports have expanded. She also noted federal expectations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that federal funding should cover 40% of special-education costs "but it has never been fully funded"; Hartwig said actual federal contributions have historically been about 12%–14%, requiring local and state funds to cover the remainder.

Board members pressed for outcome metrics. One member asked directly, "How are you defining success? What metrics are you using?" Hartwig said district reporting includes educational-environment data and Illinois Report Card achievement measures and agreed to provide more granular outcome data, including co-teach grade distributions and MTSS fidelity measures, at a future meeting.

The board asked staff to add MTSS implementation and specific outcome metrics to a future agenda so trustees can evaluate whether increased access to general education is translating into improved achievement for students with IEPs.