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Director of Student Support Services details special‑education goals, compliance work and program counts
Summary
Sarah Matarazzo, director for student support services, outlined goals on staff coaching, curriculum access and data use; she described NYSED corrective work (suspension corrective action, SEQA partnership, SPP‑8 parent survey) and reported program counts including 416 CSC scholars and 57 BOCES placements.
Sarah Matarazzo, director for student support services, presented the department’s three priorities for the school year—strengthening staff knowledge and coaching, ensuring curriculum access for students with disabilities, and building staff capacity to analyze and use instructional data.
Matarazzo said the work connects directly to state accountability and improvement goals and that targeted coaching and explicit‑instruction models are being used to raise performance. “We’re here for scholar support,” she said, describing a departmental restructure to support scholars, staff and families across grade levels.
She described ongoing compliance and partnership work with the New York State Education Department, including a suspension corrective action plan, a SEQA (special education quality assurance) consultant relationship to improve state performance indicators, and work related to SPP‑8 (the state parent‑involvement survey) that requires a specified return rate by August 2026.
Matarazzo provided program counts the board can use for planning: 416 scholars in district CSC programs, 57 scholars attending BOCES programs (HFM BOCES, Questar BOCES, Capital Region BOCES and others), 17 students in out‑of‑district placements and 68 preschool CPSE students (an increase from last year). She said the district is expanding work‑based learning partnerships and expects growth in transition programming.
Board members praised the office’s work and the clarity of the goals; the director noted specific next steps include coaching cycles, upcoming observations by SEQA representatives, and efforts to increase parent survey return rates.
The report concluded with a note about unified sports (bocce and bowling teams, a successful bocce season) and efforts to expand unified physical education at the high school.
