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District outlines new special-education protocols and training after staffing pressures
Summary
District staff presented a multi-part special-education plan including an incident-response checklist, comprehensive behavior-support protocol, CPI crisis-prevention training, monthly staff meetings, and 504 coordinator training; presenters cited roughly $3.9 million in special-education weighting and $5.4 million spent from the general fund last year.
District staff presented a comprehensive set of operational improvements for special education intended to standardize responses to behavior incidents and expand staff training.
Presenter described newly developed tools: a short incident-response checklist for on-the-spot support, a laminated flowchart for a comprehensive challenging‑behavior support protocol, and a four‑year cycle of CPI (crisis prevention) training to ensure staff coverage throughout the year. The presenter said these tools will help administrators, teachers and instructional assistants to identify triggers, apply de‑escalation strategies, and create/update behavior intervention plans.
The finance presenter summarized funding context: "If you take that extra weighting and you multiply it by the amount of money that we receive per student, that's about $3,900,000 that we receive because we have students on IEPs," and added that the district "actually spent over $5,400,000 out of the general fund on special education services" last year. Staff explained maintenance-of-effort (MOE) rules attached to federal IDEA funds and said the district will continue monthly meetings with building administrators and special-education staff to monitor protocol effectiveness.
Training and implementation steps include multiple paid training opportunities for certified and classified staff, individual monthly meetings with administrators and special-education educators, fall/winter/spring check-ins with instructional assistants, and expanded access to electronic documentation (Synergy) and 504-coordinator resources. Staff said they will retrain when protocols are updated and will use feedback to refine procedures.
Board members asked for additional data (percent of students on 504 plans versus IEPs) and requested follow-up reports. The presenter acknowledged some figures were not immediately on hand and committed to providing missing counts to the board.
The board praised staff for the breadth of the work and directed continued implementation and monitoring.
