Special education caseloads and disciplinary trends reported to Moore County board
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Summary
Dr. Cam Swinmore reported the district serves 1,145 students with individualized education programs, noted increases in private/homeschool students served, and credited disciplinary and climate work with lowering suspension days by about 80 days compared with the prior year.
Dr. Cam Swinmore, presenting the operations report, told the Moore County School Board the district currently serves 1,145 students with individualized education programs (IEPs). She said private and homeschooled students receiving district services have grown to 27 (5 served in two private schools and 22 served as homeschool students), and the district supports 314 students with 504 plans.
"So we currently have 1,145 students across the district," Dr. Swinmore said during her report, outlining disability categories and service approaches. She identified the largest category as specific learning disabilities and said speech and language and autism were among the other higher-count categories. Dr. Swinmore also noted seven students on individualized education accounts (described in the presentation as a program that generates funding for students with disabilities to use for private services or therapy).
She attributed much of the district's improvement on discipline metrics to sustained work with the program Capturing Kids' Hearts: "We started this work because we had suspension issues... so I need to report out the suspension days. ...We're at least 80 suspension days down at this time, this day last year," she said. The board heard that reducing suspension days means more instructional days for students.
Administrators clarified that some grant funding discussed later in the operations agenda (for early literacy tutoring) was new state money, while the state special education preschool grant referenced in another budget amendment was an accounting estimate rather than new funds.
What's next: the board approved the related budget amendments that affect special education bookkeeping and allocated funds to cover contracted psychologist services; district staff will reconcile grant receipts and report back to the board when funds are received.