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Sto-Rox director outlines special-education recovery plan, cites $4.6M vendor and $5.8M out-of-district costs
Summary
Director of student services Britney Litsenbiggler told the board the district spends roughly $4.6 million on vendors and student services and about $5.8 million on out-of-district placements; she urged building in-house capacity, described new life-skills and emotional-support classrooms and training programs, and said progress monitoring and a special-education handbook are priorities.
Britney Litsenbiggler, the district's director of student services, told the Sto-Rox School District board on Dec. 4 that the district has increased participation of students with IEPs in state assessments but that proficiency rates remain low, and that the district must change how it delivers special education.
Litsenbiggler gave the board a cost breakdown and recovery-plan goals, saying vendors make up "about $4,600,000 of the budget" for student services, mental health and out-of-district transportation, while out-of-district placements cost about "$5,800,000." She said a priority of the recovery plan is to "evaluate the impact of in house versus out of district programs on students' outcomes" and to expand in-house services so students can be served locally and dollars remain in the district.
The director outlined specific steps already taken: the district has added additional life-skills and emotional-support classrooms at the primary center and junior–senior high school, adopted the Unique Learning System curriculum for life-skills students, and added two paraprofessional support positions (one of which was on the meeting's personnel agenda). She said the district is pursuing no-cost coaching from consultants provided through the AIU, Watson and Patton to build local capacity.
Litsenbiggler described progress-monitoring work and a forthcoming special-education handbook aligned to IDEA and state guidelines: "we're working on developing a handbook, a very robust handbook, that is aligned with IDEA ... and all state and federal guidelines to make sure that all of our documentation is compliant and up to date." She also said the district is implementing PIMS training and working to ensure Medicaid-related school-based access reimbursements are filed correctly.
On safety and training, the director said the district provides CPI (crisis prevention intervention) training and de-escalation tools, adding that CPI certification must be renewed every two years and that any physical restraint of a student must be reported to the state with an IEP meeting required within 10 days.
Board members asked detailed questions about referral volumes, tracking and confidentiality. Litsenbiggler said SAP referrals vary by building and week ("between 1 and 8 referrals per week per building"), that incident logs are retained within the district office, and that the AIU provides consultation and training to support implementation.
The presentation concluded with the director emphasizing the district's goal to create a continuum of supports to keep students in the least restrictive, local learning environment when appropriate.
