Port Angeles schools begin four-year OSPI inclusionary practices pilot at Stevens and Franklin

Port Angeles School District staff told the board the district is participating in a four-year inclusionary practices pilot funded by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), with Stevens and Franklin schools designated as local pilot sites.

The district's grant lead said the project's goals include expanding access to the least restrictive environment (LRE) for students with individualized education programs (IEPs), improving instructional outcomes and building scalable professional learning and coaching systems.

"This is a 4 year grant," the district presenter said, adding the pilot was created by state direction to establish model sites and that the project uses a Street Data improvement cycle that centers student and family voice alongside traditional assessment data.

Stevens and Franklin will focus on both increasing access and ensuring that time in general education benefits students'instructional outcomes. The presenter outlined core deliverables: professional learning and targeted coaching, deeper family engagement, and measurement of LRE and outcomes over time.

At Franklin, Principal Martin said the school's planning rests on three pillars: neuroeducation to reduce stress and boost engagement, tiered supports to provide deeper accessibility, and staff capacity-building around the science of reading. Martin confirmed a two-day summer neuroeducation training funded by the grant and invited board members to attend.

Melissa McBride, presenting Stevens's work, described a narrow pilot cohort of nine students '"margin within the margin"' selected after data review. McBride said Stevens's team found that using the grant to test systems on a small group allows creation of a tier-1 system that can then serve every student. She also identified that Stevens has 77 students the school counts as Native American under district criteria, 18 of whom have IEPs and several of whom are struggling academically and with attendance.

The district provided high-level grant budgets for the current year as examples of scale: the presentation listed Stevens's expenditure budget this year as $246,000 and Franklin's as $258,000. District staff noted the grant funding is designed to scale practices over four years and emphasized the need for longitudinal measurement.

Board members asked how many pilot schools in the first round showed significant improvement; the presenter said 7 of 35 schools in an earlier round showed notable early growth and that the district will continue to analyze which practices drove success. Directors also pressed for disaggregated trends and plans to share results annually.

Next steps: the schools will continue staff and family surveys, focus groups and Hope Navigator training; the district will report back annually on deliverables, LRE changes and outcome measures.