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Urbana SD 116 outlines student services reconfiguration, reports drop in special-education suspension days
Summary
Student services lead Beth Ladd described a department reconfiguration to three administrators, reported staffing changes and recruitment results, and said suspension days for students with IEPs declined substantially this year compared with last year through new supports and a behavioral response continuum.
Beth Ladd presented the Student Services department’s reconfiguration and results for special-education programming, telling the board the change to three administrators has allowed more building-level support and improved monitoring across pre-K through young-adult services. Ladd said those staffing changes were intended to increase face time with administrators and better manage workloads across buildings.
Ladd reviewed placement and Least-Restrictive Environment (LRE) data: 63% of district students receiving special-education services spend 80% or more of their day in the general-education environment, compared with a U.S. average cited at about 66.2%. She said Illinois ranks low nationally for LRE measures, making district efforts to increase general-education inclusion at earlier grades a priority.
On staffing, Ladd reported roughly 17% of special-education teacher positions were unfilled (about 16 positions) and that teaching-assistant vacancies improved from 16% to about 11% after adding FTEs; psychologist staffing remains constrained (7 FTEs districtwide and a shortfall of two positions). The district converted some unfilled clinical mental-health provider positions to school social-worker roles to improve fill rates.
Ladd described behavioral supports and data showing a drop in suspension days: last year there were 198 suspension days across 89 incidents involving 62 students with IEPs, compared with 76 suspension days so far this fall — a reduction Ladd attributed to layered interventions, a behavior-matrix and a behavior-response continuum developed in collaboration with UEA leadership.
She also highlighted vocational opportunities at Urbana High School, including a student-run Tiger Print Shop, a Tiger Cafe program, and adoption of a PACE lab for explicit assessment; partnerships with Parkland and the University of Illinois were noted for future collaborations. Board members asked follow-up questions about IEP/504 timelines, community worksites for vocational placements and professional development time; Ladd described use of a retired psychologist for interim support and ongoing recruitment efforts.
