Hillsborough to pilot three fully inclusive elementary schools, district ESE director says

Hillsborough County Public Schools will pilot three fully inclusive elementary schools next year that will serve neighborhood students "regardless of disability, program, amount of time," Shannon Lesperance, the district's director of exceptional student education, said in the district podcast More to the Story.

Lesperance told host Deborah Bellanti the pilot will concentrate resources at three elementary schools to test whether fully inclusive neighborhood models can be sustained and replicated across the large district. "So we are gonna provide the resources for those 3 schools and see if it can be sustained, there, and how could we replicate that into more schools," she said.

District officials framed the plan as a response to family requests for neighborhood placement. Lesperance said families want children with disabilities to attend their neighborhood schools so siblings can attend the same building and students can participate with neighborhood peers.

The pilot is part of a broader explanation of how the district provides Exceptional Student Education,…