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Levittown special education director describes Lee Road pilot and plans to expand in 2026–27
Summary
Director of Special Education Dawn Wong described a district effort to move from reactive to proactive special education supports, detailed the Lee Road in-district pilot that returned three students from out-of-district placements, and proposed expanding the model and training aides to become RBTs to reduce contracted costs.
Dawn Wong, the district’s director of special education, told the Levittown Board of Education on March 11 that her department reorganized procedures, launched comprehensive professional development and piloted an in-district program at Lee Road that aims to keep high-need students in district settings.
Wong said staff built a district-wide digital special education procedures and forms manual to standardize practice and created a two-track professional-development program, Shaping Success, with separate offerings for elementary and secondary staff. She said the department prioritized training so staff “come from the same language” when supporting students.
Wong described the Lee Road pilot — three K–6 classes supported by a full-time licensed behavior analyst (LBA), district-employed physical and occupational therapists, speech therapy and a team approach to data collection and individualized plans. She said the pilot brought three students who had been on home instruction or pending out-of-district placements back into the district; all three are now supported in-district and no longer budgeted for out-of-district tuition.
Wong offered an approximate cost comparison: the tuition to send those three students out could have approached $400,000, while the primary new cost in the pilot is the LBA salary “under $100,000,” plus modest meeting pay — a difference she described as a meaningful cost-saving while keeping students closer to home.
She also outlined next steps: expand the Lee Road model to an additional elementary site for 2026–27; explore training district aides to become registered behavior technicians so the district can hire in-house rather than rely on contracted RBTs; and redesign parent counseling and training into a tiered in-house model to improve effectiveness and control costs. Wong reported 41 new entrants into the district with IEPs as of February and said the district’s classification rate is comparable to Nassau County.
Board members asked about staff counts and mainstreaming time for students in the program; Wong said mainstreaming decisions remain individualized and the pilot is developing peer-leader opportunities to increase student engagement. The board thanked Wong and the special education team for the presentation.
Why it matters: The pilot demonstrates a district effort to increase in-district capacity for students with higher needs, potentially reducing costly out-of-district tuition and improving continuity of services for students and families.
What’s next: The administration plans to move ahead with planning to expand the model for 2026–27, develop pathways for aides to become RBTs and provide additional staffing and cost details in future meetings.
