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Council Rock discusses special-education IU services and strong parent interest in exploring trimester report cards
Summary
District staff reported on limited current placements with the Bucks County IU and presented elementary parent survey results (824 responses) showing majority support for exploring a trimester grading/reporting model and for aligning grades 4–5 with sixth‑grade practices.
Nicole Crawford, director of elementary education, told the committee that an elementary parent survey received 824 family responses and that a majority of respondents supported exploring a trimester model and aligning grading practices in grades 4 and 5 with grade 6. “Sixty‑five percent of our respondents were supportive of exploring a trimester model; 44% were very supportive,” Crawford said.
Crawford summarized open‑ended feedback: parents valued more meaningful feedback on student progress, asked for clearer timing and structure around a spring conference, and raised questions about how letter grades for younger grades would be structured. She said the district will convene two teacher focus groups (K–2 and 3–6) next week and form a parent stakeholder group drawn from more than 100 volunteers who signed up to participate.
On special education, staff reviewed the district’s use of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit (IU). Staff described three IU service areas—direct programming, staffing, and auxiliary services (captioning, CPrint, interpreting)—and said the district currently places two students in IU classes. The presenter said year‑to‑year cost changes are driven by tuition and hourly rates and noted an estimated total cost for three IU service sections in 2025–26 of $161,291.
Board members raised questions about implementation impacts, calendar effects of adding a spring conference, and whether a trimester model could reduce or increase stress for students. Staff emphasized that any changes would be carefully vetted, would not be implemented immediately, and that additional analysis and parent/teacher input would inform next steps.
The committee also reviewed several annual contracts to appear on the May board agenda (nursing vendors and a district medical adviser) and reminded the public about a May 20 QPR suicide‑awareness training that requires RSVPs because of trainer capacity limits.
