MCPS asks for major staffing additions: 688 FTEs for special education, 47 for EML; district proposes CREA, blended learning and cross‑functional teams

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) presented a series of staffing and program proposals to the Education & Culture Committee on April 23 intended to address long‑standing gaps in special education and services for emergent multilingual learners (EML), while expanding CREA and blended‑learning options and embedding central‑office expertise directly in schools.

Superintendent Taylor told the committee the FY26 proposal includes 688 FTEs and an estimated $46.6 million to address shortfalls in services for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 plans. Of those 688 positions, roughly 500 are paraeducator roles; MCPS said 360 of those reflect transitions of existing temporary part‑time staff to full‑time, benefited positions to reduce churn and improve retention. "We are not solving any problems with special education," Taylor said, stressing that the additions largely bring staffing back to the level the district is contractually and operationally required to provide rather than representing a full expansion.

Councilmembers asked how quickly MCPS could hire the proposed positions and where they would be allocated. Staff said MCPS hires hundreds of educators each year and expects to recruit aggressively; some specialized positions (for example, speech‑language pathologists) will be harder to fill. MCPS described staffing guidelines that allocate personnel by student need and said allocations will be based on where students with higher needs actually are located.

For emerging multilingual learners, MCPS proposed 47 additional FTEs (about $4.2 million) to meet a projected increase of nearly 1,000 EML students next year. The district said the increase would preserve current modest staffing ratios but would not move the district toward recommended national ratios (for example, 12:1). Taylor said EML students are the fastest‑growing population in the district and require differentiated services by proficiency level.

The budget also requests 14 positions and roughly $1.7 million to expand CREA (an alternative/GED and industry‑certification program) and 22 FTEs (~$2.1 million) to stabilize and expand blended/virtual learning offerings for medically homebound and other students. The superintendent emphasized the need for social‑emotional supports and richer synchronous experiences than prior stopgap virtual programming.

A central element of the superintendent’s proposal is a reorganization of central office to create cross functional teams that will be school‑facing. MCPS plans to reallocate 84 central‑office FTEs (about $8.1 million) into cluster‑aligned teams containing literacy, math, EML, special‑education, security and family‑support staff; three clusters (Kennedy, Watkins Mill, Gaithersburg) will have dedicated teams. Team members are expected to be school‑based roughly 80% of the time and will be measured against cluster student‑performance metrics.

Committee members pressed for implementation details, asked how restorative justice and equity functions would be preserved, and sought clarity on metrics and timelines; MCPS said restorative‑justice and equity duties are written into new professional‑learning‑specialist job descriptions and that central equity work will continue while being deployed more actively into schools. Members requested follow‑up briefings and status reports on hiring progress and early implementation milestones.

Next steps: MCPS will continue to brief committees during budget deliberations and the council will weigh the superintendent’s request alongside countywide budget amendments, pension‑cost changes and reconciliation decisions.