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Five-year nondiscrimination review finds strengths in policy and accessibility gaps to address
Summary
Miss Vulk presented the district’s five-year self-evaluation on nondiscrimination, noting updated Neola policies and curricular accessibility tools as strengths and identifying disparities (dual-credit/AP access, higher suspension rates for males and students with disabilities) and website/accessibility issues for improvement.
Miss Vulk presented the Jefferson School District’s five-year self-evaluation of nondiscriminatory educational opportunity, summarizing the review process, participants, findings and an action plan. She said the district convened teams (administrators, teachers, students and community members) to examine eight required areas and noted assistance from staff such as Josie Simonson and Tanya DWI in data preparation.
"The school board has adopted updated policies covering all areas of school operations," Vulk said, crediting implementation of Neola policies as a strength. She pointed to curricular accessibility measures (digital textbooks, Google Read/WR Universal tools and translation supports) and said district teams are focused on closing achievement gaps and strengthening family communication.
Vulk identified weaknesses and opportunities: disparities in dual-credit and AP enrollment (male and students with disabilities underrepresented), higher rates of suspensions for males and students with IEPs, inconsistent bullying-reporting processes, and public-facing website accessibility issues (PDFs with no alt text or readable content for screen readers and translation tools). She described specific action steps in the district’s continuous-improvement plan, including adding common language about harassment and bullying to handbooks, adopting admin tools (a behavior plugin for PowerSchool) to standardize documentation and pursuing accessibility improvements with the district’s CMS vendor.
The presentation also described outreach to remove barriers to extracurricular participation (fee assistance through community support funds, transportation solutions) and efforts to make scholarship applications accessible via the district’s online system. Vulk said many items have target dates and owners documented in the action plan that will be posted online as required by the DPI five-year process.
Board members asked clarifying questions and Vulk noted some items are already done (handbook language) while others remain in progress; the report will be posted on the district website as the formal record of findings and planned actions.
