Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Special Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District officials report LRE metrics, cite audit to guide special education improvements
Summary
Milwaukee Public Schools staff told the Committee on Student Achievement that the district remains within state thresholds for most least restrictive environment (LRE) indicators, and supplied multi-year counts showing shifts in student placements; a special education audit is underway and administrators said it will inform further changes.
The Committee on Student Achievement heard an update on services for students with disabilities and the district’s least restrictive environment (LRE) metrics.
Dr. Travis Pinter, senior director of specialized services, told the committee the biannual LRE snapshot covers December through May and tracks three state indicators commonly called 5A, 5B and 5C. He said the district is “well within our target” for indicators 5A and 5C and is making steady progress lowering 5B. To make the percentages more meaningful, he converted them into counts over the last five years: roughly 800 more students are included in the 5A category, about 650 fewer in 5B and roughly 20 fewer in 5C.
Board members asked for clearer visuals. Director O'halerin requested that the tables explicitly label whether a given threshold is a minimum or maximum (for example, “should be above” vs. “should be below”) so readers can quickly see if the district is meeting state expectations. Administration agreed and said the change will be added to future reports.
Director Chason flagged a repeated value (12.19%) that appeared in different tables and asked whether it reflected a snapshot artifact. Administration explained the discrepancy results in part from how charter and non-charter unit types are aggregated in different total pages and agreed to clarify aggregation methods in the supplemental materials.
Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellia reminded the committee that a separate special education audit is in progress and said administrators plan to bring the audit’s findings back to the board to guide changes in placement, program concentration, and ensuring students receive required service minutes.
The committee did not take formal action on the report. The presentation and staff responses established follow-up items: clearer threshold labels on tables, a plain-language explanation of the 12.19% variance, and future audit-driven recommendations to be returned to the board.
