Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Special Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District says special-education services largely staffed but seeks therapists; compensatory plans explained
Summary
Central-office staff reported special-education classrooms have teachers of record but highlighted a shortage of related-service therapists (six speech-therapists left since last September); the district described IEP monitoring, eDOCS documentation, compensatory time and parent-notification procedures and said a new speech therapist began work covering three schools.
The board heard a district-level special-education compliance update covering IEP implementation, related-service documentation, compensatory services and staffing.
Dr. Wenk (special-education official) described monitoring that aligns service minutes to each student's IEP, use of eDOCS to record therapy appointments and billing, and random audits by central office. He said teachers act as case managers who are required to provide quarterly progress reports to parents and that compensatory time is determined by the IEP team when services were missed.
Staff acknowledged workforce challenges: the presentation noted six speech therapists left the county since last September for a variety of reasons and the district is actively recruiting an occupational therapist. A newly hired speech therapist "started today" and will cover Blue Ridge, Ranson and Jefferson schools. Staff explained parent notification letters were sent to families where therapists were not present and described compensatory-time options (extend session minutes, add sessions, or IEP-team-determined make-up services) to restore a free and appropriate public education (FAPE).
