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Special-education enrollment rises; district outlines monitoring, staffing and IEP changes
Summary
Jefferson County special-education staff reported a small uptick in students with disabilities (1,298; 16.3% of district) and a 64% increase in the LEAP autism program since 2022, and described new monitoring, rubrics for personal-care aides and planned IEP fidelity checks to address rising needs.
Mr. Wink, the district’s special-programs presenter, told the board the district counted 1,298 students with disabilities on the October 1 capture — "that represents 16.3% of our total population in Jefferson County," he said — up modestly from last year. He said early-childhood and pre-K IEPs rose as well and that the LEAP program for students requiring intensive autism supports has grown sharply: "From 2022 to 2025 on the continuum there, you see that we had a 64 percent increase in our autism population," he said.
Wink outlined staffing updates — speech and occupational therapists slated to begin the week of Oct. 20 at multiple schools — and described the district’s plan for more intensive monitoring. He said the district will randomly audit IEPs and use the state rubric during school visits: "I will be going out monitoring 10% of their IEPs randomly," he said, adding schools will be revisited multiple times through the monitoring cycle.
Board members pressed for detail on how the percentages were calculated and whether the data are disaggregated by race or socioeconomic status. Wink said the department calculates percentages by dividing students with IEPs by total enrollment and acknowledged the office does not routinely disaggregate special-education counts by race or income categories: "We do not break that down farther into socioeconomic status, ethnicity," he said, adding the state may report some cross-tabulations separately.
On interventions and staffing, Wink described two rubrics implemented over the past three years: one to guide when a personal-care aide is assigned and a second to guide a "fade" plan when a student demonstrates independence. He emphasized the decisions are data-driven: "Our BCBAs do a great job of monitoring that data, collecting the data, and say, 'hey, we're not seeing aggressions,'" and decisions to reduce aide time are based on those measures.
Wink also flagged areas needing improvement: a graduation rate for students with disabilities of 83.33% and a dropout rate of 11.11% among that population. He said the district will continue targeted supports, school monitoring and cross-department collaboration to raise outcomes.
The district will report back with more granular data and said staff are piloting co-teaching models and expanded professional development to lift achievement for students with disabilities. The board asked for continued follow-up on monitoring results and the effects of new staffing and rubric practices.
