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District expands CORE special-education model and scales MCIE partnership
Summary
District leaders described a shift to a flexible special-education continuum and the CORE program at Ravinia to group students by needs, reducing students "bouncing" between schools; the district plans to extend MCIE supports to all schools by 2027–28 and has hired an additional student-services coordinator to oversee CORE.
During the Committee of the Whole meeting April 7, Dr. Holly Colin detailed changes to the district's special-education model that the administration says address weaknesses identified in a 2019 audit. The district moved away from a one-size-fits-all approach and implemented the CORE (Continuum of Resources) model at Ravinia to create cohorts of students with similar learning profiles and instruction by teachers with specialized skills.
Dr. Colin framed a key benefit as reducing what she described as students "bouncing" between buildings as their needs changed, instead creating a stable environment from kindergarten through fifth grade for students with higher support needs. The CORE program will be overseen by a newly-hired student-service coordinator, and one coordinator will manage CORE and Individualized Learning Plans (ILP) at Edgewood Middle School.
The board also heard about the district's partnership with the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education (MCIE), which began as a pilot and has grown to include K–5 work at Ravinia and middle-school-level teams at Edgewood and other targeted, student-specific support at Oak Terrace and Wayne Thomas. Ms. Jaclyn Wagner said MCIE training prompted staff to shift to a "strength-based approach" and to "look at student challenges as barriers to be removed," which district leaders said supported broader inclusion efforts.
Administrators described a goal to expand MCIE work to all district schools by the 2027–28 school year and noted parallel family-engagement efforts, including an IAASE grant-funded series at Ravinia that drew broad parent participation.
