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District special‑education chief lays out behavior, threat‑assessment and staffing protocols
Summary
Dr. Jeremy Owen told trustees the district uses functional behavior assessments, threat assessments, PBIS and CPI restraint training; he said an assessment may take up to 60 days but safety situations are prioritized, and that the district has 1.5 behavior specialists serving sites.
Dr. Jeremy Owen, the district’s special‑education lead, gave a comprehensive presentation to the board on May 13 about how the district assesses and responds to student behavior and safety concerns and how it trains staff.
Owen said the district uses functional behavior assessments to identify the function of a behavior, threat assessments to measure risk to self or others, and that timelines can extend up to 60 days for a full assessment but that higher‑risk cases are triaged and expedited. "There are sometimes that gathering the information can take time, so it's not always this immediate turnaround," he said, but added that serious incidents are prioritized.
He detailed ratios and staff deployment: co‑taught or mild/moderate classrooms typically average 15–20 students per teacher/adult; more moderate classrooms run roughly 3–4 students per adult; the most intensive settings may be 1:1. Owen said the district currently has 1.5 behavior specialists (one full‑time BCBA and one 0.5 position) and two district‑level behavior specialists available for on‑site consultation.
Owen also reviewed professional development (PBIS tiers, behavior‑intervention planning, and Crisis Prevention/Intervention training that emphasizes de‑escalation and includes a restraint component renewed every two years) and described a process for post‑incident review and IEP or behavior‑plan revision. Trustees pressed on timelines, substitution/contingency plans when 1:1 aides are absent, and whether PD and onboarding are standardized across sites; Owen said the district is working to systematize onboarding and expand training.
