SAISD

Curriculum Department

Quarterly Report

Department/Area: Special Education/504/Dyslexia Quarter: S D M J

Prepared By: Jana Anderson, Director of Special Education Budget Source: Local/Federal

Overview: Program Statistics as of March 7, 2002:

·  Number of students being served by Special Education: 2,094 (+7)

504 Program: 174

Dyslexia Program: 17

·  Percentage of total SAISD enrollment being served in Special

Education: 13.4% (+.1%)

·  Current Staff:

Instructional Staff Support Staff

9 Preschool Teachers and 9 Instructional Aides 1 Director

44 Elementary Teachers and 44 Instructional Aides 3 Supervisors

34 Junior High Teachers and 12 Instructional Aides 10 Diagnosticians

30 High School Teachers and 13 Instructional Aides 3 School Psychologists

1 Teacher at Carver 13 Speech Pathologists

5 Homebound Teachers 1 Registered Nurse

1 Adapted P.E. Teacher 4 Clerical Staff

2 Teachers of the Visually Impaired

2 Dyslexia Teachers

Goals With Benchmarks:

·  Provide district-wide activities and training to promote the awareness of individuals with disabilities in order to prevent disability harassment in the school and the workplace. Develop district policy regarding disability harassment to be in place by May, 2002.

Quarterly Update: A booklet describing disabilities and explaining the law as it pertains to disability harassment has been developed, using Federal Capacity Building funds. This booklet will be provided to all campuses and parents of students with disabilities. SAISD policy relating to disability harassment is being reviewed, with changes and/or revisions being considered.

·  Assist each campus in forming a Child-Study (Pre-referral) Team to ensure that all possible interventions have been tried before a student is referred to Special Education. These teams will be in operation by the end of the first semester.

Quarterly Update: A Child-Study Team is in place at all campuses. The supervisor responsible for the referral process has visited numerous campuses and worked with staff to assist them with interventions. All campuses have received inservice training on the Child-Study process as required by the District Improvement Plan.

·  Revise/update the district Dyslexia Plan to include specific criteria for exit from the Dyslexia Program based on alignment with TEKS and TAAS expectations related to grade level and individual abilities of each student—December, 2001.

Quarterly Update: The Dyslexia teachers, diagnostician and supervisor have worked to establish exit criteria for the program. A new Dyslexia Handbook developed by the Texas Education Agency has been distributed to all districts. We received this handbook in February and after reviewing it, may choose to adopt it as our district Dyslexia Plan.

·  Prepare for the District Effectiveness and Compliance monitoring visit scheduled for the week of May 20, 2002.

Quarterly Update: Although the district is participating in the new DEC process pilot program, the procedures for special education have not changed. All schools will be targeted for campus visits by the special education portion of the DEC team. The director and supervisors of special education are scheduling visits to each campus to ensure that special education procedures are in compliance. In addition, all support staff are scheduling specific times to review student folders to check for compliance with all DEC indicators.

Status for the Present Quarter:

·  1,303 ARD meetings have been conducted since 12/04/01 (Total since 8/10/01: 2,572)

·  171 Special Education referrals have been processed since 12/04/01

(Total since 8/10/01: 324)

·  The Special Education Department continues to work with two very serious situations involving parents who continue to file complaints and requests for due process hearings:

  1. A due process hearing was held on February 26 and 27, 2002. Although a decision has not been handed down from the hearing officer as of this date, we are confident that the district will prevail, the parent did not present any evidence to prove his claim. This same parent, however, has filed a new request for a due process hearing. A pre-hearing telephone conference will be conducted on March 14, 2002 to discuss the request.
  1. The other parent has filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency, alleging that the special education department has not followed correct procedures in conducting evaluations and scheduling ARD meetings. Documentation to support the district’s procedures has been compiled and sent to TEA’s Complaint Division. This information was due 3/12/02, it was sent to TEA on 3/7/02.
  1. A parent (same as #2) has also filed a Level 3 Grievance with the SAISD Board of Trustees against the interim superintendent, special education director, special education supervisor, principal of McGill Elementary and the secretary at McGill. The parent is claiming that he is being discriminated against and that staff members refuse to respond to his complaints and concerns. The parent has withdrawn his child from SAISD and is home-schooling.

****NOTE: The above situations have been occurring for six-eight years. Countless hours are spent responding to concerns from both of these parents. Many more hours have been spent doing exhaustive documentation. The special education director, three supervisors, several diagnosticians and secretaries, in addition to staff at Austin, McGill and Glenn are involved in these two cases. Attorneys from Schwartz and Eichelbaum continue to assist the district in answering these complaints, which has resulted in very significant legal costs. At this time there has never been a situation related to either case that has resulted in a finding of error or wrongdoing on the part of the district. Hopefully, at some point in time, TEA will determine that both of these parents are making frivolous claims.