No 'overnight fix': What Swansea is doing to address special education parents' concerns
SWANSEA — Swansea’s Superintendent of Schools laid out a plan to address concerns from parents and staff after a group of special education family members highlighted what they said are serious problems with the district’s special education department.
“We have to collaborate effectively, honestly, openly, and in a way that makes sense and is reasonable,” Superintendent John Robidoux said during a School Committee meeting on Monday.
In November, the committee held a special meeting to allow family members of special education students in the district to speak about problems they saw in the special education program. During the meeting, family members said there was sometimes poor communication from the district and that they had to fight for their children to be fully included while in school.
On Monday, Robidoux highlighted several areas where the district intends to take action. He met with more than 100 Swansea educators before presenting the plan, he said.
Staff should make sure parents and guardians are informed about what having a child in the special education program means, and families should be proactive about reaching out to teachers or other staff if they have unanswered questions, he said.
“We need to work to make sure parents feel welcome as a part of the team and make sure that they understand the process, the evaluation and next steps,” he said.
The district also wants to offer increased training around topics like special education laws and regulations for both families and staff. They’re exploring offering workshops on special education jargon and acronyms and will make sure every form that families might need is readily accessible online, he said.
The district in recent years has added more staff like special education paraprofessionals and making sure each school has its own school adjustment counselor, Robidoux said, but should continue to increase its number of special education educators and service providers.
“I feel this plan is the beginning of a plan to move forward,” he said. “It’s not a ‘check the box’ or a overnight fix at all.”
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Changes following 2017 study
Robidoux also discussed how the district has responded to the results of a 2017 study of the special education department that made suggestions for improvements in the department.
At the time of the study, the district was identifying around 11% of students as needing special education services. Now, Robidoux said, that number is around 15%.
They’ve also added more special education paraprofessionals to the district, from around 23 in 2017 to 31 currently and have met a target of having 60% of special education students included in general education classrooms with their peers.
Robidoux said the district has increased its rate of documentation of IEPs to parents on time to 98% since the study was conducted, although that rate has slowed since the previous Director of Student Services, Julie Garrell, resigned in late November.
Advisory committee
The district has launched an advisory committee to continue gathering feedback from people with ties to the special education department. The committee has already begun working, Robidoux said. It is led by Luther Elementary School principal Sean Scanlon and includes representatives of different groups of district staff including teachers, paraeducators and administrators.
The group is planning to invite parents and staff members to discussions and then make recommendations to him as superintendent.
“We wanna get some nice… honest feedback, positive and negative,” he said.
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The district has also established a committee to search for the next director of student services, who oversees special education, that includes a special education parent and four teachers and administrators from the distict.
Wendy Looker, whose 3-year-old grandson is a special education student in Swansea, said she was very concerned that the advisory committee does not include parents of special education students as full members.
“I think it’s nothing more than a placation if they don’t have parents embedded onto this advisory committee,” she said after Monday’s meeting. “You don’t have that lived experience unless you have a special needs child.”
Overall, Looker said, she found Robidoux’s list of areas that need improvement to be comprehensive. But, the district could still do more to work toward inclusion and equality for special education students.
“I felt like (families) were being heard,” she said. “I think it’s a place to start. We just gotta hope for the best and see where it continues to go.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Swansea schools working to address special education parents' concerns
