STATE TO REVIEW FNESU SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
By Gregory J. Lamoureux
The State of Vermont’s Department of Education has announced that they will be reviewing the Special Education program in Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union, as well as schools in nine other districts.
The review, which will cost about $50,000 for each supervisory union, will look into cost savings options as well as the effectiveness of the program.According to Haley Dover at the Department of Education, The state will pay $45,000 of the cost, with the local supervisory unions chipping in the remaining $5,000.
The House Education Committee last spring put $200,000 into a pilot plan in the special education bill so 10 supervisory unions and districts could participate. The Senate didn’t want to take that much money out of the education fund. A conference committee agreed to set aside $75,000 for the project. The remaining $375,000 in funds will come from federal grants.
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Vermont spends $294 million a year for special education and identifies 16 percent of the state’s students as needing services. A study of Vermont’s spending during the 2014-2015 school year found the state could have saved $140 million by changing the way it delivers special education. That report was written by Allan Odden and Lawrence Picus.
The Picus study said new research shows that many struggling students can be helped with extra tutoring and other resources and can then return to the general education population. The authors highlighted the work of the District Management Council in the study.
The agency has characterized the program as “technical assistance” to areas that want to “figure out ways to organize resources more strategically,” according to spokesperson Haley Dover.
In total, the state will be conducting ten of these reviews throughout the state, five in non-merged school systems, and five in districts that have participated in mergers through the Act 46 process.
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In the application for the program asking “Are you satisfied with the outcomes of your struggling learners, both with and without IEPs?” Superintendent Jay Nichols answered “I don’t think anyone is ever satisfied. Staff turnover often deters outcomes. We could improve in this area.”
Nichols also wrote in the application “We believe that we have a high number of paraprofessionals as well as costly contracted behavioral interventionists. We are just starting a program to train our own paraprofessionals to phase out these contracted behavioral interventionists. We have also recently undertaken some changes to centralize assessment and support services, and would appreciate feedback in how that is working and how that can be further improved. We would also like to better train our Tier 3 teachers in remediating basic skill development with identified students.”
Officials at the state hand picked the districts to review. The would not answer the County Courier’s question on Wednesday, asking if the state would be looking for data from the program to promote their Act 46 merger goals.
According to FNESU board member Suzie Hull-Parent who has been a vocal critic of the Act 46 merger process, “merger was not mentioned. It was not mentioned as even criteria.”
The review was sold to the board as a way to determine if there were any ways to curtail Special Education costs and improve efficiencies.
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“We are not beholden to take any of their recommendations,” Hull-Parent said.
In addition to Franklin Northeast, which serves Bakersfield, Berkshire, Enosburg, Montgomery and Richford, the State will also be reviewing the special education programs at the Milton Supervisory District, the Hartford Supervisory District, and Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union.
The districts that participated in recent Act 46 mergers that the state will review are Addison Central Supervisory Union, Essex Town & Essex Junction, Washington West Supervisory Union and Orange Southwest Supervisory Union.
Orleans Central and Windham Central Supervisory Union were also selected to participate in the project to be reviewed.
“The purpose of this project is to build local capacity to better manage systems and deliver services,” said Rebecca Holcombe, Secretary of Education. “All our systems strive to get the best value for students out of every dollar. DMC’s mission is to help systems figure out how to provide high-quality care for students in the most cost-effective way possible. What we learn from these systems, we hope to share with others that were not able to participate.”
