Last school year, ACPS commissioned an evaluation of the services it provides to students with disabilities. We are getting ready to share the report from this evaluation with you in October.
The evaluation report commended the use of high-yield co-teaching models, resources available to city-wide classes, guidance for English Learner students, inclusive settings and parent engagement. It also commended the low drop-out rate and successful graduation rate for students with disabilities.
Some of its recommendations include improving referral and assessment practices that lead to the over-identification of certain groups, the ensuring clear academic expectations set for students with disabilities, focusing on staff recruitment, retention and morale, and ensuring the implementation of specially designed instruction and targeted interventions.
Once the report is publicly available, ACPS will seek public comment from various groups in the community to make sure that we have a clear roadmap to best serve our students.
We will be hosting meetings with the Special Education Advisory Committee, families with students with disabilities and the wider ACPS community to seek comment on the proposed plan to improve services and what is needed and take the services we offer to the next level.
In October, the full report along with key findings will be presented to the Alexandria City School Board. We will update you as soon as we have the dates for this presentation confirmed. You can watch the School Board meeting live on ACPS-TV.
Following the presentation to the School Board, there will be a series of meetings to comment on an action plan developed from the report’s findings. A group of 36 staff and community members have been working collaboratively to recommended actions to improve the delivery of special education services. The action steps they recommend will be open to comment from vested groups and the wider community throughout October and November.
Along with in-person meetings and discussion groups, ACPS will also be sending out an online feedback form to parents to solicit their open-ended comments on the next steps. We will be sharing this via ACPS Express and your school newsletters in the coming weeks. Please watch out for the feedback form.
The goal is to have a final plan of action for the next steps by late fall.