Newton School Committee Assesses Special Education Programs, Needs and Costs

With student populations and special education costs on the rise, the School Committee last night heard feedback and considered avenues of how it could improve the quality and cost of Newton's special education programs. 

According to a review conducted by District and Community Partners, Newton could create more effective programs and potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars if it reassessed some if its special education services.

Superintendent David Fleishman explained that the review process began back in July 2010 and has consisted of data analysis, classroom observations, focus groups, interviews as well as surveys of parents, staff and administrators.

"This was a collaborative process and there were a lot of people who spent time on this study," Fleishman said.

To view the full report, click the .pdf to the right.

While the district was commended for its commitment to inclusion, "world-class" budget systems and high-achieving students, the review listed six key recommendations for improving the district's special education program:

• Fine-tune the district’s inclusion model to better serve a small number of children with severe needs (likely less than 5 percent of students with severe needs) who might benefit from a slightly more structured environment.
• Consider alternative models of serving students with special needs that are as effective while costing less.
• Shift focus towards multiple measures of success and away from inputs.
• Establish more productive methods of making decisions, especially hard decisions.
• Refine the method of identifying students with disabilities.
• Reduce program variation from school to school, especially at the secondary level, in order to share best practices and reduce parent frustration.

Financially, the review notes that the district's special education costs are growing at a rate 70 percent faster than the district's total spending. In 2009-2010, the district spent a total of $53,915,541 on special education out of a total $186,747,709 budget. 

The review also says the district could potentially save money by looking at small, safe and structured environment for certain students who currently use programs that are out of the district. 

When a student is placed in a program out of the district, the home district must pay any tuition and transportation costs for that student.

Compared to similar districts in the state, the review says Newton could save roughly $25,000-$30,000 per student (including transportation) if that student was moved to an in-house program rather than an out of district program.

"If 90 percent of students with specific learning disabilities and 50 percent of students with emotional disabilities were served in small, safe environments, savings of up to $1.7 million are possible annually," the report says. 

Changes in student population

In addition to the program review, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Judy Levin-Charns presented a report last night showing trends in the Newton special education population from Oct. 2007-Oct. 2011. Some key points included:

• The number of students with neurological disabilities and autism is on the rise (128 percent increase and 61 percent increase, respectively).
• The number of students placed in programs out of district has increased by a total of 37 students.
• The number of students out of district makes up around 6 percent of Newton's total special education population, or around 1.3 percent of the district's overall population. 
• Over the last year, the number of co-taught classrooms (two teachers instead of a teacher with a number of aides) has expanded from six to 14 classrooms.

Levin-Charns noted that Newton's numbers run somewhat parallel with the statewide populations. However, the percentage of Newton students with neurological, health and autism disabilities is higher than the statewide percentage. 

Starting the conversation

As the district begins to reassess its special education programs and consider new avenues, both administrators and local experts agreed that communicating with parents and teachers is a top priority. 

Dorsey Yearly, executive director of the Education Collaborative of Greater Boston, Inc. (EDCO), offered her thoughts to the committee last night as an expert in student services. Yearly worked for years as the director of special education services in Wellesly Public Schools. 

"You really need to engage parents in the process," Yearly said. "You have to make sure that [in] any efforts you're considering that you've talked to parents, you understand the issues parents are worried about, and you have parents who are willing to try a new program."

With extensive reviews and reports on the district's special education program, Yearly said Newton is in a great place to start looking at how the district could do things differently.

But the cost of the programs, Yearly said, should not be the driving factor. "Public entitlement" and what's best for kids should come first, she said. 

"When you start with [asking], 'how can we cut 10 percent of the [special education] budget', it’s a recipe for disaster," she said.

Yearly recommended bringing together a group of "stakeholders," or parents and teachers involved with the special education program, and starting a discussion. The discussion, she said, should focus around four main questions:

• Is there anything in the [report] data that is surprising? What can we do about it?
• If there is an aberration from the (normal population), is it intentional?
• Are the programs delivering what we expect for our students?
• Do the programs continue to represent best practice?

Fleishman informed the committee that a special meeting will be scheduled sometime in January to sit down and start a discussion with parents, administrators and staff regarding the district's special education services. 

There are a number of other items of note from last night's meeting. Stay tuned to Patch later this week for more updates.