DESE Report Criticizes Waltham Schools for Poor Training and Micromanagement
The Waltham Patch just published a very interesting online article. It states that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has reviewed the Waltham schools, and drafted a report very critical of the school system. The article states:
A new state report, which will be formally presented at the Oct. 17 Waltham School Committee meeting, harshly criticizes the committee itself as well as the district.
The report will unveil the findings of the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s review of the district, which it began in January. The report will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Waltham High School.
MICROMANAGEMENT
The report criticizes the School Committee for “micromanaging” the district and recommends that Superintendent Susan Nicholson and the committee join the District Governance Support Project that is intended improve members’ understanding of their roles in the district.
The report also says that some school committee members told the review board that there should be no “micromanagement” of the district and that they should mostly be creating the budget setting district goals. Other members said that “most school committee members do not recognize their proper roles in that they tend to micromanage or ‘want to manage more than support.’” Other district staff, not school committee members, agreed that some members have a tendency to micromanage.
Others interviewed cited a lack of trust between the committee and staff.
“Many interviewees expressed concern about a perceived tendency of some school committee members not to trust and support the superintendent and her staff and not to work with school leaders to support higher levels of student achievement. They described a ‘disconnect’ between the school committee and the administration and said that committee members ‘minimize reports from the district about student performance,’ the report reads.
The report also chastises the district for not having a comprehensive and coordinated professional development system for teachers, which ultimately results in teachers missing a lot of classroom time. The current system has teachers missing many hours of crucial classroom time when they are given school days off for professional development time, according to the report. Also, the current program is not properly coordinated with the district’s goals, according to the report.
“The team found limited evidence to suggest that the district uses student achievement data, program evaluations, or information about staff needs from personnel evaluations to plan professional development,” the report reads.
In total, the district has around 80 initiatives to help teachers improve their performance, but they have not been adequate.
“Interviewees told the team that professional development has been unfocused and superficial, initiatives have been scattered, and there has been no accountability for sharing or using professional development information to improve instructional practice,” the report reads.
The report recommends that district better align teaching priorities with professional development efforts.
The Law Office of James M. Baron represents students and parents in special education and other school-related legal matters throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Please visit http://www.lawbaron.com, or call 781-209-1166 for more information.
Duxbury Preschool Special Needs Screening
Wicked Local Duxbury has posted the following regarding screening children for special education:
DUXBURY —The Duxbury Integrated Preschool will be conducting a special needs screening for 3- and 4-year-old children Friday, Oct. 26. The screening will help to identify students who may require special education services.
Children will participate in developmentally appropriate activities designed to screen their speech and language skills, fine and gross motor control, and cognitive development.
Screening takes place at the Chandler School (use the Ray Coppens Field entrance and park in the designated visitor parking spaces).
To schedule a time to have your son or daughter screened, call Christine at 934-7672.
Read more: Preschool special needs screening – Duxbury, MA – Wicked Local Duxbury http://www.wickedlocal.com/duxbury/news/education/x1890057412/Preschool-special-needs-screening#ixzz295iqFsxg
Student Discipline Laws – Improvements to 37H
In a prior blog post we learned that one of the current discipline laws (37H) can result in excruciatingly severe consequences for students who have committed certain offenses at school, to the point that a student might be expelled and unable to re-enroll anywhere else in Massachusetts :
“When a student is expelled under the provisions of this section, no school or school district within the commonwealth shall be required to admit such student or to provide educational services to said student. If said student does apply for admission to another school or school district, the superintendent of the school district to which the application is made may request and shall receive from the superintendent of the school expelling said student a written statement of the reasons for said expulsion.” (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71 § 37H(e)).
As of July 1, 2014, that section of the law will be repealed, and replaced with 3 new sections that will allow students to maintain the right to access educational services, while still allowing school administration to discipline students who commit certain offenses. The new law will include the following wording:
(e) Any school district that suspends or expels a student under this section shall continue to provide educational services to the student during the period of suspension or expulsion, under section 21 of chapter 76. If the student moves to another district during the period of suspension or expulsion, the new district of residence shall either admit the student to its schools or provide educational services to the student in an education service plan, under section 21 of chapter 76.
Section 21 of Chapter 76 that the new law refers to is itself a new section of the law that will appear in 2014. Section 21 goes into a bit more detail about what educational rights and services students will have access to while being disciplined. Section 21 includes the following wording:
Section 21. Principals and headmasters shall ensure that students who are suspended from school for 10 or fewer consecutive days, whether in or out of school, shall have an opportunity to make academic progress during the period of suspension, to makeup assignments and earn credits missed including, but not limited to, homework, quizzes, exams, papers and projects missed. Principals shall develop a school-wide education service plan for all students who are expelled or suspended from school for more than 10 consecutive school days, whether in or out of school. Principals shall ensure these students have an opportunity to make academic progress during the period of suspension or expulsion, to makeup assignments and earn credits missed, including, but not limited to, homework, quizzes, exams, papers and projects missed. Education service plans may include, but are not limited to, tutoring, alternative placement, Saturday school, and online or distance learning… Any school or school district that expels a student or suspends a student for more than 10 consecutive school days shall provide the student in the parent or guardian of the student with a list of alternative educational services. Upon selection of an alternative educational service by the student and the student’s parent or guardian, the school or school district shall facilitate and verify enrollment in the service…
In the above paragraph, I tried to color code the wording to highlight what I view as the two important sections. First, students who are suspended for less than 10 days (the blue text) will have the opportunity to make up work and credits that are missed. Second, principals must develop education service plans for students who are suspended or expelled for 10 days or more (the red text). While such students will have the opportunity to make up work and credits that are missed, the school environment and placement might be different for the students dealing with longer-term exclusions. Principals will need to present available placement options to the student in the student’s parents or guardians, and it will then be up to the student and his or her parents or guardians to decide which of the available placement options will be utilized for continued education.
Other changes to student discipline laws will be discussed in upcoming blog articles.
The Law Office of James M. Baron represents students and parents in special education and other school-related legal matters throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Please visit http://www.lawbaron.com, or call 781-209-1166 for more information.
Scituate SEPAC Program: Getting the Year Off to a Good Start
Wicked Local Scituate lists the following on their web site for special education parents:
Scituate —Scituate Special Education Parent Advisory Committee will present Getting the Year Off To A Good Start. The program will take place at 7 p.m., on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Hatherly School.
SEPAC will host this collaboration between parents of children in kindergarten through grade 12, special education teachers, administration and general education teachers who work with vulnerable students. Attendees can ask questions about steps to take to ensure one’s child is off to the right start.
For more information, visit the website at http://www.scituatespedpac.org; or co-chairs Gina McClellan at gina_t_mcclellan@yahoo.com or Julianna Dunn at juliannaDunn2@comcast.com.
Read more: SEPAC: Getting the year off to a good start – Scituate, Massachusetts – Scituate Marinerhttp://www.wickedlocal.com/scituate/news/x354107596/SEPAC-Getting-the-year-off-to-a-good-start#ixzz290Lgx8rJ
2012 BSEA Statistics
The following table summarizes some of the key statistics for Fiscal Year 2012 that were recently published by the Massachusetts Bureau of Special Education Appeals (BSEA). There are a couple of points worth highlighting:
- Out of 8,460 rejected IEP’s, there were only 52 due process hearings with decisions. Why? Most cases reach resolution prior to a hearing. In other words, based on the statistics, there is only a 0.6% likelihood that any rejected IEP will actually go all the way through to a complete Hearing.
- Of the 52 decisions that were rendered, parents prevailed in just 13 cases. That represents just 25% of the BSEA decisions.
What is the lesson here for parents? Proceed with caution when it comes to litigation. As an attorney, I judge my success not by the number of cases litigated, but by the number of positive outcomes achieved (preferably without litigation).
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
| Rejected IEP’s | 7,252 | 7,875 | 8,348 | 8,460 |
| Mediations | 846 | 854 | 809 | 917 |
| Hearing Requests | 609 | 545 | 544 | 582 |
| Actual Hearings with Formal Decisions | 48 | 50 | 35 | 52 |
| Parents prevailed | 6 | 9 | 7 | 13 |
| Districts prevailed | 36 | 29 | 22 | 26 |
Attended Presentation at Harvard on Understanding and Teaching Behaviorally Challenging Students
I attended a very interesting presentation this evening at Harvard University by Jessica Minahan, M.Ed., BCBA and Nancy Rappaport, M.D. They recently co-authored a book entitled, “The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students.”
The authors started out with some very interesting statistics. For example, according to the authors, only 20% of children with emotional and behavioral disorders ages 14 – 21 receive high school diplomas; 48% dropout of grades 9 – 12. They then stated that there are six essential concepts for understanding behavior:
- Misbehavior is a symptom of an underlying cause…
- Behavior is communication
- Behavior has a function
- Behavior occurs in patterns
- The only behavior teachers can control is their own
- Behavior can be changed.
I was particularly interested in their discussion about Anxiety and Asperger’s Syndrome. Not surprisingly, anxiety interferes with verbal working memory and impedes academic performance. Minahan and Rappaport stated that children who were the most anxious at the start of the first grade were almost 8 times more likely to be in the lowest quarter of reading achievement, and almost 2 1/2 times more likely to be in the lowest quarter of math achievement by the spring of the first grade. Regarding Asperger’s Syndrome, the authors estimate that 80% of children with Asperger’s syndrome also experienced intense anxiety.
The authors believe that traditional behavior intervention plans do not adequately deal with anxiety management or teach the skills that are needed to behave properly. Unstructured times and transitions are just a couple of difficult areas that can be decedents for problem behaviors. This is something that I have seen among my own clients, as well – unstructured times and transition periods are when children with Aspergers Syndrome seem to be the most susceptible to having behavioral challenges. Minahan and Rappaport presented a few suggestions for teachers to use to assist students with self-regulation and self-monitoring. For example, they talked about using a regulation scale such as an emotional thermometer, performing self calming practice in a relevant place, and developing and using a calming box.
The authors described transition periods in terms of 4 components: stopping the activity, making the cognitive shift to next activity, starting the next activity, and the inherent lack of structure during transitions. Regarding stopping an activity, they talked about the importance of finding an appropriate stopping point so that students are not caught off guard and surprised by a transition. They also suggested using visual schedules and photographs to help students make the cognitive shift to the next activity, and also to use countdowns (e.g. “5 more minutes…”). The pair also discussed the importance of structuring downtime.
There was far more that was discussed this evening that I expect to find useful as I work with parents on IEP’s. For more information about the authors, you can visit their websites at www.JessicaMinahan.com and www.NancyRappaport.com. The book is available for purchase on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Behanvior-Code-Practical-Understanding-Challenging/dp/1612501362, or at the Harvard Education Press: http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/161/TheBehaviorCode
The Law Office of James M. Baron represents students and parents in special education and other school-related legal matters. Please visit http://www.lawbaron.com, or call 781-209-1166 for more information.
Program on College Planning for Students with Learning Differences – Bedford Massachusetts
The Bedford, Massachusetts Special Education PAC lists the following event on their web site (http://www.bedfordsepac.com/livepage.aspx?site_id=91&page_id=1):
College Planning for Students with Learning Differences,Thursday, October 11, at 7:00 p.m.
The Bedford High School Guidance Department.and the Bedford SEPAC present College Planning for Students with Learning Differences,Thursday, October 11, at 7:00 p.m. in the Bedford High School’s Large Group Instruction Room. The goal of this evening’s discussion is to help students with learning differences understand both the transition from high school to college and what to expect in a college setting. At our initial event last year, we had an excellent turnout, but the audience was mostly parents. We strongly encourage both students and their parents to attend this event!
We are delighted to have as panelists:
- Kirsten Behling, Director of the Office of Disability Services at Suffolk University
- Jody Goldstein, Director of Student Disabilities Services at UMass Lowell, and
- Susan Woods, Associate Dean, Student Support Services at Middlesex Community College
Social Security Disability Essay Contest for Grades 2 – 6
I came across an interesting essay contest today. A web site called www.socialsecurity-disability.org is sponsoring an essay contest for children in Grades 2 – 6. “To participate, students in grades two through six can write an essay, no longer than 500 words, describing how someone with a disability has inspired them.” The deadline is October 31, 2012. For more information, go to the Essay Contest Home Page.
“Sped Staff” Not Sufficient in IEP Service Grid
If you have worked with IEP’s, you have probably seen this before: the Service Delivery Grid of the IEP might list “Sped Staff” as the provider of services. Massachusetts PQA (Program Quality Assurance) recently investigated a complaint alleging that the Hudson School District’s use of “Sped Staff” as the provider was insufficient, and a violation of Massachusetts special education law. PQA agreed with the complainant, and required the following of the school district “The District must send a memo to its IEP Team Chairpersons responsible for the development of the IEP stating that the use of term ‘SPED Staff’ on the IEP service delivery grid is not acceptable, and that each IEP should identify the type of service providers, e.g., special education teacher, paraprofessional, Occupational Therapist, etc.”
More specifically, PQA determined that the generic use of the term “Sped Staff” was a violation of Massachusetts regulation 603 CMR 28.06(2)(a), which requires IEP Teams to consider the type of service providers. According to the PQA report, “In the same manner which the IEP Team must distinguish between the types of related services necessary for the student (for example, “speech Therapy” or “Physical Therapy”) in making its placement decision, the regulation requires the same sort of consideration for distinguishing the student’s service providers.”
Click here to view the complete PQA “Letter of Finding.”
Thank you to Education Advocate Lucie Chansky and SpedWatch for bringing this PQA decision to my attention.
The Law Office of James M. Baron represents students and parents in special education and other school-related legal matters. Please visit http://www.lawbaron.com, or call 781-209-1166 for more information.
School Discipline Gets Even More Draconian with Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71 § 37H 1/2 –
In a prior blog post, I discussed how Draconian Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71 § 37H can be. For example, if a student is simply found in possession of marijuana at a school-sponsored event – regardless of amount, regardless of use or non-use, regardless of whether they are even aware of being in such possession – not only can the student be expelled from school, but they can also be prevented from enrolling in any other school district in the Commonwealth.
As the TV commercials say, “But wait, there’s more…”
Massachusetts has also enacted Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71 § 37H 1/2. Under 37H and 1/2, if a student is simply charged with a felony – even if the charge is baseless, and regardless of where the alleged event supposedly took place – the student can be suspended by the school principal. For how long? “[F]or a period of time determined appropriate by said principal or headmaster…” A day, a week, a month – the length of time is completely up to the principal. There is a standard that the principal is supposed to utilize, but even that is very subjective. Before a student can be suspended under this section of the law, the law requires that the principal determine that “the student’s continued presence in school would have a substantial detrimental effect on the general welfare of the school.” The student does have the right to appeal the principal’s decision to the superintendent, but that has to be done within 5 calendar days.
But wait, there’s more…
If the student is actually convicted of a felony – even if the felony has absolutely nothing to do with the school – the student can be permanently expelled. The same time frames, standards, and right to appeal as described above for suspensions apply equally to expulsions, as well. And as described in the prior blog post for 37H, no other school system in the Commonwealth is required to admit a student who has been expelled under this section of the law.
37H and 37H 1/2 have unfortunately been used too often in an unfair way to keep certain students from accessing a public school education. My child attended public school, so I certainly can appreciate the need to keep schools completely safe for all students and teachers. As a lawyer, though, it is very frustrating to see students being denied an education – sometimes permanently – simply because they may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is also possible that a student may have made a really stupid decision that they could learn from if given the chance. When 37H 1/2 is used improperly, what it teaches young people who have made a mistake is that there is no sense being remorseful for one’s acts or learning from one’s mistakes, because punishment can be severe and permanent, even at a young age. Thanks to the very hard work and dedication of many state legislators and the fine people at Massachusetts Advocates for Children, improvements to the discipline laws are finally coming. I will provide details of the upcoming changes in future blog posts, so stay tuned.
The Law Office of James M. Baron represents students and parents in special education and other school-related legal matters. Please visit http://www.lawbaron.com, or call 781-209-1166 for more information.
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