Special Education Audit
April 28, 2023
MRPS recently partnered up with The Ability Challenge to audit our practices and procedures in special education. Special Education in the United States is one of the most complex endeavors school systems face, particularly schools nestled in states that believe in inclusive practices like Vermont. Regardless of the complexity, special education is also a system that we need to get right and recognize that we have a lot of room for growth. Thus the audit!
To read the results of the special education audit in full, you can find them here.
AUDIT METHODOLOGY
The Ability Challenge interviewed 8 administrators, 5 teachers, and 22 students (mix of students on an IEP and some not). Surveys were completed by 34 caregivers of students with special needs, 106 educators, and 10 leaders. The team observed 40 classrooms and 1 IEP team meeting.
HIGH LEVEL RESULTS
I encourage everyone in our community to read the full audit. At a high level, the audit concluded that:
- The MRPS community is our greatest asset. The auditors were particularly impressed with our staff’s dedication and our student’s ability to articulate their thoughts.
- The District has a clear vision, but not all the dots have been connected for staff. This increases a sense of ambiguity that may not be helpful.
- While staff share a culture that all kids will achieve under our care, sometimes they are not sure how to make that happen.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The beauty of some of the recommendations in the audit were that they both validated a lot of hard work we have been doing and helped point a path towards next steps in that work. For instance, one of the recommendations was to continue the work regarding priority standards and proficiency scales. This work has been on-going for a few years and several of the respondents pointed to it as a positive change in our system. Now this work needs to be set in motion and people held accountable to it.
Other recommendations will have a big impact in the future with a little bit of training.
- The audit found that our special educators and leaders could use some training on how to write powerful IEPs (Individualized Education Plans). We can turn this around quickly for some immediate training in building our special educators’ capacity for writing high quality IEPs and our leaders’ capacity of being the LEA (Local Education Agency).
- The audit also pointed to parent engagement as an area to put our eyes on. In combination with the audit results as well as some other data collected in the district, we will be forming several new caregiver advisory groups next year at each school building with the principals as well as at the District level with the Director of Special Services, Director of Curriculum and Technology, and Superintendent. Be on the lookout later in the spring for more information.
WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?
Kristen Briggs and Sarah Sandelius, our partners at the Ability Challenge presented the findings of the audit to our school board on April 19th. You can view this presentation here.
As always, if you have questions you’d like to ask, please do not hesitate to contact me at libbyb@mpsvt.org or our Director of Student Services, Peggy-Sue Van Nostrand at peggysuevannostrand@mpsvt.org.
We look forward to getting to work on some of the recommendations. They will certainly help inform how we move forward and create the best learning environment for every one of our students.
Written By Superintendent Libby Bonesteel
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