Winthrop School Committee Reviews Report on Special Education and Civil Rights

By Kate Anslinger

The School Committee shared the results of a district-wide review at their meeting last week. This time the reviewers from the state Department of Education focused on on special education and civil rights in the district.

Every six years school districts around the state are reviewed on a couple of components that are thoroughly examined and investigated by the DOE.

“Overall the state was very impressed with the quality of the submission and the work that we are doing in the district,” said Director of Pupil Personnel, Jennifer O’ Connell, who presented information on special education.

One of the top areas of review for Winthrop was special education. After interviewing staff, faculty, support personnel and parents, in addition to sitting in during class time, the DOE deemed four out of 59 criteria components to be considered a “finding of partial implementation”.

The district was shown to be lacking in detailed documentation, especially in the Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s), specifically in the areas of followup information.

O’Connell plans to address this by providing refresher training for the staff that will focus on the importance of thorough follow-up documentation. Another issue that the state found, was the lack of confidence in the Education Support Personnel (ESP’s), regarding who they were supposed to be reporting to. A meeting will be held to address the situation to ensure that all staff members are aware of the reporting procedures, O’Connell said.

Frank Wood, curriculum director, presented the information from the civil rights area. Much of it focused on information in the curriculum and making sure materials were appropriate.

O’Connell also addressed the need for regular meetings with the Parent Advisory Council (PAC).

“We currently have a council, but we need to increase parent participation,” she said, adding she would like to implement more parent outreach and training. The meetings will be open to the public and will offer support for parents who have children with disabilities.

“We are going to make sure that we are serving the parents with training and professional development that will be helpful to them,” said O’Connell. “And we are going to open it up and invite children as well.”

The meetings will be held the third Thursday of the every month at the Middle School, from 6:30-8 pm.