2007-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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Each of the schools now have a building chair. Report of the person to coordinate special education meetings and B Administrator Of Special an educational evaluator to enhance communication, ]) streamline the testing process, and offer consistency Education throughout the district. Clinical Team's monitor the progress of special The Mashpee Public School System provided needs students, make recommendations on difficult special education services during the school year to an cases and process new referrals. Core Teams meet once f average of 380 students ages three through twenty- a week to support students and staff in behavioral pro, c one. The intensity of the special education programs grams. A number of special education staff across the 1 range from monitoring of a student's progress to more district are active members of the Education Leadership f substantially separate programs depending on the indi- Committee which has monthly meetings to develop a vidual student needs. The Cape Cod Collaborative plan to improve student performance across the district. continues to serve the Mashpee Public Schools by pro- c viding programs and support services. Additionally, The Administrator of Special Education contin. c Mashpee collaborates with the surrounding public ues to be actively involved in the development of pro- 1 school districts, human service agencies, private spe- grams for young children. The Community cial education schools, and with Cape Cod Child Partnerships for Children (CPC) program, with assis- Development in providing appropriate programming tance and guidance from the Child Development for Mashpee students.Mashpee promotes a strong phi- Council, has provided support for families, young losophy of including students with special needs in the children, day care providers and educators. Currently life of the school. the Department of Education, through a grant, funds this program in the amount of $108,000. The — 07 school year, 116 kinder- preschool program provided educational programming During the 2006 garten children were screened resulting in three refer- for 51 children, ages 3 - 5, which included special rals for further evaluation. A total of 221 student needs children, CPC children and peer models. In annual review meetings and 128 three-year re-evalua- addition, the Kenneth C. Coombs provided space to tions were accomplished district-wide. Additionally, the Mashpee Head Start Program, which allowed the 51 preschool children were also screened, 6 were staff to provide Mashpee special needs students in referred for a re-screen in January. Twenty —one chil- Head Start the opportunity to remain in the program dren were already identified and have an IEP. and to receive their services within the program. On going in-service training was provided to The Special Education Parent Advisory Council special education teachers and paraprofessionals con- (SEPAL)revitalized the organization with the election tinuously throughout the school year and summer. of new officers and the opportunity for parents to The Behavior Task Force met quarterly to review the attend monthly meetings. SEPAC has updated their j programmatic needs and progress of the established link on the Mashpee School District web-site for par- district-wide Student Support Center programs. ents to utilize as a resource. Intensive training was also provided to teachers and paraprofessionals working directly with children iden- KCC has also developed a support group for par tified in the autism spectrum. ents with children on the autism spectrum. This group meets once a month for discussion on shared topics of From July 10th to August 10th 2006, Mashpee interest. Guest speakers are also invited to attend some Public Schools Special Education conducted an meetings. These meetings provide parents with the extended school year program for our students. We opportunity to share resources and concerns. offered a Preschool-K program, academic programs for grades I — 12, MCAS tutoring, a Life Skills pro- Federal Special Education grants awarded the gram and vocational training at Mashpee High School, Mashpee Public Schools totaled$406,581. Additional for a total summer enrollment of 117 students. funds were awarded totaling $18,643 to support early childhood special education programs. Funds for Monthly staff meetings were held to focus on the training received from the State Department of special education issues, with the goal of improving Education in response to our applications for training 1 7 ,46 1 department compliance with the Massachusetts (SPED Program Improvement Grant) totaled$ Department of Education on regulations, and improv- ing instructional strategies for students. Staff also Our district also received, over the course of the worked on enhancing communication, streamlining year, a total Circuit Breaker reimbursement of the testing process, and offering consistency through- $292,389. Medicaid reimbursement in the amount of out the district. approximately $313,000 was returned to the Mashpee Town Hall. 140