It seems the school department’s two-year old reorganization plan has led to a few problems in the IEP process. The Globe reported last week that the district has fallen far behind in its mandate to provide annual reviews and reevaluations to SPED students, and the number of cases in non-compliance has grown to 2,918, shooting up by some 600 cases in the last two months. What’s more, this has come on the heels of a previous report that the district had been wait listing pre-schoolers in need of SPED services at an alarming rate which in turn led to a federal lawsuit. Whether the issue is one of tardy annual reviews, missing reevaluations, or wait listing children in need of services, the department is doing children a disservice. The district has an obligation to do better.

Here’s some background on the most recent issue:

Cutting Clerks Has Contributed to Non-Compliance

In September 2010 the school department unilaterally cut approximately 50 ETF clerk positions, leaving the then-ETFs to share clerks with one another. This led to, among other things, a slowing of the data-entry process as well a greater difficulty in the scheduling of annual reviews and reevaluation meetings. The BTU filed a grievance on the loss of clerks. The hearings have been held, and we are awaiting a decision.

Making Matters Even More Worse

In September 2011, the department made matters worse by morphing the position of ETF into the position of COSESS (Coordinator of Special Education School Services). This reorganization has led to the filing of nearly 20 caseload grievances. Finally, throughout both years the district has stubbornly refused to listen to our professionals, both COSESS and school based/itinerant staff, who have sounded the alarm that the reorganization plan is misguided and flawed. The calls to revisit the reorganization plan have gone unheeded. Rather than solve the underlying issues, the district has decided instead to offer a stipend — some might call it a bounty — limited to a narrow subgroup of those responsible for the completion of this duty.

Cannot Get Blood Out of a Stone

Here’s what the district fails to realize: it takes a group effort to complete an annual review or a reevaluation meeting. All staff have to pitch in and do the preliminaries: the writing of reports, the testing and assessments if needed, the psychologicals and so on. It’s truly a group effort. To reward one population and not another is unfair and unworkable. What the district also doesn’t realize is that our professional staff are already flat-out working to their maximum. There’s no “free” time, no room for more testing or more writing of reports. As it is, our staff is “over-meetinged” and overworked. The district cannot get blood out of a stone. Here’s what one elementary substantially separate teacher wrote to me in response to the Globearticle last week.

“…I have somewhere to the tune of seven IEP meetings scheduled in mid-April to May after five that just took place late-March to mid- April…. ridiculous! I am drowning in paperwork and I still have to teach high level, well-planned lessons all day regardless of how many other things I have to take care of.
“I am beyond outraged…I would like to know what consideration is being made for the special ed. teachers that have to do the heavy lifting to make these meetings happen on top of a full work load? It’s not like we actually get paperwork hours so I’m doing this all well before and well after school hours.”
Solution Must be Fair to All

So here’s where it stands with us. We will sit down and talk to the school department on this issue, but we will insist that any proposed resolution be fair to all members who are responsible for the work. The district has unfortunately let its own flawed reorganization plan cause untold damage. We don’t want matters to get any worse.