Dive Brief:
- Seattle Public Schools' efforts to correct reported issues within its special education department have been derailed by poor communication.
- According to the Seattle Times, when national consultants visited Seattle schools at the end of 2013, the hierarchy was unclear, nobody knew who was in charge of what, data systems failed to show which special education students were in which schools, and parents were being kept out of the loop.
- Over a year ago, the state ordered Seattle to fix its special education program, and the district risks losing $12 million annually in federal funding if the issues go uncorrrected.
Dive Insight:
According to the Seattle Times, the district has made some improvements when it comes to creating student plans and IEPs, however, it failed to meet a June 30 deadline for having an improvement plan in place. This probably isn't going to help its cause. When then-national-consultant — the TIERS Group from Louisiana State University — came last spring, it identified four areas for improvement: communication, frequent leadership turnover, chaotic internal organization, and insufficient training for principals and teachers.
While this list was created specifically for Seattle's special education issues, it does not sound too far off from issues other districts deal with nationally.