South Carolina Public Charter School District’s New Special Education Coordinator Training

1. South Carolina Public Charter School District’s New Special Education Coordinator Training July 25, 2013

2. Welcome and Introductions New Schools

3. Welcome and Introductions Schools with new special education coordinators

4. Welcome and Introductions Robert Compton, Ph.D., Director of Federal Programs Beckie Davis, Director of Special Services Vamshi Rudrapati (Mr. V), Assistant Director of Federal Programs Zenobia Ealy, Assistant Director of Technology Services Mariann Carter, Lead Regional Coordinator (Upstate) Vamshi Rudrapati (Mr. V), Regional Coordinator (Pee Dee)

5. Today’s Agenda Oh, The Places You'll Go The South Carolina Public Charter School District The Role of the Special Education Coordinator Lesson’s Learned Just Enough to Get you Started Things That Might Be New To You

6. Oh, The Places You'll Go

8. The South Carolina Public Charter School District

9. The South Carolina Public Charter School District • Organizational Chart • Differences from a traditional district • The District as an authorizer • Monitoring/oversight • Self-Study • Planned Compliance Reviews • Compliance Ladder

10. District Organizational Chart

11. Who Do I Call? Start Here

12. Us versus the Traditional District • In a traditional district, there would be: • “District supports” • Coordinators, curriculum specialists, school psychologists, related service providers (OTs, PTs, nurses, …) • District-level staff development opportunities • District staff checking behind you • District-wide programs (self-contained class for students with low incidence disabilities)

13. The SCPCSD As Authorizer Evaluates and approves or denies charter applications Executes contracts with each of its schools Monitors the performance and compliance of its schools Notifies schools of deficiencies and violations

14. Supports accountability and student achievement Protects school autonomy Holds its schools accountable for their outcomes Is not responsible for the success or failure of its schools –schools are responsible for their own outcomes

15. The SCPCSD As LEA Provides programmatic assistance/support services in the areas of assessment, curriculum and instruction, federal programs, finance, human resources, public relations, special services, and technology Distributes federal and state funds

16. The SCPCSD As LEA Pursuant to SC charter school law, the sponsor of a charter school is the charter school’s LEA and the charter school is a school within that LEA The SCPCSD retains responsibility for special education and must ensure that students enrolled in its charter schools are served in a manner consistent with LEA obligations under applicable federal, state, and local law

17. Relationship between Charter School Authorizer and Charter School Autonomy in exchange for Accountability Charter Schools have the autonomy to self-govern; select their own curriculum; hire, train, and dismiss their own staff; and develop and decide how to spend their own budget In return, charter schools are expected to be accountable to their authorizers for student achievement, fiscal responsibility and sustainability, charter and legal compliance, and organizational viability

18. Charter Schools National Alliance for Public Charter Schools: “Public Charter schools are always public schools. They never charge tuition, and they accept any student who wants to attend. Charter laws require that students are admitted by a random lottery drawing in cases too many students want to enroll in a single charter school. Charter schools must also meet the state and federal academic requirements that apply to all public schools.”

19. Charter Schools Charter schools are not exempt from federal laws that cover equal rights, access and discrimination. Students attend charter schools by choice of their parents or guardians rather than by assignment by a school district.

20. Compliance Monitoring The South Carolina Charter Schools Act requires authorizers to: monitor the performance and legal/fiscal compliance of each charter school conduct or require oversight activities including conducting appropriate inquiries and investigations only if such activities are consistent with the law and do not unduly inhibit the autonomy granted to charter schools

21. Compliance Monitoring • notify the charter school of perceived problems if the school’s performance or legal compliance appears to be unsatisfactory • take appropriate corrective actions or exercise sanctions short of revocation including requiring a school to develop a Corrective Action Plan w/in a specified timeframe • determine whether each school’s charter merits renewal, nonrenewal, or revocation

22. SCPCSD Compliance Ladder SCPCSD created a compliance ladder to notify schools of performance/compliance issues and to help track compliance The compliance ladder is a 3-tier approach with graduated notices/warnings: Caution, Probation, and Revocation

23. SCPCSD Compliance Ladder SCPCSD addresses noncompliance throughout the calendar year as concerns/deficiencies are identified Each tier triggers a specific notice to a school and requires the school to take corrective action

24. Letter of Caution • Schools are notified in writing that there is a performance or compliance deficiency • Cautions are typically issued after the school has been afforded an opportunity to resolve the deficiency on its own and fails to do so • Schools are provided a reasonable opportunity to remedy the deficiency through the development of a corrective action plan (CAP) • Leading causes of cautions: special education violations, lack of special education capacity, failure to submit timely and/or accurate data/reports; test security violations; low academic achievement

25. Notice of Default Applies to schools that fall into one or more of the following three categories: schools that have been cautioned but have failed to self-correct; schools with subpar academic performance; or schools with systemic issues of noncompliance or a pattern of noncompliance A sanction short of revocation- provides a school with an opportunity to remedy the performance and/or compliance issues that led to probation via the development and implementation of a comprehensive remedial action plan Schools on probation must demonstrate improvement and correct any outstanding issues of noncompliance to lift probation

26. Monitoring and Oversight • So how do we do this? • In addition to the Performance Framework and monitoring schedule, the Federal Programs Department utilizes: • Self Study consisting of 24 compliance points. • Completed at the school level AND completed by District staff. • 3 point scale (0 – 2) • Improvement Plan Priorities • Scheduled reviews built into the yearly calendar: • Transfer IEPs • Child Count Verification • Parental Complaints • Verification of school submitted data

27. Self Study Question The school has district-approved policies and procedures. Special Education and related service staff are in place and are highly qualified, appropriately certified. Special education related providers (school psychologist, OT PT, RN) are on staff or on contract are appropriately credentialed. The total number of identified students are appropriately proportionate to hired special education staff so that all identified students are able to receive a FAPE. Special education staff, other related service providers, and/or other school staff have engaged in professional development as to special education and RTI procedures, process and practice. School files are kept confidential, locked, up to date, accessible, and organized with appropriate information stored for the required length of time. The school maintains an up-to-date, confidential, and accurate database of students with IEPs. All required information is marked complete and attached in Excent in a timely manner. All IEPs are compliant as demonstrated by a review of 5 IEPs (transfer, annual, initial evaluation, and/or reevaluations). All active IEPs are reviewed annually. All reevaluations have been conducted within appropriate timelines. All active IEPs have documentation of progress monitoring at intervals described in the IEP. Students receive services in accordance with their IEPs. Evaluations for initial eligibility are comprehensive, are conducted by a multidisciplinary team, and contain evidence of previous research-based interventions. Comparable services meetings occur within the first 5 school days after enrollment and services that are similar or equivalent to those that were described in the previous IEP are provided. Transfer IEP meetings are conducted within 30 calendar days of enrollment. The school has a means to track the removal of students for disciplinary reasons and to alert school staff when a student is approaching 10 days OSS. All disciplinary removals of students with IEPs were done so in accordance with IDEA requirements and have been appropriately documented in Incident Management in PowerSchool. The school has a means to document the provision of all accommodations and modifications required in IEPs. All parents have been notified of their Procedural Safeguards at least annually. Notices and other IDEA-required information have been presented to parents in understandable language (written language understandable by the general public and in the native language of the parent or other mode of communication used by the parent). IDEA funds are used solely for district-approved IDEA related activities. The school maintains an inventory of all equipment, materials, etc. purchased with special education funds throughout the life of the equipment. The school submits timely and accurate data as required by Federal, State, and District reporting.

28. Questions for us?

29. Question for you

30. The Role of the Special Education Coordinator

31. In a traditional district, your responsibilities would be divided among: • School Psychologist • Curriculum Coordinator • LEA rep • Special Education Coordinator/ Director • Guidance Counselor • Data clerk • And, oh yeah, Special Education Teacher

32. Sum of the Parts… • Child Find activities • Referrals • Evaluations • Eligibility Determinations • Service Provision • Special education services as written in the IEP • Related service providers • Compliance • All deadlines are met • All IEPs are compliant • All documentation is attached in Excent • Data Reporting • State and federally required data • PowerSchool • Excent

33. Child Find Process for identifying, locating, and evaluating all children with disabilities enrolled in the school • Referrals from parents or school staff • Coordinating the evaluation process • Evaluation planning • Gathering additional information within timelines • Coordinating eligibility determinations • Coordinating IEP development

34. Service Provision • Ensuring services are provided as written in the IEPs • Comparable services for transfers • Progress monitoring • Appropriate type and amount of services • Communication with parents, teachers, staff, and students • Securing related service providers • School Psychologist • OT • PT • Vision teacher • Counseling

35. Ensuring that special education services are provided, not only in accordance with the philosophy of your charter, but also in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations

36. Compliance • All IEPs are compliant • All paperwork is complete and attached in Excent • All deadlines are met • Sp Ed Police

37. Data Reporting • Discipline data in Incident Management in PowerSchool • Excent • Placement History • Attachments • IEPs • Deadlines met • 60-day timeline • IEPs updated annually • Reevaluations at least every 3 years

38. Be Professional and Respectful Many times you will be working with other district special education directors during the transfer process. You’ll be working with other District’s data managers for files. Other districts will be reading your IEPs. Please remember, right or wrong, you not only represent your school and represent the district, but you represent the charter school movement. Believe it or not, not everyone is pro-charter school. Please do not let your actions impact your school, the district, or the other 60+ charter schools.

39. Lesson’s Learned

40. Lessons Learned • Strong Sped Coordinator • Compliance Review of last year • Which led to the changes (Regional Coordinators, self-study, monitoring schedule) • Challenges of B&M vs Virtual

41. Reflection of 2012 - 2013 • Over the past year, we’ve had: • 4 State Complaints • 2 were withdrawn by parents • 2 were investigated • 1 found to be in violation which resulted in the school reviewing 100% of their IEPs for compliance. Out of 105 IEPs, 101 were determined to be non-compliant. • 1 found to be in volition which resulted in the school reviewing 3 files. • 1 request for mediation

42. Reflection 2012 - 2013 • SCDE Finding for non-compliance: • Indicator 11 (93%) • SCDE Onsite File Audit: • 24 files reviewed with all 24 being found to be out of compliance • A review of ALL IEPs at 2 school with all IEPs found to be out of compliance

43. Lessons Learned • Hiring a GREAT special education who is unable to “coordinate” the non-teaching aspects of IDEA: • Evaluations • Maintaining compliance • Dealing with “high-needs” parents • Working with general education teachers • Ensuring service delivery across staff (general ed teachers, other sped teachers, related service providers, …) These are the “process” things that are typically handled by district staff (school psychologists, coordinators,…) in a traditional district • True text message received: “I hear you now Robbie. It sounds like I’ve hired someone who is good with the students but is not able to handle the administrative side of things.” Lesson Learned: Hire someone who can handle the “administrative side” of IDEA.

44. Lessons Learned No one calls me to say “They are providing everything they should on the IEP, but I just don’t like my teacher.” The calls include: “I’m not getting the services written in the IEPs.” “I’ve been at school for 3 months and we’ve yet to have an IEP meeting.” “I’ve not once received a progress report.” “We had our meeting 3 weeks ago and I haven't received a copy of the IEP or PWN.” “We transferred to the school and my child was receiving OT services, but the school said we don’t have an OT.” Lesson Learned: The IEP is a contract . . . . . Follow it!

45. Lessons Learned Often times the principal’s background isn’t special education so they defer all special education questions and issues to the “school’s special education coordinator.” Six months into the year, come to find out that the special education coordinator hasn’t taught special education in 30 years and things have changed just a little bit in that time. Lesson Learned: The school leaders needs to take an active role in special education, especially when it comes to compliance. Lesson Learned: Just because someone has “special education” on his/her teaching certificate doesn’t mean that he/she is qualified to serve as the school’s special education coordinator.

46. Lessons Learned We’ve had quite a few situations where the child came from a self-contained class (extensive minutes) to one of our schools. In order to keep with the “school’s schedule and philosophy in the charter,” the child’s minutes were automatically lowered from 1,800 minutes per week to 250 minutes. The school almost ended up in a due process hearing that would have cost them several thousands of dollars to provide compensatory services to the child. Side note – compensatory services can not be paid for out of your IDEA funds. Lesson Learned: Follow the district’s policies and procedures. It will save you lots of time and money. Another Lesson: Never make a change to an IEP that you don’t have data to support

47. Lessons Learned Often times the child transfers and the parents check “no” to the question about their child having an IEP. 3 months into school, the child begins having academic or behavioral problems. At this point (prior to an expulsion), the parents say, “But my child has an IEP.” Regardless on what the parent checks on the enrollment form, during the enrollment process, schools must verify from the sending district that the child did or did not have an IEP. As a result, the school owed 3 months worth of compensatory services to the child. Lesson Learned: Have a process in place that verifies (and document) whether the child does or does not have an IEP, regardless of what the parent checks.

48. Lessons Learned Don’t wait until it is too late to realize that your special education program has hit rock-bottom and is at the point of no return. Take the warnings (both informal and formal) from the District staff very seriously. Seek assistance from an outside consultant (who is knowable in SC’s policies & procedures). Please understand that we’re doing our job . . . . “authorizers must revoke charters of schools who violate federal and state laws in which they are not exempt.” Additionally, we will exercise “sanctions short of revocation” to give the school an opportunity to self-correct. While no one wants to call to say they made a mistake, CALL when you’ve made a mistake or are not sure what to do. The worst thing is to let the District discover the systemic non-compliance before you let us know about it. Two-way communication is a must!

49. Challenges • remaining true to the charter while meeting federal regulations

50. Just Enough to Get You Started