Seattle Schools Community Forum

The other shoe has dropped. Zakiyyah McWilliams has "resigned" as Executive Director of Special Education for Seattle Public Schools. See the Seattle Times article here . Tell me again how Dr. Nyland is doing such a great job addressing the district's woes.

The Times this morning has their own, rather subdued, story on the attempt by President Peaslee to install Superintendent Nyland permanently.

Update : I note that neither the Mayor's Facebook nor Twitter account mention the State of the District event at all.  The Mayor sat there for an hour and a half with elected leaders in our city and it was not enough to note on either social media. End of update It was a packed, smallish room for this event.  There was nothing that happened in that room that could not have happen at JSCEE.  Alliance head, Sara Morris, introduced many of the notables in the room. There were a lot of district staff there (including PE teachers who saw their leader, Lori Dunn, speak about their work).  Elected officials included  Mayor Murray, City Councilman Burgess, Senator Pedersen, Rep. Carlyle, Rep. Walkinshaw, Rep. Pollet,  Directors Blanford, Peaslee, Patu, Martin-Morris and McLaren and Jonathan Knapp (SEA).  Ms. Morris also went out of her way to tie the event to John Stanford (which I'm pretty sure he didn't start).  I note that the Allianc...

 Update: The Times is saying that the guardian did not just bring it to the law firm's attention weeks ago that he received unasked for student data but that he told the district.  And yet got even more student data after that notification.  If true, this would support the guardian's thought (and mine) that the district and the law firm were trying to bury him with masses of data.  That would mean that somewhere in the district someone did not bother to redact anything, possibly not thinking of the consequences of sending out a huge volume of data.  Because if some of the records had been redacted, that would have been an accident.  To me, that none were, then it seems a deliberate action, possibly done in a lazy fashion. The Times also reports that "the district asked (the guardian) to return or destroy the records so that they can be replaced by a set that doesn't reveal confidential student information."  I'll have to ask if that means he wou...

Monday, Nov. 10th Curriculum& Instruction Policy Committee meeting , 4:30-6:30 pm.  Agenda Among items of interest: Items Requiring Board Action on Nov. 19/Dec. 3 - BAR for Policy 3201, Disciplinary Appeal Council (McFadden/Sander) - BAR for Policy 2190, Advanced Learning (Martin)  - BAR for 24 Credit Waiver Application (Heath/Stoen)  Standing Agenda Items - MTSS - Special Education RC-CAP Also, policy on attendance, Native American Education Report, waiver of basic instructional materials,program evaluation&assessment, research activity and test administration and selection/adoption of instructional materials. That's a lot of ground to cover in two hours. Tuesday, Nov. 11th Veterans Day - No School

Recent to semi-recent stories from around the country on Sped topics. From Disability Scoop , a story about the feds looking to nail down best practices to support those with autism from school to job. The National Institute of Mental Health is doling out $7.9 million in first-year funding for 12 research projects that will assess various models of service delivery for individuals with the developmental disorder at three key stages of life. At the young end, grants will fund efforts to determine how best to identify kids with autism as early as possible and ensure that such children connect with intervention services, the NIMH said. Meanwhile, a separate set of projects will focus on individuals preparing to leave high school. Researchers plan to test methods to improve school-based service coordination for students during transition, enhance parent advocacy skills and teach self-regulation and self-determination to those on the spectrum. A third group of studies ...

Seemingly no urgency here despite the state of Special Ed services in SPS.  It will be interesting to see what this "marketing campaign" for more diversity on SEAAC will look like.  It looks like a bit lift to find that many people from such a variety of groups.   That this will now run until the end of November likely means nothing will happen until after the winter holidays.  Nothing like deliberate speed. Bold mine. Dear Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council (SEAAC) Nominees, We want to thank you for your application to serve on the Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council.  We are looking forward to a productive year working with the Council to address the five goals for Special Education in the Seattle Public Schools Strategic Plan. At this time, we are putting the selection of the committee on hold.  While we are very pleased with the parent/guardian representation in the pool of applicants, there ...

Monday, October 13th Curriculum&Instruction Committee meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm at JSCEE. There quite a jam-packed agenda here including discussion of Advanced Learning/Highly Capable programs and discussion about the Board endorsing Prop 1B, the City's preschool measure. I note that the name of this item has changed: BAR for P-5 Schools Aligned with Seattle Preschool Program Universal Pre-K Initiative It a bit amusing as the City rebrands the name of their preschool initiative over and over.  But again, pre-k is NOT the district's state mandate nor are they state funded for it.   At Publicola, there is one person saying that Cashel Toner, who is the district's person for Early Learning, has been working with the Gates Foundation on aligning SPS with this effort via a $750K grant.  (This person says there are e-mails to show this and I hope to see them soon.)  I can only say that in e-mails I have obtained, Toner is very in the loop with many City peo...

Update: A&F Tuesday meeting agenda .     The minutes from the previous meeting reveal that the next district audit will include Ballard High and Special Education.  (The previous audit included Garfield and guess what?  They were found to have several volunteers not screened or had no application at all. ) Also, the Internal Auditor, Andrew Medina, said this: Mr. Medina spoke about an additional finding for personal service contracts (PSC). He noted that there have been instances where work started before the PSC is approved, as well as sole-source contracts that lack adequate supporting justification. Mr. Medina also noted a lack of administrative procedures, an employee handbook, and clear channels of communication. The audit also cited that the District lacks procedures covering the delegation of purchase approvals to administrative staff.  Ms. Technow listed some of the forms, co...

Update: coverage from the West Seattle blog about the opening of Fairmount Park.   end of update I attended the press conference and ribbon-cutting at Jane Addams Middle School today.  Quite eye-opening. First, it's a good thing that Hale and JAMS don't start at the same time.  I note that 35th Avenue NE is closed south from Hale for about two blocks.  And, Seattle Public Utilities appears to be doing work along NE110th, right in front of Hale.  Two guys told me, yes, they'll be back tomorrow. Press conference I was a little surprised at the number of media who didn't show up, given the start of a new year and a new superintendent.  But they may have thought that they would get some canned answers and sadly, that's what Superintendent delivered.

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd Superintendent Nyland will have a press conference at JAMS followed by a ribbon-cutting for the renovated school at noon.  He will also be at the ribbon-cutting for Fairmount Park Elementary at 2:45 pm.  (I'm taking ideas for questions to ask Superintendent Nyland.) Wednesday, Sept. 3rd -    First Day of School Superintendent Nyland will be visiting several schools that day including Rainier View Elementary from 9-10:30 am, then the World School from 11-11:30 am.  He will join World School students for lunch. School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda I note that the family of the Garfield field trip victim is organizing a rally before the meeting and I expect a fair number of people to again press the Board to do more.

Update:   The Times is reporting that Williams leave is based on the issue around the consultant hired to work on the C-CAP.  The district says it is not disciplinary but that they are investigating. end of update. From Deputy Superintendent Charles E. Wright (bold mine): Dear Seattle Public Schools principals, teachers and staff, I am writing today to let you know that Wyeth Jessee, who is currently Executive Director of Leadership Development and former Broadview-Thomson K-8 principal, will be temporarily serving as Interim Executive Director of Special Education while Zakiyyah McWilliams is on leave. Wyeth has experience in Special Education and will step in to ensure this important work continues. As you all know, it is our goal to make sure each and every student has access to a high quality education. For the last several years, we have made Special Education services a high priority, and will continue to do so. In addition, we are supporting the Special Educat...

The district has sent out a letter to "principals, teachers and staff."  It does not include parents but I'm supposing that is not an omission but rather, a separate letter to be sent. I think there will be a few readers here who will say, "I told you so."  I myself have told various Board members, through the years, that in Seattle Schools, if there is smoke, there IS a fire somewhere. Evidence that your voice(s) can make a difference.  I believe in this case, that it has.  (Bold mine) Dear Seattle Public Schools principals, teachers and staff, Making sure each and every student has access to a high quality education is our goal at Seattle Public Schools. As part of this work, we have spent the last several years working to improve our Special Education services. More than 7,000 students receive Special Education services and we know we need to do a better job to meet their needs. Last year, the state Office of Public Instruction (OSPI) dir...

The agenda for the 8/11 Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting has already been posted. There's a lot there for folks interested in Special Education along with a couple of tasty items for those interested in high school graduation requirements, creative approach schools, Native American education, and discipline.

The district has released the report from Accelify Consulting on the state of Special Education in Seattle Schools.  It will officially be released at a family meeting tonight.  The name of the report is Foundation for a Brighter Future: Essential Needed Improvements in Special Education in Seattle. Special Education Community Meeting Tuesday, July 22, 2014 6:30 - 8:30 pm 2445 3rd Avenue South - Auditorium A family meeting hosted by Seattle Public Schools and the TIERS Group to hear the results of an evaluation of special education services, recommendations and the revised comprehensive corrective action plan.  See here for the flyer with additional information . Report from Accelify Consulting (TIERS) Report Appendix I do not believe I know enough about the current state/needs of the SPS Special Education system to give a lot of comments on this report.  I invite parents/teachers who DO know more to please weigh in. What is fascinating is how many o...

From Disability Scoop : In what advocates are calling a major win, federal officials are for the first time telling states that Medicaid coverage must include treatments like applied behavior analysis for children with autism. Medicaid programs nationwide must offer “medically necessary diagnostic and treatment services” to kids with autism, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told states in a bulletin this month.  That includes everything from speech and occupational therapy to personal care services and medical equipment, the agency said. The services must be included in what’s known as the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment program, or EPSDT, a package of offerings that every state is required to provide children under age 21 who qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid coverage for kids with autism has traditionally varied from state to state. Establishing national requirements will have a huge impact, advocates said. ...

I haven't seen this education writer before but all I can say is she's good (and a great advocate for Special Education students and their parents.)  Thank you, Dr. Nancy Bailey .  As she says: Let’s take back reform and revive, rally, and recover public schools. Here she takes on Arne Duncan (red mine): The fact is there has been a concerted effort for years to get rid of special education. It did not start with Arne Duncan and it probably won’t end with him either. Consider IDEA 1997 and IDEA 2004. Why did they come up with those reauthorizations? If you think throwing all kids into regular classes, in the name of inclusion, and curbing parental rights for legal representation is a gift, think again. The sad fact is the ed. reformers know special ed. requires credentialed, well-prepared teachers and good programming and they don’t want to pay for it. Charter schools don’t know how to serve these children…or they don’t want to pay for it. And it is tough to...

From SPS Communications: When:   Tuesday, July 22, 2014 Time:   6:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. Where:   Seattle Public John Stanford Center Auditorium, 2445 3rd Avenue South What:   A family meeting hosted by Seattle Public Schools and the TIERS Group (Teams Intervening Early to Reach all Students) to hear about the results of an evaluation of special education services, recommendations and the revised comprehensive correction plan. 

Update : from the Washington Post's The Answer Shee t on this story: How well special education students perform on a test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, will be one of the factors considered. This marks the first time that NAEP scores have been attached to any education policy that has potential consequences; the Education Department could withhold federal funds to states that don’t comply with the new special education regulations, though officials there said that is not something they want to do. But NAEP, a test given every two years to a nationally representative sampling of students,  wasn’t designed for this purpose . When asked by reporters about whether using NAEP for this purpose was turning it into a high-stakes test, Duncan said, “I wouldn’t call it high stakes.” He said his department was using NAEP because, however “imperfect,” it was the “only accurate measurement we have.” Well, shades of MAP, imagine using a test for a purpose ...

There were some other key, important things said at both the School Board meeting last Wednesday and the Board retreat yesterday.  I'll just group information under headings but note by M (for meeting) or R (for retreat) where I heard it. Principals (M) To note, both of the Washington State Principals of the Year, for high school and K-8, came from Seattle Schools.  Keven Wynkoop, principal at Ballard , and Keisha Scarlett, principal at South Shore, were the winners.  Mr. Wynkoop is one of several of our high school principals who actually attended the high school he now leads.  Native American students (M) President Peaslee noted that she wished that the Indian Heritage program would be revitalized especially in high school.  This came in conjunction with the large contingent of Native American parents, students and community members who were part of public testimony.  They said they wanted a program for high school and hoped it could be at Ch...