Family & Community Special Communities
Special Education

Continuous Improvement Plan Final Report

Introduction

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) continuous improvement plan (CIP), initially completed in June 2001 has provided focus for key activities conducted by ESE. This report is ESE's final report to the Office of Special Education Programs regarding our CIP Areas and activities during 2002-3.

General Information

On June 3, 2003 the Steering Committee met to review the annual data available at that time and to discuss subsequent focus for Massachusetts. The minutes and data from the June 3rd meeting accompany this report. Following please find the various areas of the CIP and ESE's determinations in relation to these areas as we move into FY04.

Section 1. Parent Involvement

1.1 Parent Participation in Meetings Regarding Educational Decisions for Their Child

Section 2. Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)

2.1 Special Education and Related Services are Provided in Accordance with Identified Needs: IEP Development

This area is composed of a number of interrelated facets, including that the IEP is developed using the evaluation information, the IEP Team members are present, the IEP is provided to the parent immediately after the Team development, services are provided promptly upon acceptance of the IEP, and students have an IEP in place upon the start of school each year. Although some facets have high compliance, other facets do not (variation 70-93% compliance). The Steering Committee has designated this area as a continuing priority area for FY 2004.

2.2 Psychological Counseling Provided When Needed to Benefit From Special Education

Compliance data for this area has consistently been 96% or better (SE 48). Therefore, this area will no longer be part of Massachusetts CIP. However, mental health continues to be a field with a lack of qualified professionals and high needs across all age groups. Massachusetts has identified mental health as an interagency priority and has developed a Children's Mental Health Commission of which the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is a member and our Executive Office of Health and Human Services is the lead agency. ESE continues to provide grant funding and focussed activities in the area of mental health and our mental health initiative will continue into FY04 and beyond.

2.3 Availability of Extended School Year

With compliance data at or above 93% for two years, ESE identifies this area as systemically compliant, and will remove it from our CIP as an area of focus.

The Department developed a question and answer document related to extended school year programs. That document has been disseminated widely and is available on the Department website at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/pqa/ta/esyp_qa.html No further specific actions are planned at this time.

2.4 Lack of Integration Opportunities for Children with Disabilities Placed in Separate Educational Environments

The data identified for review in our CIP suggest that the legal requirements related to LRE are substantially compliant. The very minor change in the data for this area from the Baseline year to the 2nd year is additionally supplemented by the discussion of the Steering Committee regarding placement decisions generally. However, now that Massachusetts does have data by disability, and the ability as well to look at performance information by student and placement, the Steering Committee determined that a comparison of placement data by disability and performance is a critical next step for this CIP area. This area has been designated a priority area for FY 04.

2.5 Opportunity for Children with Disabilities to be Involved and Progress in the General Curriculum

SE 1, #2d, is the CPR element most specifically looking at including IEP information that enables the student to be involved in and make progress in the general curriculum. SE 33 also reflects the actual involvement of students in the general curriculum. Those data elements have been at consistently high levels (91% and 88% in the baseline year, respectively, and 92% and 90% compliance, respectively, in 2001-2), indicating substantial compliance with the requirements of the law. ESE has determined, therefore, to continue procedural compliance activity in this area through our ongoing CPR schedule. The focus of the Steering Committee in FY04 for this area will be on a review of the outcome measures related to access to the general curriculum --- that is, a review of the performance information of students with disabilities in different placements and across disability areas.

2.6 Lack of Opportunity for Involvement of Children with Disabilities in Regular Vocational Education Programs with Appropriate Supports as Determined by the IEP Form.

Data collected makes it clear that many students do receive vocational opportunities. Reported services appear to be available at high levels. However, it appears that it is in the development of the IEP that the possibility of vocational services is not fully discussed, particularly for students who are not attending vocational schools. Therefore, in our continuing CIP, this area will be combined and focussed with area 3.1 below and has been designated as a priority area for FY 04.

Section 3. Secondary Transition

3.1 Outcome Oriented Statements of Transition That Include the Required Components

The baseline data and data for the 2001-2 school year indicates a decrease in compliance levels (from approximately 84% to 70%). Discussion with focus groups and the Steering Committee reflects a frustration with the form and process of IEP discussions on this topic. As stated above, ESE has designated this as a priority area for FY 04 and a focus on ensuring a full discussion of vocational opportunities will be added to this CIP area.

3.2 Method for Ensuring that Outside Agencies Likely to be Providing or Paying for Post-School Activities Are Invited To The IEP Meeting and That There is a Method For Obtaining Their Input If They Do Not Attend

3.3 Students Invited to Meeting if Transition Planning is a Purpose of the Meeting

With two years of data at 87-91% compliance, this area is well on its way to systemic compliance and no longer needs to be a separate focus area of our CIP. However, the Steering Committee identified a desire to promote a better focus on looking at outcome information related to transition. ESE will continue to work toward better post-school outcome data for students with disabilities. To that end, we have refocussed our CIP for FY04 and will present our FY04 CIP to our Steering Committee in the fall along with planned activities for the year.

3.4 Statement of Transition Service Course of Study Beginning at Age 14

With two years of data showing a decline in compliance, this area has been identified as a priority area for FY04. Our FY 04 CIP will focus on transition in a number of ways, at the level of the IEP meeting, through planning discussions, and through data gathering. It is our hope that the reauthorization of the IDEA may provide more detail about this particular compliance area since it is clear that confusion about this requirement continues to hamper compliance.