1. Effective Use of Current Special Education Resources Kevin Pierce, Director of Special Education, Wakefield Public Schools

2. Problem Statement Is the district too reliant on paraprofessionals at the expense of program development?

3. Problem Summary Care: Is the district utilizing elementary special education resources effectively? Relate: Students, teachers (reg. & sped), paras, admin., parents. Examine: Elementary schools appear over reliant on paras for delivery of sped services. Acquire: “Guidelines for Selecting Alternstives…” by, Michael F. Giangreco, Ph. and Stephen M. Broer, Psy.D. Sent to me by Kristin Reedy.

4. Try: What was your intervention strategy? Selected one “pilot elementary school” Consulted with principal Met school based team regarding “concerns” Formulated study Team Conducted self-assessment from Giangreco “Guidelines”

5. Evaluation/Results: What happened? (Show us your data.) Areas of Greatest Need Schoolwide support system lacking Skills lacking to differentiate instruction Classroom teacher’s role needs clarification Familiarity of staff with all student’s needs is inadequate Para assignment and role is not clear to families

6. Extend and Renew: What will you do to keep things going? An “Action Team” has been formulated Visits to other district being planned “Intervention Block” to be piloted in grade1 beginning in January Reallocation of resources being considered for FY’11 in order to hire intervention specialist

7. Lessons Learned My assumptions about resource utilization seem accurate Where I though we would go with this project is not necessarily where we are heading There are concerns (from all participants) that gen. ed. is not fully equipped to service all students