Special Education student survey overview

You can find the results of the report here. posting as we go
Report coming from Marco Rodrigues:
Report is required by the Office of Special Education Program (in US DoE); this is the parent involvement survey
Survey goes to all parents/guardians of students receiving sped services in WPS
To evaluate how well districts are parenting with parents, helping students transition from grade to grade and to adult life, providing training for families in areas of interest
Response rate of 6.1%, thus results need to be interpreted with caution
In many areas, we did better than the state on particular questions
Levels of parental satisfaction generally exceed or are equal to that of parents across Massachusetts
additional areas for improvement

Monfredo asks what we can do to increase participation?
Rodrigues comments that it's a state survey; all we do is provide parental contact information
What is our next step?
celebrate that the areas that need attention are ones where we are very close to the state level
Boone comments that participation is a difficulty that the district faces on surveys as well

Foley: is this the first time? Do we have comparative numbers?
Rodrigues: not the first time, can research previous data
Foley would be curious if urban districts have different answers than suburban districts; comparative with like districts
lower on Latino respondents, lower on non-English or ELL respondents
lower rankings seem to come on training in special education law and organizations that do that families
may be a matter of communication; we are doing it, need to let parents know

O'Connell: "a very fine survey"
"a more favorable response from our respondents than the state"
hope we will focus on : interaction with parents, giving them information, background "to make them focuses advocates for their children"
"anything we can do to train parents, to train families"
"we can well work to enhance what we do for our children"
sometimes someone gets up and makes the point you were going to...and thus you don't have to speak
working with Sped-PAC on this (also asks for their meeting dates and agenda, which we haven't been getting)

Colorio: is there a percentage that needs to be met in order for this data to be indicative of the population we serve?
Rodrigues: state surveys all of the districts
Perda: "certainly the low response rate is an issue here"
some of the differences highlighted by Foley
"take the results with a grain of salt...don't jump too much that this represents the districts"
Boone: we are looking at this as themes not trends; places where we need to redouble our effort
Colorio: do we know what the response rate is statewide? (it isn't in the report)
Perda: as it becomes easier and easier for groups to collect information, people are just being inundated with requests for responses to surveys

Biancheria: hoping we can get some information as a reference point of what we provide (to students and families transitioning out of the school system)
planning for students starts at age 14: each one is individualized, is part of IEP meetings
next steps for that child
asks for the number of students from age 18-22 in WPS and how many have internships; also how many are still on site in WPS
Rodrigues: about 45 students are currently placed in work and such placements outside of our schools