1. Baseline/Trend Data:
   (for reporting period July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004. Use Attachments 2 and 3 when completing this cell.):

• Data on enrollment of students with disabilities by race/ethnicity compared with race/ethnicity of all students. (See Appendix 6.4.)

• Data on race/ethnicity of students with disabilities by particular disabilities. (See Appendix 6.5.)

• Data on race/ethnicity of students with disabilities in particular settings. (See Appendix 8.3.)

• See Attachment 2, which includes State level relative risk data for each issue of disproportionality affecting school-age students.

• See Appendix 17.4 which provides the number of school districts having relative risks of 1.2 or higher for each issue of disproportionality and for each race/ethnicity.

• See Appendix 17.3 for data on the size of the gap in identification of students, based on race/ethnicity, for special education, as compared to the percentage of each race/ethnicity in the total enrollment.

• See Appendix 17.2 for data on number of school districts identified for each Chapter 405 issue.

2. Targets
   (for reporting period July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004):

• All school districts whose data indicate significant disproportionality, based on race/ethnicity, in identification of students by particular disabilities or placement of students with disabilities in particular settings will be required to review their practices related to disproportionality.

3. Explanation of Progress or Slippage
   (for reporting period July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004):

Data Analysis

• SED implemented a small grant from WESTAT and contracted with consultants to recommend enhancements to New York State’s methodology for identifying school districts whose data indicate disproportionality, based on race/ethnicity, for the following issues:
  • identification of students for special education
  • identification of students by particular disabilities
  • placement of students in more restrictive settings.
     
• The recommendations from the consultants were implemented using verified data from the 2002-03 school year. See Attachment 2 for relative risk data at the State level and Appendix 17.4 for relative risk data at the school district level. These data will be included in school districts Chapter 405 notifications, to be issued in the 2004-05 school year. See Appendix 17.2 for numbers of school districts that will be notified for each Chapter 405 issue, including issues involving disproportionality.

Information Dissemination

• VESID provides materials on LRE/FAPE to families whose primary language is not English by providing special education publications in four different languages: Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Haitian Creole.

• The "Parent's Guide" and the "Procedural Safeguards Notice," which provide information on LRE and FAPE were provided in four different languages for parents whose primary language is not English.

• The "Procedural Safeguards Notice" which includes information on LRE and FAPE was revised in August 2003.

• All policy memoranda developed were disseminated to school district personnel, parent networks, and training networks.

• All policies were placed on the web and sent to groups and individuals on the VESID list serve.

Focused Reviews
Special Education Quality Assurance (SEQA) staff developed a new QA Focused Review protocol designed to maximize the impact of a QA review by focusing on only one Key Performance Indicator area (i.e., Achievement, LRE, Student Exiting/Transition) at a time. These QA reviews, which reflect a data driven collaborative process, focus on outcomes and ensure timely corrective action. (See Table GS.I, II, III - Focused Review for further information.

Regional Space Requirements Plans
The five-year Special Education Space Requirements Plan is one major strategy towards decreasing the percentage of school-age students with disabilities educated in separate educational settings. First required in 1989, and due on February 1 of every fifth year thereafter, these plans are data based and developed by a team of regional stakeholders, including parents. All 38 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and New York City (NYC) submit these plans for VESID approval, which is based on how well each plan ensures the provision of appropriate long-term instructional space in the region, in addition to how well it expands opportunities for students with disabilities to be educated in sites that promote integration with nondisabled students, while reducing the number of classrooms at separate sites.

Statewide trend data shows steady progress towards decreasing the percentage of students with disabilities provided special education services in separate educational settings from 10.2 percent in 1996-97 to 7.3 percent in 2003-04. It is expected that the completed 1999-2004 cycle will reflect a statewide total of 11,000 fewer students with disabilities in separate sites over that period of time. (See Tables GS.I, II, III - Special Education Space Requirements Plans and Table FAPE.V - Special Education Space Requirements Plans for additional details.)

Technical Assistance to Chapter 405 Districts
VESID provides technical assistance to address Chapter 405 problem areas through the CSPD planning process. The development of the CSPD plan is based on a thorough analysis of district and building data to determine needs; to identify specific goals and outcomes in regard to student achievement, district performance and disproportionality; and to designate benchmarks in order to gauge progress toward identified goals. VESID provides technical assistance in order to address the Chapter 405 problem areas through the SETRC network, RSSC, QA review process and regional training and technical assistance. The three levels of intervention for school districts identified for Chapter 405 issues include:

Targeted Technical Assistance: The issues in these districts were considered to be systemic in nature and not resolvable through technical assistance and regionally provided training alone. All targeted districts have an approved plan in place and continue to receive technical assistance for both the planning process and professional development through the RSSC and SETRC networks.

Regional Technical Assistance: These districts were required to address the resolution of the problem(s) in their CSPD plan, and to participate in regional training programs sponsored by SED or through local sources. A sampling of the types of training provided at the regional level includes: pre-referral and intervention strategies, co-teaching models, systematic ways of examining data, reassessing assessment, and team building and parent training.

Self-Review: Similar to Regional Technical Assistance, these districts addressed the resolution of the problem(s) in the CSPD plan and implemented the plan with local and regional resources. The attainment of goals associated with the problem area(s) were documented in the CSPD plan as updated, and revised annually with the support of the SETRC representative.

In 2003-04, VESID provided technical assistance to Chapter 405 Districts as follows:

Targeted Technical Assistance - 13 districts
Regional Technical Assistance - 89 districts
Self-Review - 251 districts
Total - 353 districts

(See Tables GS.I, II, III - Chapter 405 and Table FAPE.V - Focusing Technical Assistance Networks to Work With Identified School Districts for additional details.)

Joint Action Plan
Teacher shortages continue to have a significant impact upon issues related to the over-identification of students with disabilities and the disproportionate identification of students of particular race/ethnicities. In collaboration with the NYC Department of Education (NYCDOE) and SED, a Joint Action Plan was developed to assist in addressing issues around teacher shortages. The Action Plan involves multiple offices within VESID, the Office of the Professions, the Office of Teaching and the Office of Counsel. Many of the activities and strategies of the Action Plan have policy and program implications on a statewide basis, including legislative proposals to address shortages, and statewide surveys of IHE’s offering teacher preparation programs in order to assist in determining the current capacity of the IHE system to address teacher shortage areas. As a result, several initiatives have been implemented to begin addressing these issues. Refer to the General Supervision section of this document for additional details (See Table GS.IV - Joint Action Plan.)

Disproportionality and Technical Assistance
A Request for Proposal (RFP) was developed calling for the provision of technical assistance to regional and State staff as well as to targeted districts around issues regarding disproportionality. A Proposal from the Metro Center for Urban Education at New York University (NYU), in collaboration with Learning Innovations at West Ed was accepted to provide technical assistance regarding Chapter 405 issues to regional and state staff, as well as to targeted districts. Delays in the contract process as well as revisions to the original proposal, resulted in delays in the initiation of this project, which had originally been scheduled to start in the fall of 2003.

State Improvement Grant (SIG)
New York’s SIG directs technical assistance, professional development, and comprehensive planning services to designated districts that are in need of improvement based on key performance measures and disproportionality. VESID’s third year of implementation of SIG was 2003-04. During that period, the SED oversaw continued development of training modules associated with root cause associated with poor performance and disproportionality, and continued implementation of the HESC to foster impact on preservice education programs. In addition, support towards the development of the UDL initiative was placed with the Technology Resources in Education (TRE) Center, a “Teacher Retention” Guidebook was under development (coordinated by the HESC), and plans to re-initiate the “Inclusive Schools Conference” took shape. SIG targets approximately 34 districts, including the Big Five Cities. Each district receives an IDEA Discretionary Grant (not SIG Funds) of $40,000 per year for at least two years in order to support intensive professional development activities.

4. Projected Targets
   (for NEXT reporting period July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005 and on going):

• All school districts whose data indicate significant disproportionality, based on race/ethnicity, in identification in students for special education, in the identification of students by particular disabilities, or in the placement of students in particular settings, will be notified and assigned one of three levels of technical assistance.

• All school districts who are notified will be required to implement activities associated with the assigned level of technical assistance, including a review of policies and procedures related to disproportionality issues, and to make revisions, as needed.

5. Future Activities
6. Projected Timelines and Resources
   (for NEXT reporting period July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005 and on going):

Chapter 405 Notifications
All school districts with significant disproportionality will be notified during the 2004-05 school year and will be assigned one of three levels of technical assistance. (See Table GS.I, II, III - Chapter 405 Section for additional details.)

Information Dissemination
VESID will provide materials on LRE and FAPE to families whose primary language is not English by providing special education publications in five different languages: Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Urdu and Haitian Creole.

Focused Reviews
See GS Executive Summary - Focused Review for further information.

Special Education Space Requirements Plans
Annual reports from each BOCES region will indicate the continued movement of students into integrated sites. The five-year benchmarks will be met or exceeded in all regions. (See Tables GS.I, II, III - Special Education Space Requirements Plans and Table FAPE.V - Special Education Space Requirements Plans.)

Technical Assistance to Chapter 405 Districts
See Tables GS.I, II, III - Chapter 405 and the Disproportionality and Technical Assistance section below for additional details.

Joint Action Plan
See Table GS.IV - Joint Action Plan.

Disproportionality and Technical Assistance
The need for professional development around Chapter 405 issues of disproportionality has been identified as a concern. As a result, the Chapter 405 Professional Development Initiative will provide technical assistance to regional and State level staff as well as to identified districts. The regional and State level technical assistance will provide approaches to working with districts around Chapter 405 issues. As a result, regional and State level participants will “turnkey” this training to assist districts with the issues of disproportionality. The project will also directly provide district level technical assistance focused on topics surrounding disproportionality to six districts selected by SED based on individual district needs. Initiatives are targeted to begin in the fall of 2004. The six districts and six regions selected for inclusion in the Chapter 405 Professional Development Initiative are:

Professional development activities will then be created for review by SED with regard to the Chapter 405 problem areas. Manuals for the delivery of the professional development program will be developed. Two professional development programs will be provided to the SED-funded network personnel (e.g., SETRC, SEQA, RSSC and others) in each identified region, as well as in each school district, for five consecutive years.

State Improvement Grant
New York’s SIG provides intensive professional development to targeted districts in need of improvement across key performance areas (including LRE). The professional development is based on a root-cause analysis of factors contributing to poor performance and specific to the district’s CSPD plan.

Year four of SIG saw the implementation of the following four initiatives:

• Disproportionality – support to Chapter 405 targeted LEAs;
• Access to the General Curriculum through Universal Design in Learning (UDL) – continued training opportunities offered;
• Parental Involvement – over 20 LEA SIG projects supplemented; and
• Teacher Retention – distribution of the Teacher Retention Guidebook and piloting in select districts including NYC.

The disproportionality component was intended to build capacity within the State by identifying and linking together promising practitioners and emerging leadership personnel with interest and expertise in dealing with disproportionality into an informal network of “experts”. This initiative took much more time than anticipated to launch and support. Consequently, this SIG Supplemental activity remains a high priority for VESID and is scheduled for ongoing support in 2004-05 and thereafter.

The 2005 Inclusive Schools Conference is being hosted by HESC at Syracuse University, in partnership with SED-VESID. HESC and VESID are also working with the IDEA Partnership, a federally funded project coordinated by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). The IDEA Partnership has connected HESC and VESID with a number of national organizations that will become our partners to enhance the content of the conference and the follow-up sessions.

The national organizations, along with their state affiliates include: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and its state affiliate New York State United Teachers (NYSUT); Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and the administrators’ affiliate (CASE); American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE); and the State affiliate (NYSATE), American Occupational Therapy Association; National Council on Independent Living; and National Association of Secondary School Administrators.

Top of Page