District special education above average

The Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees received a number of updates during their November 16 meeting, one of which was from Robin Brown, district special education director.

According to Brown, the district had approximately 101 students enrolled in special education across all disability categories. Additionally, there were six students who had transferred to the district from out-of-state that were undergoing evaluations for Individual Education Plans. The district also had nine special education students who were going through the process of Behavioral Intervention Plans.

An Individual Education Plan, or IEP, is a document that is created through cooperation between the parents of a child in need of special education and district personnel. The IEP is developed to ensure that a student with identified special education needs receives specialized instruction. 

A Behavioral Intervention Plan, or BIP, is a document developed with the intention of addressing behavioral needs of a student whose behavior may interfere with their education. BIPs include strategies for positive behavioral intervention to attempt to either prevent a student’s disruptive behavior before it begins or provide replacement behaviors.

Brown also updated the Board of Trustees with the special education students ranking in comparison with the rest of Wyoming following WY-TOPP testing. According to Brown, special education students in CCSD2 were above the state average in both proficiency and growth. The district special education director added that she did have concerns in terms of scoring within the district between special education students and regular education students.

“That’s something we want to look at, to see why that gap is there and then to try to bring our kids up a little bit higher so there’s not that gap,” said Brown.

Another area of concern for Brown with the special education students in CCSD2 was math scores. According to Brown, while the district had scored above the state average in proficiency, they were below the state average in growth. Chairman James Sewell asked Brown where the average of special education students across the state was, adding that he was curious if the difference between the district and the state would have some bearing on the testing scores. Brown stated that the state average was approximately 15 percent with the district half a percent above the state average.

Along with the WY-TOPP scores, Brown also shared with the Board of Trustees where the district ranked compared to the state in regards to their special education program.

“We were above the state in everything except for the percent of youth enrolled in higher education once they leave high school. So our kids that are going onto a post-secondary school, we had less this last year. Overall when we look at kids, if they went on to do something after high school—whether it’s a job or school—we were above the state average,” Brown said. “So, our kids aren’t just going and sitting at home. Most of them are getting jobs. I think it kind of equals out in my mind because we need people in the workforce, too.”

Brown also informed the Board of Trustees about the special education department’s backlog of evaluations due to the sudden closure of schools the previous school year.

“When we shut schools last year, we were in the process of evaluating a lot of kids. We usually do all of our spring evaluations and the first of the fall evaluations in the spring and we obviously couldn’t do that because we didn’t have the kids in school,” said Brown. “So, we’ve been working double-time this fall to make up for everything last spring.”

Additionally, according to Brown, the district had received four more special education students with more complex needs.

“Some things that we don’t see very often, so we’re having to learn new things and get some new staff and do some different types of evaluations that we’re not used to,” Brown said. “We’re having quite a few changes. People have been on board and really willing to learn new things and move around to do what they need to do, so I really appreciate that from our staff.”

The next meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees will be at 5 p.m. on December 17 at the Central Office in Saratoga.