Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home School District 55 has been doing “very, very well” in adhering to guidelines for federal programs in which local schools participate, a school official said recently.
The school district received a preliminary report from Oregon Department of Education officials who reviewed the district’s federal programs recently.
The district will receive a final report in May, Student Services Director Elena Barton said. The district has already received an informal verbal assessment. The report checked whether the district was following federal rules and program quality.
So far, state officials have visited 28 districts, Barton said. Among those, the average number of “findings” has been 17. District 55 had a total of seven.
“Findings” are issues officials have discovered in how local districts administer federal “title” programs. Among the findings, Barton said, officials told the district it needed a more comprehensive parental involvement policy. The board held the first reading of a new policy at its April meeting two weeks ago.
Title IV programs had specific findings requiring more program evaluation by the local district, Barton said. Titles II and V programs need more formalized consultation for planning activities.
The review came after the federal government reviewed the state Department of Education, Barton said. The federal government review instructed the state to review its districts.
“We felt like we did very, very well,” Barton said. District officials were worried about it because other districts have lost money following the reviews, for spending title money the wrong way and being out of compliance with the federal programs providing the funding.
The state did its last review of Sweet Home eight to 10 years agobut will begin doing them every six years under the federal programs.
“Next year, we’ll probably have to do what’s called a district audit, which is we have to send in documentation of our compliance,” Barton said.
The district sent 11 three-ring binders full of documentation to the state for this review, Barton said, noting that Silvia Anderson handled the bulk of the preparation.
“I really appreciate everybody’s help on the review,” Barton said. “The principals were well-prepared.”
She also thanked district principals, Curriculum Director Jan Sharp and district Nurse Joan Pappin.
The district also recently received a copy of a new state report card on special education programs.
The new report card is missing a lot of information, Barton said. “The one thing I wanted to point to the board is how our kids compare to the state when they take the regular state assessments.”
The majority, 220, of Sweet Home’s special education students, those with individualized education plans (IEPs) took the regular state assessments in 2005-06, Barton said. Of those students, 50 percent met or exceeded state standards in English and language arts. Statewide, only 41 percent of special ed students met or exceeded the standard.
Sixteen students took an alternate test, Barton said. Of those, 65 percent met or exceeded the standard for the test while statewide 80 percent met or exceeded the standard.
In math, 61 percent of Sweet Home special education students met or exceeded state standards while 53 percent of students statewide met or exceeded the standard. Of the 16 students taking the alternate test, 63 percent met or exceeded the standard compared to 81 percent statewide.
“We haven’t figured out why they’re (those taking the alternate test) doing a little bit worse,” Barton said. It’s such a small sample, it can fluctuate wildly.
“I do know that we push kids to take the regular assessment if they can at all handle it,” Barton said. She doesn’t know whether the state uses the alternate test with higher-level students.
“I think overall it tells me our special education students are doing better in reading and math than the state average,” she said.
The report card also showed that the district is placing special education students in the “least restrictive environment” for their age.
Of special education students, 82.6 percent are removed from the regular classroom less than 21 percent of the day, exceeding the state’s target of 72 percent of students, and 8.8 percent are removed from the regular classroom more than 60 percent, exceeding the state standard of 10.2 percent or less. Students served in separate schools, placements, homes and hospitals are .9 percent of special education students, exceeding the state’s target of 2.4 percent or less.