Special Education Department

SYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT Amy Evans, Director of Special Education

Jaime Alicea, Superintendent of Schools

To: Laura Kelley, CAO

From: Amy Evans, Director

Date: December 19, 2018

RE: Draft special education receivership plan – Dr. King

Please see an initial, draft proposal for Dr. King. I will work with my team to enhance but wanted you to
examine our initial thoughts to ensure we are moving in the correct direction.

Dr. King:

We are proposing that we integrate the two remaining 8:1:2 classes into general education classrooms.
Students in these classrooms should be close to grade level and typically have the cognitive ability to keep
up with peers if provided the correct social emotional supports.

Note: There is a benefit to keeping all four of the 8:1:2 classes at King for the upcoming year. Doing so would
allow us to have 10 classrooms staffed full day with a special education teacher and a teaching assistant.

We are also proposing that consultant teacher programming be adjusted to Integrated Co-teaching and a
teaching assistant added to each classroom. Consultant teacher student numbers are low and all students
will benefit from the support of the special education teacher.

The combination of these models would allow Dr. King to have eight (or ten) classrooms that are co-taught
by special education teachers.

It is also proposed that we add a special education instructional coach and a behavior support specialist to
Dr. King. Special Education would maintain supervision of these positions but they would be housed at Dr.
King. SESIS support would also continue for the school to assist with teacher coaching.

Regular professional development will be provided in the following areas:

1. Co-teaching
2. Specially designed instruction
3. De-escalation and Therapeutic Crisis Intervention
4. Progress monitoring
5. Tier 3 interventions – ELA and Math

Professional development will be coupled with daily walkthroughs and feedback by SESIS, coach and
Behavior Support Specialist.

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