Tempe Union board hears special-education committee update after parent concerns

Jennifer Jarvis, a special-education parent, urged continued transparency and follow-up on special-education and graduation concerns raised in December, telling the board that committee materials should remain accessible to the broader community. “I wanted to take a couple of minutes to follow-up on the special education and graduation concerns from December,” Jarvis said, and thanked staff and board members for ongoing meetings.

Assistant Superintendent Sean McDonald presented the special-education committee’s work plan: three meetings have been held, the committee is using a WestEd rubric that examines 16 areas (student achievement, postsecondary outcomes, inclusion, compliance, professional development and communications), and the committee will meet a fourth time on May 14. McDonald said the group is developing parent resources and quarterly updates to the governing board and that an attorney from Udall Shumway briefed committee members on foundational special-education law and IEP components.

McDonald emphasized the committee’s collaborative norms and iterative schedule: the committee will reconvene after the May board meeting and is projecting a regular cadence of meetings through summer and into the 2024–25 school year. Board members asked staff to include short summaries of committee learnings in the board’s periodic briefings so trustees and the public can stay informed.

What’s next: The committee will continue policy and regulation review (including Policy IHB and related regulation IHB-R) and provide quarterly reports to the governing board; the next full committee meeting is scheduled for May 14 and an additional meeting is planned for late June or early August.