Special education work group presents interim recommendations on IEPs, monitoring and staffing

MSDE staff and co‑chairs of the Special Education Work Group reported interim findings and initial recommendations to the State Board, covering IEP quality, monitoring, early literacy and teacher capacity.

The group — roughly 50 members of families, advocates, district leaders and experts — recommended revising COMAR and MSDE guidance to ensure students with significant cognitive disabilities receive individualized, evidence‑based IEP goals, and asked MSDE to review monitoring tools and protocols to better detect and fix gaps across districts. Dr. Scott Hickman emphasized the need for clearer benchmarks and stronger technical assistance for district IEP teams.

Work group members also prioritized early literacy, strengthened MTSS (multi‑tiered system of supports) alignment between general and special education, and capacity building for teachers and specialists with short, practical technical assistance (video vignettes, technical assistance bulletins) and improved MOIEP user experience. MSDE said it had repurposed funding to address near‑term MOIEP fixes and contracted Johns Hopkins for user analysis and reporting.

The work group flagged disproportionality — 18 of 24 LEAs show overrepresentation by race in one or more special education categories — and recommended standardized root‑cause analyses and stronger district-level strategies to address systemic patterns. Staff noted that some recommendations can be implemented in the near term while others will require multi-year work and additional resources.

MSDE plans an interim report to AIB on July 1 and a final report in December with prioritized recommendations and an implementation plan.