Special‑education director warns of rising caseloads and due‑process costs, asks board to fund assistant director and additional staff

The district’s special‑education leadership presented a comprehensive review showing rising identification rates, high numbers of due‑process complaints and substantial prior legal costs.

Director Christine Deutsch (identified in the presentation) said the district’s December‑1 count showed 925 students receiving special‑education services (not including 504s and gifted services) and 133 out‑of‑district placements for its most complex students. She reported 14 due‑process filings in both 2024 and 2025 — the highest among nearby districts — and cited more than $1 million in due‑process related costs the prior year versus roughly $200,000 year‑to‑date this year.

Staff described current supports (a St. Luke’s school‑based counseling partnership, monthly visits and a growing waitlist), average teacher caseloads (about 15 at elementary, 22 middle, 25 high school), the intake/meeting burden (estimated thousands of IEP‑related meetings annually) and operational strains. They proposed near‑term staffing additions already reflected in the preliminary budget: an assistant director of special education to strengthen compliance oversight and student‑services coordination; four additional paraprofessionals including one assigned to a new Supplemental Learning Support (SLS) classroom; and contracting a Speech‑Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA) pilot to ease SLP workloads.

Board members praised the department’s progress in reducing due‑process costs but pushed for comparative benchmarking with peer districts and alternative staffing configurations; one board member expressed caution about adding administrators and asked staff to provide options (assistant director vs. more direct service staffing) and comparative ratios. The administration said the proposed positions are included in the preliminary budget and will return full financial and comparative data before final adoption.