District unveils multi-year special-education review, wins inclusion grant

The Parsippany-Troy Hills Township School District presented a comprehensive, multi-year review of special education on Sept. 10, outlining five priorities: strengthen programs and services, increase inclusive practices, boost staff capacity, tighten systems and accountability, and build continuous program evaluation.

"We looked at our programs, our placements, and then our systems," said Dr. Giganti, the district's executive director of pupil personnel, who led the presentation. She said the review was timed ahead of a 2027 state monitoring visit and identified both strengths and opportunities across preschool, ABA/ERI, LLD and secondary programming. The presentation emphasized shifting the decision-making default toward general education: "General education first," she said, as a guiding paradigm for increasing time students spend with general‑education peers.

Officials told the board that state determinations for fiscal year 2024 show the district missed its LRE targets — the district aims for at least 80% of special‑education students spending 80% or more of the day in general education and to reduce the share of students spending 40% or more of their day in special‑education-only settings. Dr. Giganti said the district "did not hit the target we needed" and described the review as a step to move the metrics in the right direction.

Administrators also said the district was accepted into an LRE action-learning cohort and secured a three-year systemic-change grant with the New Jersey Inclusion Project — the "All In" grant — which they expect to support district implementation. "At 05:31 tonight, we got accepted. We got the grant for a 3 year systemic change grant working with New Jersey Inclusion Project," Dr. Giganti told the board.

Board members and staff pressed on staffing and implementation details: the district plans to extend BCBA (behavior analyst) expertise beyond self-contained programs into general-education classrooms, provide targeted paraprofessional and co-teaching professional development, and restructure supervision so one supervisor focuses on instruction while another focuses on case management. Dr. Giganti said the district will rely on both observable classroom data and testing data to track changes and that many of the first-year PD and audits are already underway.

The review will be monitored through standing CST (child study team) meetings, standardized decision-making matrices, and improved documentation. Administrators stressed that placement decisions remain individualized and governed by IEP goals, timelines and IDEA compliance while also pursuing districtwide consistency and data-driven supports.

The board did not vote on this item; the presentation was accepted for discussion and follow-up work with staff and consultants.