13 February 2024 PAUSD Board Meeting
4A – I am asking your individual and collective help getting the word out on ABLE accounts. There are probably between 2 and 3 hundred disabled students in PAUSD who are eligible for these accounts. Able Accounts provide 1. protection to access for US disability services. 2. A savings and investment tool that works like a ROTH IRA. 3. Immediate use for a very wide range of services including housing, supports, and education. This program is almost a secret. It is 10 years old with 8 million eligible people (anyone with a substantial disability before their 26th birthday) yet only 151 thousand accounts as of last year (1.9%!). 1. Please host an annual presentation on this to all special education families. 2. If you know of individuals or groups that can help get the word out or may be eligible, please spread the word or let me know. Thank you.
3A – PAUSD Promise – Fletcher – no details or meaningful mention of Students with Disabilities. No break out of detailed data for differentiated/priority groups for tracking of equity issues to show differences with their peers or changes from last year making it difficult to see progress. While it is important that each school have its own focus, hopefully, next year a common set of metrics will be put in place to provide a more coherent picture across the district. There were 9 Fletcher suspensions with 4 SWD and 3 hispanic students even though they represent 13.3% and 16.5% of the school population
3B – Every Student Reads Initiative – it may be helpful to look at intersections of disability with other groups such as English Learners, Hispanic, and Socio-economically disadvantaged students to see if the students who are struggling most are in these intersections. It would be good to see the median growth data for SWD over time just as with Hispanic students. What is the data on Students with Disabilities and dyslexia? ESRI Progress Indicator 3 – is there a hypothesis why are SWD backsliding slightly from last year to this? They seem to be the only group that this is the case for.
3C – SWIFT Report Card – No data provided for SWD for grades 6 to 12 for Student Climate? When will PAUSD provide an update on what is going on with Chronic Absenteeism for SWD?
5C – Classified staff – 3 SE hires, 6 SE resignations, other 1 Behavior Support Resignation. When are we going to get churn data in general and for special education in particular?
5D – lots of pretty expensive settlement agreements FYI – https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/pausd/Board.nsf/files/D272HB023CC1/$file/20240213ConsultantRequisitionsReport.pdf
5I – No data on current contract performance of Department of Rehabilitation that provides education and training for students, mostly those with disabilities even though the contract is projected to grow from 300k to 500k.
5R – Differentiated Graduation Policy Update for Students With Disabilities – FYI – https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/pausd/Board.nsf/files/D2APYY66CF89/$file/20240213BP6146.4DifferentialGraduationandCompetencyStandardsforStudentswithDisabilitiesPROPOSED.pdf
