SAISD
Curriculum Department
Quarterly Report
Department/Area: Special Education/504/Dyslexia
Quarter: S D M J
Prepared By: Jana Anderson, Director of Special Education Budget Source: Local/Federal
Overview:
Program Statistics as of March 7, 2002:


Number of students being served by Special Education:
2,094 (+7)
504 Program:
174
Dyslexia Program:
17
Percentage of total SAISD enrollment being served in Special
Education:
13.4% (+.1%)

Current Staff:
Instructional Staff
9 Preschool Teachers and 9 Instructional Aides
44 Elementary Teachers and 44 Instructional Aides
34 Junior High Teachers and 12 Instructional Aides
30 High School Teachers and 13 Instructional Aides
1 Teacher at Carver
5 Homebound Teachers
1 Adapted P.E. Teacher
2 Teachers of the Visually Impaired
2 Dyslexia Teachers
Support Staff
1 Director
3 Supervisors
10 Diagnosticians
3 School Psychologists
13 Speech Pathologists
1 Registered Nurse
4 Clerical Staff
Goals With Benchmarks:

Provide district-wide activities and training to promote the awareness of individuals with
disabilities in order to prevent disability harassment in the school and the workplace.
Develop district policy regarding disability harassment to be in place by May, 2002.
Quarterly Update: A booklet describing disabilities and explaining the law as it pertains to
disability harassment has been developed, using Federal Capacity Building funds. This
booklet will be provided to all campuses and parents of students with disabilities. SAISD
policy relating to disability harassment is being reviewed, with changes and/or revisions being
considered.

Assist each campus in forming a Child-Study (Pre-referral) Team to ensure that all
possible interventions have been tried before a student is referred to Special Education.
These teams will be in operation by the end of the first semester.
Quarterly Update: A Child-Study Team is in place at all campuses. The supervisor
responsible for the referral process has visited numerous campuses and worked with staff to
assist them with interventions. All campuses have received inservice training on the ChildStudy process as required by the District Improvement Plan.

Revise/update the district Dyslexia Plan to include specific criteria for exit from the
Dyslexia Program based on alignment with TEKS and TAAS expectations related to
grade level and individual abilities of each student—December, 2001.
Quarterly Update: The Dyslexia teachers, diagnostician and supervisor have worked to
establish exit criteria for the program. A new Dyslexia Handbook developed by the Texas
Education Agency has been distributed to all districts. We received this handbook in
February and after reviewing it, may choose to adopt it as our district Dyslexia Plan.

Prepare for the District Effectiveness and Compliance monitoring visit scheduled for the
week of May 20, 2002.
Quarterly Update: Although the district is participating in the new DEC process pilot
program, the procedures for special education have not changed. All schools will be targeted
for campus visits by the special education portion of the DEC team. The director and
supervisors of special education are scheduling visits to each campus to ensure that special
education procedures are in compliance. In addition, all support staff are scheduling specific
times to review student folders to check for compliance with all DEC indicators.
Status for the Present Quarter:

1,303 ARD meetings have been conducted since 12/04/01 (Total since 8/10/01: 2,572)

171 Special Education referrals have been processed since 12/04/01
(Total since 8/10/01: 324)

The Special Education Department continues to work with two very serious situations
involving parents who continue to file complaints and requests for due process hearings:
1.
A due process hearing was held on February 26 and 27, 2002. Although a
decision has not been handed down from the hearing officer as of this date, we
are confident that the district will prevail, the parent did not present any
evidence to prove his claim. This same parent, however, has filed a new request
for a due process hearing. A pre-hearing telephone conference will be
conducted on March 14, 2002 to discuss the request.
2.
The other parent has filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency,
alleging that the special education department has not followed correct
procedures in conducting evaluations and scheduling ARD meetings.
Documentation to support the district’s procedures has been compiled and sent
to TEA’s Complaint Division. This information was due 3/12/02, it was sent to
TEA on 3/7/02.
3.
A parent (same as #2) has also filed a Level 3 Grievance with the SAISD Board
of Trustees against the interim superintendent, special education director, special
education supervisor, principal of McGill Elementary and the secretary at
McGill. The parent is claiming that he is being discriminated against and that
staff members refuse to respond to his complaints and concerns. The parent has
withdrawn his child from SAISD and is home-schooling.
****NOTE: The above situations have been occurring for six-eight years. Countless hours
are spent responding to concerns from both of these parents. Many more hours have been
spent doing exhaustive documentation. The special education director, three supervisors,
several diagnosticians and secretaries, in addition to staff at Austin, McGill and Glenn are
involved in these two cases. Attorneys from Schwartz and Eichelbaum continue to assist the
district in answering these complaints, which has resulted in very significant legal costs. At
this time there has never been a situation related to either case that has resulted in a finding of
error or wrongdoing on the part of the district. Hopefully, at some point in time, TEA will
determine that both of these parents are making frivolous claims.