Department of Special Services
Budget Presentation 2013 ~ 2014
Department of Special Services
Budget Development Process
2013 - 2014
Budget Message
The Department of Special Services 2013 ~ 2014 budget proposal supports three key
initiatives resulting from a detailed data review of overall student performance,
consideration of the impact that district initiatives have had on departmental staffing, as well
as new demands facing this department based on the state’s educational reform efforts.
These three priorities are:

Ensuring educational benefit of the IEP:
 Ensure that students with disabilities achieve mastery of goals
established in the IEP;
 Ensure that goals in the IEP are aligned with the state’s Common
Core Standards;
 Ensure that consistent, efficient and effective progress monitoring
tools are utilized for IEP goals.
 Improve the access to universally designed instruction in general education
classrooms, thereby supporting the needs of all learners within inclusive settings.
 Ensure that eligibility for special education determination is applied
consistently throughout the district which will continue to address prevalence
rate concerns in this district. This will require increased special education
teacher participation in the delivery of SRBI interventions with students prior to
referral to special education.
This budget proposal supports this on-going work as well as individual school/department
goals and initiatives. Budgetary requests are made in support of the learning needs for all
students within the Simsbury Public Schools.
The following initiatives for the next school year are consistent with the department’s
focused work during the current year (2012-2013) and the Improvement as well as Quality
Indicators identified in the district’s Continuous Improvement Plan.
Department of Special Services
Budget Presentation 2013 ~ 2014
Tiered System of Interventions
 Assist general education in the planning and implementation of a tiered system of
interventions for any and all students who experience academic and/or behavioral
difficulties. These supports will be initiated at the earliest indicators of struggle for
individual students and the focus will be on the provision of quality, research-based
interventions at second and third tiers. A significant focus of the work will continue to
address literacy needs of struggling readers in Kindergarten through Grade 3 within the
Simsbury Reading Intervention Program (SRIP) focusing on Tier Three supports as
provided by special education teachers at the primary level.

Paraprofessional Allocations
The commitment to providing successful and high quality educational services to
students with disabilities has a long history in Simsbury. More than twenty years after
the district initiated a move toward more inclusive practices and providing the
exceptional and highly individualized student support relative to this commitment, we
recognize that there are some very negative realities.
The district has relied on this resource to help accomplish the stated inclusion goals and
to ensure that students remained successful. The district has begun to implement
carefully designed tools and protocols to assist staff in determining true need for such
supports and also attempts to identify existing resources that can support the need(s).
The Special Services Advisory Council (SSAC) will move into its second year of a twoyear study of inclusive practices in Simsbury and this work will help clarify a shared
framework of inclusion that should involve all schools at every level and a multitude of
stakeholders.
Through our past year’s work, we understand that we are at a critical crossroad and that
we must be planful and diligent in our process as we continue to address this initiative.
Due to the fact that these new practices are not yet fully understood or embraced the
district will face some financial realities:
 The need to provide professional development for all teachers in designing
effective differentiated and universally designed instruction within the
general education classroom setting and how to provide this instruction to
students with disabilities that may be in classrooms without additional adult
supports.
 Professional development that increases the use of co-teaching within our
classrooms district-wide, but specifically at the secondary level.
 Professional development for secondary special education certified staff to
increase educational benefit of the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and
effective management of their changing roles as service providers as we
focus on transition needs and services.
Department of Special Services
Budget Presentation 2013 ~ 2014

Assistive Technology
Technology equipment and support services obtained through the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant funding have assisted in the substantial increase of
the department’s inventory of highly specialized devices that greatly assist students’
engagement and access to the curriculum. Continued emphasis will need to focus on the
provision of critical professional development, both off-site as well as job-embedded, for
all involved staff in the varied uses of these purchased technologies. This will help to
realize the potential that these tools offer our students, and in many cases, their families,
through web-based services. We have seen a significant decline in the department’s
ability to respond to assistive technology needs when following a reduction in the
Assistive Technology Consulting teacher’s role. Increasing access to this critical
support is essential to ensuring that students with disabilities have access to and are able
to utilize these specialized supports.
It is certainly understood that our budget process will continue to be challenged by the
difficult issues surrounding our economy. To that end we have looked carefully at areas
that can be maintained with current funding. The department will continue to work at
maintaining quality programs and positive relationships with families while at the same
time changing some aspects of service delivery and practice, unifying resources so that
all struggling learners have earlier access to high quality intervention supports, ensuring
meaningful inclusive practices truly benefit our students with disabilities and that
secondary students are fully prepared to enter into a postsecondary educational or career
experience and ensuring meaningful inclusive practices truly benefit our students with
disabilities.
Paramount to the success of these initiatives will be the on-going, classroom-based
supervision provided by leaders in the department, from the Director and Department
Supervisors and inclusive of consulting teachers with expertise in assistive technology
and inclusion. In order to ensure that teachers embrace initiatives, utilize effective
progress-monitoring tools, implement appropriate technologies and differentiation
strategies and educational methodologies, it is imperative that leaders have the time to
devote to this most important work. It is anticipated that by providing the appropriate
structures (manageable caseloads, job-embedded coaching from experts, regular
supervisory presence and support) we will build our capacity and ensure that highly
effective special education teachers and related service providers deliver high quality
intervention services to our most challenged learners.
Department of Special Services
Budget Presentation 2013 ~ 2014
Budget Summary/Priorities
Priority One ~ Supervisory Supports
 .5 Special Education Supervisor (092)
District Special Education Supervisor to coordinate and oversee all
out of district student placements: PPT placements, students attending
magnet or choice schools who continue to be district responsibility, as well
as parentally-placed students with disabilities in Simsbury private schools.
$60,000

Special Education ESS Teacher and Supervisor Stipend/ Henry
James
$4,000 + .5 FTE
To provide leadership to the special education/pupil services staff at Henry
James Memorial School. This stipend position will provide direct supervisory
supports in classrooms, working directly with special education teachers and staff
to ensure high quality, research based instructional methodologies are supporting our
students with disabilities.

FVTA – Farmington Valley Transition Academy Head
Teacher/Supervisor Stipend
$4,000
Additional administrative stipend requested for the FVTA head teacher.
The demands of the head teacher role have increased dramatically given the
significant expansion of this transition program. The head teacher is responsible
for overseeing curriculum development, IEP procedures, application and intakes
for new students as well as the significant public relations that are on-going at
the University of Hartford. Administrative oversight in this program is necessary
on a daily basis.
The above requests align with the district’s priority of ensuring that every classroom
has a highly effective teacher instructing our students ~ inclusive of our most
challenged learners.
Priority Two~ Staffing Adjustments
 Assistive Technology Consulting Teacher
.5 FTE
We have seen a significant decline in the department’s ability to respond to assistive technology
needs when following a reduction in the Assistive Technology Consulting teacher’s role. A
current due process case is a direct result of this decrease in services. Increasing access to this
critical support is essential to ensuring that students with disabilities have access to and are able
to utilize these specialized supports.
 Preschool Special Education Teacher
.4 FTE
 Two full time preschool paraprofessionals
1.98 FTE
Support increase of offerings for full-day programming
Department of Special Services
Budget Presentation 2013 ~ 2014
Priority Three
Improved Teaching in the Highest Tiers of Intervention
Secondary Special Education Supports
Simsbury High School
 Continuation of Job Coaching/ CREC
 Professional Development SHS Co-Teaching Training
 Strategies Training/ CRISS
 CEC Transition Software training
(IDEA funded)
Elementary Schools
 Universal Design – Harvard University summer 2013
 Prompt Training (Speech pathologists working with RSG
students)
(IDEA funded)
 Orton-Gillingham Reading methodology (IDEA funded)
$5,000
$2,000
$2,000
$3,000
$5,000
$3,000
$3,000