Lake County Gazette

The Diamond Lake District 76 Board of Education met on May 16 and heard a presentation from Director of Student Services Kelly Olsen about special education in the district.

Olsen was joined by special education teachers Patricia Rudd of West Oak Middle School, Laura Rogers of West Oak Intermediate School and Katelyn Cairns of Diamond Lake School. Olsen said the department has been making sure that they have a structured data collection program with curriculum-based measures. She spoke of two pilot programs to find which works best.

Olsen also noted that the district has had more dedicated time with the behavioral consultant who spends time with students and teachers when there are behavioral issues. She added that the district has the full implementation of a screener who alerts staff to potential and social emotional needs of students, and that has been highly beneficial.

“It also helped us identify that we needed to have a Tier 3 SEL curriculum called Centervention, and we were able to implement that this year to really hone in for those areas of need for instruction for those Tier 3 students,” Olsen said in the meeting.

The district currently has 154 students who have IEPs. There are 141 in the school buildings and another 13 have been placed in other facilities. That is less than the recommended maximum ratio of 10% outplaced students, which the district was pleased with. Olsen also noted that they have noticed some higher needs in younger students with regard to developmental issues since the pandemic hit.

The district has seen 90% of students grow in academics this year, according to curriculum-based measures. On the behavioral side, there have been increases in issues since the pandemic. The district is making plans and reports for behavioral problems to better address the impact and hopefully see growth based on the “new normal.” This year the district has 14 students with Behavioral Improvement Plans, and they have seen all of their students improve behaviorally.

The district is working on increased inclusion in classes, merging some of the general education and special education classrooms in preschool and various middle school classrooms. They are also increasing interaction between all students in general. The district has co-taught classrooms, which involves a general education teacher and a special education teacher, to help students get the adjustments needed in any category.

Olsen noted that moving forward they want to look at the next steps for the future, commenting also that there is a focus on trauma-based practices.

“A lot of our students are coming back to us with a lot of trauma that we need to take into consideration and make sure that we are trained and ready to go ahead and address those needs and have the right educational tools in our toolbox to do so,” she said. “We're going to continue on with our inclusion in making adaptations to our continuum of services to make sure it's meeting the needs of our students by really continuing with co-teaching—increasing our time in the general education environment too if we're not co-teaching—but being an inclusionary teacher and then we're going to add a self-contained class actually at West Oak Intermediate based on the needs of the students and continue on with our one at Diamond Lake.”