Special ed policy change up for approval

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

An early start to Thursday night’s meeting of the Benicia Unified School District’s Board of Trustees presages a light agenda and short meeting.

Trustees will meet at 5 p.m. for closed session, with the open session following at 6 p.m. The reason? Trustees plan to attend open house events at the district’s four elementary schools.

One item up for approval is the district’s special education policy. The portion up for approval is a revised section that addresses Independent Educational Evaluations, or outside evaluations.

A parent of a special education student may request to have such an evaluation in any area that has already been assessed by the district, Linda Cole, special services director, wrote in a report to the board.

But while the new assessment may be taken into consideration by the Individualized Education Plan team, it does not override the team’s decision, Cole wrote.

“The only significant changes from the old policy are mandated and provide more detail on the limits for such assessment,” Cole wrote. “We have about three requests for such assessment each year, and not all of those actually result in such assessment.”

Superintendent of Benicia Schools Janice Adams said the policy changes were mandated by the Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) to which Benicia belongs. SELPAs are “consortiums in geographical regions of sufficient size and scope to provide for all special education service needs of children residing within the region boundaries,” according to information from the California Department of Education.

“This is not a district thing. SELPA is the way districts are organized into groups. This is a SELPA plan that is something that they’ve asked each of the districts in the SELPA to bring forward to their boards,” Superintendent of Benicia Schools Janice Adams said Wednesday.

In other matters, Assistant Superintendent Michael Gardner will request consideration and approval of the district’s “declaration of need” for fully qualified educators for the 2012-13 school year.

“Each year prior to June 30, public school districts must file with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing a declaration of need for fully qualified educators,” Gardner wrote.

The declaration provides the district’s best current estimate for the number of emergency teaching permits and limited assignment permits it will need to appropriately staff its schools, he wrote.

The emergency permits are for use “in case we cannot find a highly qualified teacher. It does not apply to any of our teachers currently. We haven’t used these in several years, but it allows us to in case we end up without a teacher that is highly qualified,” Adams said. “All of our teachers are highly qualified.”

Added Gardner in his report: “The signed, board-approved declaration must be on file with the CCTC in advance in order for any emergency permits to be issued to certificated employees on the district’s behalf.”

If You Go
The meeting of the Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees will take place one hour earlier than usual, with the closed session beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday and the open session starting at 6. The meeting will take place at the district building, 350 East K St.

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