State reviews Richfield's special education program
By Seth Rowe, Sun Current (Richfield), Sun Newspapers
(Created 8/5/2004 3:40:42 PM)

A state agency has finished reviewing Richfield Public Schools' special education program, giving it passing marks in nine of 14 areas.

The district performed well enough to be considered in good standing, according to Richfield Special Education Director Linda Gault. As a result, the next monitoring visit by the Minnesota Department of Education will not be for another four years, Gault reported at a recent Board of Education meeting.

The district hasn't had a traditional monitoring since 1996. Since that time, Richfield has qualified for the Minnesota Continuous Improvement Process: Self-Review process.

The Richfield school district submitted an implementation and improvement plan to the education department in 2003, which the department approved. Last May, the department visited the district in order to conduct a validation review.

The areas in which the district was deemed to be in non-compliance must be addressed and the district must file a progress report in June 2005.

The district was found to be not in compliance in the following areas:

• non-discriminatory evaluation practices;

• the amount of explanation given about the extent that students did not participate with learners without disabilities in general education classes, extra-curricular and non-academic activities;

• recording the location, frequency, amount, timelines and modifications or adaptations of special education-related services to students;

• progress reporting; and

• facility standards.

The review listed numerous problems with facilities. They included a lack of walls for four classrooms, the location of bathrooms, noise levels, the lack of air conditioning in most special education classrooms in the Richfield Intermediate School while regular education classrooms are air conditioned and the location of a computer for classroom use in a hallway. The report did note that several classrooms in the high school were moved this year to increase accessibility for special education students.

The district's 2003 self-review concurred that some facility issues needed to be addressed. In other areas, however, the district's self-review findings differed from the verification review finding.

The district reported itself to be "in-compliance" in the areas of non-discriminatory evaluation practices and in the areas of explaining participation with non-disabled students. The validation review found those areas to be "not in compliance."

There were other areas in which the state department found the school district to be performing better than the district had reported in 2003. The department changed the district's status from the self-reported "non-compliance" to "in compliance" in the areas of frequency of re-evaluations and district team membership in a certain program. Also, the district had reported a high need in personnel development standards, but the Minnesota Department of Education found that to be a strength of the district during the validation review. The department listed two pages of actions the district had taken to improve personnel development.

Gault wrote in her report to the school board, "Most issues related to compliance will be addressed by providing written clarification, in-service, internal monitoring and feedback to staff."

Gault said the facility issues would be addressed by the district's 2004-2005 comprehensive facilities study.