To: Michael GreenFrom: Deb KernenRe: New Special Ed Contract with Evergreen SDDate: October 24, 2011
We transferred in a new eighth grade life skills student this year from Phoenix that has a severe intellectual disability, ADHD and Autism. Upon his registration and records review I recommended we hire an additional IA staff member for this student. He was in a very specialized program in Phoenix with a 1:1 support. The autism specialist reported this student was the most severe student they had been serving in their district. Since the beginning of the school year we have trying to create a program and to adjust/respond to the many severe behavior issues this student demonstrates. It has become clear that our life skills program cannot meet the severity of the behaviors and safety issues he poses. He is impacting the learning of many other students, not just in life skills but throughout the buildings and endangering staff. Last year Evergreen began a program designed to meet the needs of severely cognitive disabled students that specializes with students with similar behavior challenges. They have just opened it up for other districts to apply to. This is a very different program from Fir Grove as it is designed for students with low cognitive functioning and severe behavior issues.
This will be another student that we will submit for safety net funding to help offset the costs. I recommend we accept the contract for these services as they offer an important placement option for this student as we don't have the capacity to serve him properly in our district.