Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/tag/special-education/page/3/)
The Federation for Children with Special Needs is hosting an event called Basic Rights in Special Education on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.
The event provides a basic understanding of the complex special education laws and procedures. It will be held at Wellington Elementary School, 121 Orchard St., in Belmont. It is open to all.
Watertown SEPAC invites the public to a meeting with the project director of the MassPAC, a project Federation for Children with Special Needs. Leslie M. Leslie joined the MassPAC project at the Federation for Children with Special Needs in February of 2011 – a role which includes providing technical assistance to Special Education Parent Advisory Council leaders, coordinating Leadership Institutes, monitoring the statewide MassPAC Listserve, maintaining the membership database and MassPAC website and writing educational materials. The Federation for Children with Special Needs is a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) organization that advocates for quality education, parent participation, and access to quality health care services for all children, especially those with disabilities. Leslie is the mother of two young adult sons, both of whom face learning challenges. Leslie holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science from Tufts University and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.
The Watertown Special Education Parents Advisory Council will host a workshop about basic rights in special education, the group announced. The basic rights workshop provides families with an introduction to the rights and responsibilities under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Massachusetts Special Education Law. The workshop is designed to help parents learn to be effective partners with their child’s school to decide their child’s eligibility for special education and to plan, make decisions and monitor their child’s progress in school. The meeting is free and open to the public. Child care will be provided.
The budget presented to the Watertown School Committee Monday night calls for adding more than 20 new positions, including staff to start teaching foreign language at the elementary schools, but it did not have any funds to reduce class sizes in the elementary schools. The total request for Fiscal Year 2017 to the Town Manager and Town Council is $44.149 million, an increase of $2.69 million over the Fiscal 2016 request (the current school year). That is a 6.51 percent increase. The Foreign Language in the Elementary School, or FLES, program is one of the biggest additions. Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald said the district would hire three teachers to begin teaching kindergartners a foreign language (likely Spanish).
A consultant hired to review the financial mishaps of the Watertown Public Schools from a couple years ago presented recommendations to improve financial practices and also looked deeply at the special education program – a high cost area for the district. Monday night, the School Committee and Town Council received the report from RSM US. The group interviewed more than 50 people and spent months working on the report, said Craig Finley, the project lead. While there are nearly 30 recommendations (see the report here) to improve what’s being done in the Watertown schools, Finley said in general they are in good shape. “The biggest thing we foundation here is strong support of the schools,” said Finley, who worked in public schools, including as an assistant superintendent in the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District.
The Watertown Public Schools announced the accreditation visit of Watertown High School beginning Sunday, March 13, as well as the timeline for appointing a new Director of Special Education. The Watertown Public Schools sent out the following announcements:
Accreditation Visit of Watertown High School
Sixteen educators will conduct an on-site accreditation visit of Watertown High School from March 13-16. The accreditation visit will be conducted under the direction of the Committee on Public Secondary Schools of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). The purpose of this accreditation visit is to review and determine from an outside professional viewpoint the extent to which the school is meeting NEASC’s Standards for Accreditation. As part of the evaluation, the visiting committee will:
Attend a welcome presentation intended to provide an overview of Watertown and Watertown High School, presented by teachers and students
Meet with school committee members
Meet with parents
Meet with teachers
Meet with students
Meet with administrators and curriculum coordinators
Shadow students during the school day
Review samples of student work
Visit classes
Review the school’s self-study
The members of the visiting committee are teachers and administrators from a variety of schools throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
State representatives and senators from around Massachusetts got a closeup look at what goes on at Perkins School for the Blind this week on Legislator’s Day.
The Watertown-based school and Massachusetts Association of 766 Approved Private Schools (MAAPS) invited elected officials with students who attend the school to visit campus on Tuesday. Among those who attended were Watertown’s state representatives – John Lawn and Jonathan Hecht – as well as Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo. They got to meet students and visit classrooms to see what Perkins students are learning. Perkins School for the Blind does not just teach students the academic subjects, Power said, they also teach students how to live independently after they leave Perkins. “Every class session includes social skills, self-determination and assisted technology,” Power said.
Watertown SEPAC (Special Education Parents Advisory Council) will host a clinical psychologist and a therapist who works with children with developmental and medical differences at the next meeting. The meeting will be held Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. at the Cunniff School Library, 246 Warren St. in Watertown. The meeting is free and open to the public.