SPS Proportionate Share Meeting - February 3, 2015

Dear Private School Administrators and Government Programs Coordinators within Seattle Public School Boundaries,

Good afternoon! I would like to extend an invitation to the next Proportionate Share meeting, which will be held on Tuesday, February 3rd from 10:00-12:00 in Room 2010 at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence. We have a full agenda, including updates on current service providers and newly identified agencies, initial Proportionate Share discussion for 2015 -16, clarification on the roles of the schools/agencies/District and a question and answer session.

As you may know, our Request for Proposal (RFP), developed to identify private agencies willing/able to support our work with private school students on Service Plans, is now complete. Our contract allows for an option to renew our agreement with each agency for up to two additional years, so this isn’t a process we will need to repeat each year. We identified a total of five agencies able to meet our requirements in serving students in the areas of reading, writing, math and social skills. Although these agencies will be presented at the meeting on February 3rd, the following is an overview of the selected agencies and services available through each:

Brightmont – academics (mainly intermediate and secondary students); services will be offered on-site at their campus near Northgate. At this point, they are willing to consider serving students at their private schools only if the school can identify a three hour block of time in which the Brightmont teachers are able to serve all of the Service Plan students. Please let me know if you are interested in that option. This option may be appealing to schools with several students on Service Plans, as it would reduce the number of teachers in and out of the school, as well as provide a consistent block of time in which students are receiving services. This may allow for easier school-wide planning. Contract is projected to be finalized by 1/26/15.

Spring Academy – academics (all grade levels); in order to maximize their service provision time, they are hoping to schedule specific days and times for each school with whom they work. They will propose a couple of service times for parents/schools to consider. Contract is finalized.

Hamlin Robinson – academics and social skills (all grade levels); Hamlin has historically provided services mainly to their own students, and mostly on their campus when working with students from other private schools. Now that the RFP is finalized, they plan to hire more providers, thus increasing their ability to provide services at the private school site. Contract is finalized.

Yellow Wood Academy – academics and social skills (all grade levels); YWA had a temporary contract with us during the RFP process, so they currently serve more than half of our students. For that reason, we are not going to be adding students to their caseload unless there are no other options. Contract is finalized.

Ryther – Aspiring Youth – social skills (8 years +); Ben Wahl runs this social skills program based in Northeast Seattle. He has several groups in existence that he would like to open up to Service Plan students, including Rock Climbing, Teen Crew, Video Production, Building and Inventing, Explorers, Girls Rule!, etc. These groups focus on social skills development while engaging students in highly motivating activities. Parents would have to transport their child to these sessions, though many groups are offered in the evenings and on weekends. Aspiring Youth indicated a willingness to develop additional groups across the District if the need arises, and if there is a natural grouping of students in a similar geographic area. If parents are not interested in this option, Aspiring Youth has providers who can provide one-on-one direct instruction on social skills at the private school. This is not ideal, but is an option. Contract was finalized on1/21/15.

Please do not contact any of these agencies directly. The request for student services must come from the District. Once we contact an agency, they will work with parents to determine a schedule that will work for all parties involved. If a schedule cannot be agreed upon, the agency will contact us and we will send the request to an alternate agency. If a parent/school is unable to accommodate suggested times from any agency, the student will be placed on a wait-list at the District level and the parent will be contacted if/when new options arise. They also have the option of taking their child to the agency campus for services. If they are interested in switching social skill providers, they should contact Stephanie Rincon at skrincon@seattleschools.org or 206-252-0860. They may also contact Ben Wahl, Aspiring Youth Director, to find out more about the program. Ben can be reached at BenW@Ryther.org.

We have also identified an agency who is able to provide speech, OT and Social Skills providers as necessary. Frameworks is located in Kirkland and is willing to provide services at the private school sites. If there is not a common time that works for the student and agency, parents are also welcome to take the student to their facility. We have successfully identified one SLP, Karen McPhee, who is serving private school students and is currently working in this capacity 2 ½ days a week. Please note –the speech service schedule will likely remain fluid this year and may have to be adjusted at times throughout the year, unless we are able to identify additional providers to accommodate the number of incoming speech requests. We understand that any schedule change is disruptive, and will make every effort to maintain as many schedules as possible if/when service times need to change. If the student is unable to receive services during the offered time(s), the student will be placed on a waitlist until a new SLP is identified. We have not yet identified a PT to serve our students but I believe it will be easier to do so as our numbers increase. Although we have no contracted providers for these students, if any parents are willing to bring their child to a public school before or after school hours, that may open up options with our own District PT providers.

I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you all so much for the incredible patience you have exhibited throughout this process. As you know, we have been working to build a program from the ground up, which has proven to be quite challenging! The communication and reassurance you have been offering to parents, as well as the support and understanding offered to me personally, has been invaluable and is greatly appreciated. As you are aware, the Program Specialist position has been vacant since mid-November, which has added a new level of complexity to my job. The support and understanding from each of you has been wonderful. Please continue to let families know that we are moving forward and making progress each day (although I know it doesn’t always feel that way). This year has offered many opportunities for growth and has definitely been a year of building. I remain optimistic that the new procedures we have in place for next year will allow us to provide services in a much more efficient and organized manner for the 2015-16 school year. One of the primary changes is that we will hold our determination meeting(s) in the spring to discuss services for the following school year. Having that information ahead of time will allow us to prepare contracts, schedules and Service Plans prior to September.

Last, but certainly not least…
As many of you know, Barb de Normandie, former Private School Program Specialist, has returned to the teaching position she left last spring at Ballard High School. I am very pleased to announce that we have hired Stephanie Rincon as our new Program Specialist. Stephanie is the former Learning Resource Teacher, and informal Special Education IEP/Service Plan Coordinator, at Christ the King in North Seattle. Prior to holding that title, she enjoyed teaching 2nd grade in a general education classroom and even taught abroad in Japan for a year. Stephanie’s diverse teaching background, coupled with the fact that she is also the mother of two children (one of whom attends public school), enables her to bring a combination of personal, professional and practical knowledge to the table. I have enjoyed working with Stephanie in her role at Christ the King for the past seven years and am looking forward to working together in this capacity. Stephanie will be your main contact regarding student-specific issues or questions, while I remain the point person for programmatic, contractual and
provider issues or questions. Stephanie can be reached at skrincon@seattleschools.org or 206-252-0860.

Robin Olney
Private School Supervisor
Special Education Services
Seattle Public Schools
reolney@seattleschools.org
Tel - 206.252.0870
Fax - 206.252.0804