SPED%20Report.pdf

Parent document: Board Meeting-09-23-2024.pdf

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As we finish up with the first few weeks of school the Kalama PreK-12 special education team has been
in full swing with initiating services for all of our students with disabilities. Our speech/OT/PT services are
fully operational, intervention groups are established and running, as well as all the other programming
responsibilities. This year our district saw an influx of either new to and/or returning students on IEP’s to
our district. Our team has been working through the appropriate processes in order to integrate them into
our Kalama student population despite some computer program issues we are having with OSPI and the
CEDARS program. As of Friday the 13th, the computer issues have been resolved and with that the
transfer processes have either been completed or well on their way for all new to district students. At
present, we have a total of 194 students on IEP’s in our district. We are up a few students when you take
into consideration the transfers in as opposed to the transfers out.

On a very positive note, we have recently hired a number of paraprofessionals. Additionally, | was able to
add a position to support our elementary resource room teachers. Currently, we have a total of 4 open
positions in the district, 1 at the MS/HS and 3 at the elementary school. All positions will support our Life
Skills programs, with 1 of them being a new position to support a newly enrolled kindergarten student
who needs significant support in order to navigate the school day. Though having 4 open positions is till a
challenge, that number is down significantly from where we were a month ago. Our team will continue
efforts to fill those positions with qualified people.

I’d like to highlight the efforts of our paraeducators working directly with our students. As we all know,
their jobs are extremely challenging. This is particularly true at the start of each school year. Anew
school year always brings with it both known and unknown challenges that require flexibility, problem
solving, and true dedication to overcoming hardships and challenges. Overall, our teams are doing an
admirable job.

I’d also like to highlight our 2 new teachers (Kati Perrin-PreK, and Casely Fulfs K-5) in their efforts to
integrate into the Kalama school community. Both of them have hit the ground running and doing an
excellent job in all areas.

Our focus going forward will be in a number of areas. These include continuing to build team cohesion,
refining processes to help communication between general education and special education staff,
working through new special education referrals, and making sure our services are meeting the unique
learning challenges of each student in our program.

Overall, it is an exciting time to witness growth areas of our students as they come back from summer.
Though there continue to be many challenges, there is much to celebrate both individually and as a
whole.