As Savannah-Chatham schools close out 2023-24, board meetings look ahead

Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) Superintendent Denise Watts attend her first May Day celebration for the district this past week. The event is a long-standing tradition that symbolically and unofficially marks the final days of each school year.

As the 2023-24 school year winds down, Watts and her fellow district leaders as well as the SCCPSS school board also continued their future-focused work with May's Financial Advisory Committee meeting, the second public hearing on the 2024-25 school year budget and the board’s Capital Improvement Committee meeting.

One major topic that came up in multiple SCCPSS settings this week was special education needs. Here's what to know.

Financial Advisory meeting details special ed funding woes

Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Bernadette Ball-Oliver's led the district's financial advisory meeting presentation that covered topics from school counselors to federal grants for compensatory programs such as Title I, Part A, and Homeless/McKinney Vento. The full presentation is viewable via the SCCPSS Communications livestream of the meeting at through the district's Board Docs webpage.

Part of that presentation included an update shared by Director of Specialized Instruction Vanessa Keener included a closer look at the district's special education grants and enrollment. Students aged 3-21 who are enrolled in SCCPSS special education programs is 5198 or 14.6% of the roughly 35,543 SCCPSS student population. 858 of those students are between the ages of 3 and 5. Students who identified their ethnic group as Black make up the highest amount of special needs students within ethnic groups at 3079 or 59% of all special needs enrolled students.

Keener pointed out that state funding allocations for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants were based off of the amount that a local education agency (SCCPSS) would have received for fiscal year 1999 if the agency's state (Georgia) had distributed 75% of the grant for that year. District 6 Board Representative David Bringman, who often points out discrepancies between stat and federal mandates as opposed to their willingness to fund such mandates, asked Keener about the calculation. She said while IDEA requirements to provide free appropriate public education, or FAPE, is not technically an unfunded mandate, the state's allocation only equates to about 14% of the district's cost.

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Parent airs special ed concerns at 2nd public budget hearing

While the district's second public hearing on the upcoming 2024-25 school year budget once again saw low turnout from the public, one speaker chose to use that time to address special needs concerns she had as a parent of two students with Individualized Education Programs (IEP). Crystal DeVoss Mahany identified herself as a "21-year-plus military spouse" whose family had moved to Savannah two years ago. Due to her husband's military service, her family has lived in four states and attended five school districts since having their two sons, now aged 10 and 12.

She detailed an experience where one of her sons went unevaluated for his IEP "more than one calendar year from my initial request for reevaluation." She stressed that military families are disproportionally affected by situations like her family's. When her son transitioned to middle school, she said she "once again reinstated my request to be evaluated, the only reason the district responded to my request this time was because I involved the Georgia Military Department of Education representative." She called on the district leaders and board members to improve the special education evaluation process, especially for military families.

Deputy Superintendent of Strategy, Innovation, and Performance Staci Taylor immediately spoke with Mahany after the budget hearing wrapped a few minutes later.

The presentation on special needs funding and enrollment as well as Mahany's comments come after the school approved the consent agenda for the May Regular Meeting. The consent agenda included line item "7.34 Special Education Settlement: Due Process Complaint Docket No. 2328740," which was regarding a special education settlement in the amount of $562,500. The terms of the settlement are confidential because, as the agenda item document notes, "the settlement involves a special needs student and the implementation of his special needsservices."

The Savannah Morning News has requested additional information about the settlement, but has not yet received an official response from the district.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah school board meetings assess special ed and counseling needs