Prior to the conclusion of OCR’s investigation, the Schenectady City School District (District) agreed to resolve the issues in this compliance review concerning the referral and pre-referral of black and Latino students for special education evaluation. The District agreed to retain an expert to examine the root causes of the overrepresentation of black and Latino students in special education in the district and make recommendations; develop and implement a plan to expand the district’s universal screening process; provide training on screening methods and intervention processes and strategies; ensure that each school implements a systematic, team-based means of providing intervention strategies in the regular education classroom for students experiencing academic or behavior difficulties; develop written policies and procedures that include the extent to which informal classroom interventions should be attempted prior to referral to the building-level teams, circumstances for referring students to the teams, and oversight to ensure consistency in each school; determine whether eligibility and placement decisions for current students were appropriate; if not, take corrective action, including providing compensatory and/or remedial services to address deficits resulting from the improper placement; utilize tests and other evaluation materials, as appropriate, in the dominant language of English language learner students who have, or are suspected of having, disabilities; and annually evaluate the effectiveness of screening, intervention, evaluation, and placement processes, specifically looking at data related to the provision of team-prescribed interventions and teacher referrals of students to the building-level team.

Press Release | Read the Resolution Letter MS WORD (145K) PDF (96K) | Read the Resolution Agreement MS WORD (91K) PDF (70K)