Belmont Public School Tiered Focused Monitoring Summary

Belmont MA

27 May, 2022

2:59 AM

Description

Press release from Belmont Public Schools: May 26, 2022 Dear Belmont Public Schools Families and Staff - "Every public school district, charter school, vocational school, and virtual school in Massachusetts is reviewed regularly by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Office of Public School Monitoring. As explained on their website, their vision is "Equitable outcomes for all students," and their mission states that they "serve students by conducting data analyses and reviews of special education and civil rights policies, procedures, and practices in order to support district efforts to build equitable and inclusive educational systems that meet the diverse needs of all students." They review district policies, procedures, and practices for compliance with regulations in the areas of special education and civil rights. Standards related to each of these areas are divided into two groups (A and B), and monitoring occurs every three years alternating between the two groups of standards. Group A standards focus more on Special Education while Group B standards focus more on Civil Rights. 2021-22 was a monitoring year for the Belmont Public Schools for standards in Group B. In preparation for this year's review, the district submitted a self-assessment to DESE in May 2021, and DESE reviewed the submitted documents and conducted an onsite visit January 24-25, 2022. We received the district Tiered Focused Monitoring Report on May 12, 2022. All of the 15 standards related to Special Education and 17 of the 18 Civil Rights standards were rated "implemented." One Civil Rights standard (10c) was rated "partially implemented." Standard 10C has many components related to student discipline. The part that needs to be implemented is the educational services plan for students who are expelled or suspended from school for more than 10 days. The plan to rectify includes adding the educational services plan to the student handbook and training administrators and guidance counselors to ensure proper implementation. This Continuous Improvement and Monitoring Plan (p. 9, TFM Report) has been approved by DESE and will be implemented in full by September 12, 2022." Kind regards, Janice Darias Assistant Superintendent Belmont Public Schools (617) 993-5410 This press release was produced by Belmont Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author's own.