I am trying to get the elementary school to send someone to my son’s private school for any extra help he may need. I am in Massachusetts and rec’d an article from the Board of Ed on proportionate share. The proportionate share (PSHARE) for a public school district is calculated as follows:
(# of eligible private school students) % (# of ALL eligible students (public & private)) = __% X ($federal entitlement) = PSHARE
Basically a certain percentage of federal money has too be set aside.
My quesiton is how do I find out how many children in public are on IEP’s and how many in private??
Thanks K.
Re: SELPA
Wow, thank you!! I really had no idea where to start but this helps a ton!!
Thanks again!
K.
Re: How many kids?
CA has SELPA’s. I don’t know what MA may term the local administrative sped. branch. Some states have “intermediate units.” Terms as well as administrative organization varies from state to state.
I did some digging a number of years back in our district. It took me digging on my own, and also enlisting the assistance of a worker for my local Assemblyman to dig separately from me. I wanted to see if I would be given the same information.
SELPA stands for Special Education Local Plan Area, and I believe all districts have a chapter of sorts. The irony of SELPA is that it is supposed to be the bridge between parents and districts. The actual “plan” is what should be the detailed account of the local rules and regulations. SELPA is made up of school administrators and school board wanna be’s (for lack of a better term), and then of course, a couple of outspoken parents who are valiantly trying to watchdog what is going on. We were not very impressed with ours, my wife went to a few meetings with her sister & brother-in-law.
SELPA should have a book of record as to how many children are identified in each area designated for qualification of services (LD, SED, SDC etc…). Also, there should be some record of how many children are being served by the district and how many children are being funded to attend non-public schools. The non-public schools that are available should be listed, and the number of children attending will be identified. There will be no way to identify any specific child, only numbers of how many, etc…
There must be an accounting of all this, because without knowing how many children have IEPs, there is no way to generate the extra funding dollars that the district should receive for each child with an IEP.
Actually, since the info is a public record, you should technically not have difficulty locating it, as long as you ask the right parties. If it becomes an issue, or people seem to be getting evasive or difficult, go to your local representative, and ask one of the aides there to try and get the info for “thier boss” (who is you, the voter), and have them get you a copy, along with telling “their boss” what they had to go thru to get the information, that… should be readily available and of public record. (you get the picture).
Hope this helps.
Happy hunting.
Andy