Special Education Program Offers a Wide Variety of Programming to Scarsdale Students

Under the direction of Assistant Superintendent Eric Rauschenbach Scarsdale’s Special Education Program has grown dramatically in the past seven years. Since that time, the number of special education students has increased by 127, bringing the total to 564 or 12% of the district’s population. Not only has the total number of students grown, but the count of these students who are served in district, rather than placed in outside schools at the district’s expense. For the 2021-22 school year, 93.5% of special needs students are served within our schools in a variety of classroom types and programs. The number of students who are placed out has fallen from 50 in 2014 -2015 to 35 this year.

Staffing for special education and emotional health is expected to continue to grow in the 2022-23 school year with plans to add school psychologists, social workers, special needs teachers and support staff for an estimated total of $810,000. At the Board of Education meeting on Monday January 24, 2022 Rauschenbach and his team explained what is currently being offered and how the program will be enhanced next year.

The district now hosts 18 integrated co-teaching classes, (ICT) that comprise a mixture of special education students and general students along with two teachers. This count has risen from just six ICT classes in 2014-15.

An ICT classroom has no more than 12 special needs students or 40% in a class and allows for more students with disabilities to be educated in district. The district has found that this model improves outcomes and assessments for those with disabilities, while promoting understanding of disabilities and acceptance from the general population. The special needs students benefit from individualized attention and specially designed instruction. The two teachers co-plan and co-teach all lessons.

In terms of their distribution across the district, here is where the classes are held:

Kindergarten – 3 sections at Greenacres
First Grade – 4 sections at Quaker Ridge
Second Grade – 3 sections at Heathcote
Third Grade – 3 sections at Quaker Ridge
Fourth Grade – 2 sections at Edgewood
Fifth Grade – 3 sections at Quaker Ridge

In addition to the ICT classrooms, at the elementary level there are now two special class sections, a Bridge Program at  Quaker Ridge and an Intensive Support Program at Edgewood, called 8:1:2 which includes a maximum of eight students one teacher and two aides. The Bridge Program at Quaker Ridge focuses on academics as well as adaptive school and living skills.

At the middle school level there are a range of support systems for students with special needs.

At the Learning Resource Center students are taught how to focus and organize their work, time management, strategies and skills for breaking down information and approaching assignments and meeting challenges. The center fosters a sense of support and increases student confidence.

The Parallel and Push-In Program allows students with special need to attend general education classes in science and social studies with the support of a special education teachers who “push into” these classrooms. These students receive math and English instruction in Parallel classes with a maximum of 12 students to one instructor. A separate testing center is provided to allow special needs students to take exams in a “warm, stress-free environment.”

These support programs extend into the high school, where the Learning Resource Center provides support to students of all grades, with the older students becoming unofficial mentors to the younger ones. The center teaches students strategies and skills to move forward, and transition from “I Can’t” to “How Can I?”

Team teaching is used to integrate general students and special needs students in classrooms and both teachers and students benefit from the collaboration.

For those who require therapeutic intervention, the district offers the Scarsdale Support Program at the high school, which provides:

-Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
-Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
-Traditional “talk” counseling

This allows the district to educate these students rather than placing them outside. It helps students with social/emotional issues so that they can succeed in school, helping them to perceive situations and deal with difficulties. The program has been instrumental in helping students graduate and gain admission to top colleges around the country.

Next year the district plans to launch a similar support program at Scarsdale Middle School which will be staffed with an additional school psychologist, a full time teacher and an aide.

Learn more about what Scarsdale has to offer here: 

We followed up with a few questions for Eric Rauschenbach, Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Student Services and here is what we learned:

Question:

For the proposed Scarsdale Support Program to be launched at SMS, how many students would that serve - and how much would it cost the district for out placement of those students?

Answer:

As a rule of thumb an outside placement costs between 60 and 75 thousand dollars annually. The program proposed would serve a max of 15 students. For implementation next year we expect to bring back some students in outside placements although at this moment I can't give you a solid number but it should be between 2-4 students. In addition to those coming back, we have a group of MS students that would benefit greatly from increased support

Question: 

For the two proposed social workers to be added at SMS and SHS, how do these positions differ from the work of SFCS counselors? Why do we need full time social workers in district at this time? Can SFCS expand their service to meet the need? If so, how would those costs compare to hiring two full time staffers?

Answer: 

The Youth Services Project was developed originally as a suicide prevention project which has expanded to prevention of at-risk behaviors. The main focus of those counselors should be outreach and ad-hoc counseling for students that are not classified under CSE/504. Given the rise in students needing more regular counseling and the rise in mandated counseling, the SFCS counselors have had to start doing more traditional school counseling roles leaving less time for outreach and prevention. An on-staff social worker whose focus would be on our identified students would also be a benefit to families as their training is more family systems based and they would bring a particular point of view to our counseling team. I would also encourage you to take a look at the rational sheets from the 1/10 BOE meeting attached to the presentation of staffing as they have more detail from the school teams.