Special Education

State Support Team 3 (SST3) supports school districts to:

Improve the academic achievement of students with disabilities and those who are at risk of being identified as eligible for special education;
Meet the state and federal requirements for educating students with disabilities; and
Participate in the self-review process for the Department of Education and Workforce, Office for Exceptional Children’s special education on-site reviews.

SST3 also provides resources to assist families of students with disabilities to actively engage in their child’s education. Collaboration among agencies that support students with disabilities and their families is facilitated by SST3.

Special Education Profiles and Ratings

Each year the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) Office for Exceptional Children (OEC) releases Special Education Profile data and Special Education Ratings for each Ohio public school district. The DEW annually:

Develops a Special Education Profile for each district, displaying the district's performance on the indicators included in Ohio’s Annual Performance Report.
Reports to the public on the performance of each district's special education program. This annual report includes the state’s targets for each indicator and each district’s performance compared to those targets.

As an SST, it is part of our role to support districts with required actions as a result of not meeting the set targets for the special education indicators. SST3 has developed a website that contains resources and on-demand webinars for each indicator that may require an action.
These indicators include:

Indicator 1 - Graduation
Indicator 2 - Dropout
Indicator 3 - Alternate Assessment
Indicator 4 - Suspension/Expulsion
Indicator 8 - Facilitated Parent Involvement
Indicators 9 and 10 - Disproportionality (Identification, Placement, Discipline)
Indicator 11 - Timely completion of ETRs
Indicator 12 - Early Childhood Transition
Indicator 13 - Secondary Transition
Indicator 14 - Post School Outcomes

If you have any questions, please contact SST3 consultant Elizabeth Bondi at elizabeth.bondi@escneo.org or 216-446-3810.

Best Practices for IEP and ETR

SST3 has created a web-based resource to support schools and districts in using best practices for IEPs, ETRs, and systemic improvement related to special education. This website contains five sections that address common special education needs. Each section breaks down those needs into “mini modules” that districts can use with their staff based on their own data.

SST3 also offers a three-day series, IEP/ETR Best Practices, using these resources. See our Professional Development Calendar for more information.

AASCD Overview Zoom Webinar/Video

Ohio’s Alternate Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (AASCD) is aligned to Ohio’s Learning Standards–Extended (OLS-E) and designed to allow students with significant cognitive disabilities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in an appropriately rigorous assessment. The AASCD will be administered by grade level. Students in grades 3, 4, 6, and 7 will be assessed in English language arts and mathematics. Students in grades 5 and 8 will be assessed in English language arts, mathematics, and science. Students taking the HS-AASCD will be assessed in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.
To guide and support individualized education program (IEP) teams in determining whether a student is most appropriately assessed with an alternate assessment, the DEW, in consultation with parents, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders, has developed a new Alternate Assessment Participation Decision-Making Tool.
This narrated Powerpoint presentation is provided to give teams an overview of the new Alternate Assessment Participation Decision-Making Tool and emphasizes the importance of the IEP team’s review of the data in making the decision regarding whether or not a student would participate in the Alternate Assessment.