Valparaiso Community Schools is already seeing success with its special education restructuring. Currently, special ed teachers are employed by the Porter County Education Services cooperative. Starting this fall, they'll be employed directly by the school districts where they work.
At Valpo, all but two of the special ed teaching positions were already filled, as of last week, and Director of Social Emotional Learning Dr. Erin Hawkins said many of those had multiple applicants. "We've even had a general education teacher express interest in moving into a special education role, and so, we're feeling really good — really good about that," Hawkins told the school board last week.
That's a change from the previous system, where PCES often experienced staffing challenges. Its special ed teachers earned less on average than the general education teachers in its member school corporations. Hawkins told the school board last week that the school corporation is working to make sure the newly-hired teachers' needs are met as part of the on-boarding process.
Meanwhile, nine Valparaiso High School 12th graders with significant cognitive disabilities — who until now would've only gotten a certificate of completion — will now graduate with an alternate diploma. Hawkins said it's a significant way to acknowledge those students' hard work.
"They have earned the . . . credit requirements. They have completed the transition goals related to employability, the post-secondary readiness, the alternative assessment that they're required to take," Hawkins said. "And so we are really excited for them."
The State Board of Education approved the alternate diploma in January, after years of discussions. Superintendent Dr. Jim McCall said it was easy to implement in Valpo, since the district already had programs and partnerships to help students learn job skills.
