Special Education Information & Resources Overview
This page provides resources and information about support and guidance for special education educators in Prince Georges County Public Schools.
Explore the rules and guidelines for special education in PGCPS, the resources and support available to teachers, and the answers to important questions surrounding staffing, compliance, procedures, and more.
Have a question? Contact the Special Education and Student Services Committee at [email protected].
Special education staffing follows the PGCPS Special Education Staffing Guidelines, which outline how services and staff are allocated across programs. With recent staffing shortages and vacancies, many school systems, PGCPS included, have implemented alternative staffing plans.
We’re aware that some students are not receiving their services according to their IEP due to vacancies, and PGCPS is working to address this.
The Department of Special Education has developed a vacancy plan to address all special education teacher vacancies. Please find the Compensatory Education Services training presentation provided to special education coordinators, IEP facilitators, and special education chairpersons during their November 2023 meeting. This presentation provides the process and plan Prince George’s County Public School is doing to address special education vacancies.
The dedicated aid assignment is a temporary job that is meant to support a student for a set period of time and is not meant to be a long-term solution of support. This support is provided to the student to enable him or her to move toward independence.
Temporary job/assignment pay rates are frequently reviewed and adjusted in accordance with federal guidelines, industry standards, and with consideration of any negotiated agreements that have similar positions. The pay rate was recently increased to $15.00 per hour, in alignment with the minimum wage requirement. In addition, employees have access to the following self-service benefits:
403 B – Tax-sheltered annuity plan
457 – Deferred Compensation Plan
All temporary employees also receive the Maryland Safe & Sick Leave and have entitlements to workers’ compensation similar to our permanent employees.
To address critical shortages, PGCPS partners with approved contracted vendors to provide additional instructional and behavioral support.
These partners work with select schools with high special education staffing vacancies or schools with a significant number of students with intensive behaviors. Collaboration with an approved contracted vendor has been a proactive approach to finding specialized teaching staff to support students enrolled in special education programs. At this time, only two special education teacher positions have been contracted to fill school special education teacher vacancies. In addition, the DSE is providing paraprofessionals and registered behavior technicians (RBTs) as interim measures to address the immediate needs of schools facing high staffing vacancies.
The shortage of qualified special education educators and service providers continues to impact our schools.
PGCPS is focused on:
The Special Education Staffing Guidelines provide an overview of how special services are staffed including the approximate caseload for resource teachers.
At the end of the school year, Special Education Coordinators, Special Education Chairperson, and IEP facilitators are asked to complete a yearly draft, which allows each school to look at any overlap of reevaluations with annual IEP review meetings that are needed in preparation for the next school year.
Once the new school year begins, the annual review, reevaluation, and IEP meeting schedule is then finalized. Each school determines how IEP meetings will be scheduled and who is the designated staff member to coordinate the meeting calendar.
As a special education case manager, your job is to ensure each child with an IEP gets the help and support they need. This means collaborating with students and parents to identify and address challenges and ensure every educator who works with them understands their needs.
Case managers:
There is no rule or administrative procedure that states Case Managers must stay in the classroom during the entire class period.
A Parent Questionnaire (PQ) is part of the evaluation of any student in the initial IEP process. The BAT has provided a bilingual Spanish PQ to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team for parents who do not speak English. It is still the responsibility of the case manager to collect information from the parent. The case managers may use the Spanish version of the PQ to assist with this process to support the team effort.
Compliance Specialists are assigned to each school to provide support to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal special education regulations. Their delivery of services to schools and teams is based on the needs of the school. This can be initiated by the school team or the assigned specialist. School personnel should reach out to their assigned specialist to schedule a time to consult as needed. Compliance Specialists also participate in breakout rooms at monthly Elementary and Secondary Chairs/IEP Facilitator meetings.
The current compliance specialist list can be found here.
In situations where a student poses a safety risk and lacks one-on-one support, it is crucial for the School team to prioritize the safety of both the student and staff members. School staff may need to implement specific interventions or responses as indicated in a student’s Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) or seek additional classroom support in the absence of one-on-one staff. Each school principal will develop a coverage plan when there are staffing absences or vacancies. When a student with a disability is suspended for behaviors related to their disability, there is a risk of the actions that are taken being viewed as discriminatory and a punishment to the student for skills they do not have (i.e. self-regulation skills). Students in CRI programs have significant cognitive disabilities and may not be aware that their behaviors are threatening or interfering with instruction.
Here are some other strategies that may also be considered:
Any student who is displaying behaviors that are of a safety concern should have a Safety/Crisis plan detailing what any staff member would do to recognize potential escalation and respond in a way to reduce the amount of harm to anyone in the situation (staff, other students and the acting out student).
Every school should have at least five (5) staff members trained in de-escalation strategies to support students who are experiencing a behavior crisis and how to respond to physical risk behaviors. School teams need to debrief crisis behavior situations to examine the cause of the behaviors, what the student is trying to communicate through those behaviors and discuss a plan on how to respond in the future.
Consult with your assigned Special Education Instructional Specialists and Crisis Intervention Resource Teachers for student/case-specific response strategies and on-site coaching in crisis de-escalation. If needed, please ask your Special Education Coordinator, IEP Facilitator, or Special Education Chairperson to submit a consult form to the Department of Special Education for support on specific student cases.
Staff should ensure the safety of all students and address any immediate elopement risks. School staff should collaborate with the student’s IEP team to develop or update individualized plans that address student-specific needs and behaviors. This may involve adjustments to the existing plan, developing a BIP, providing additional support, or modifications to the learning environment. Communicate the safety concerns to the principal, special education coordinators, and other relevant personnel to ensure a collaborative comprehensive classroom safety plan is in place for addressing student behavior. If needed, please ask your Special Education Coordinator, IEP Facilitator or Special Education Chairperson to submit a consult form to the Department of Special Education for support on specific student cases. Here are some additional tips to consider:
To ensure that all students are accounted for, staff should have an attendance/headcount protocol used during any transition throughout the school building or playground areas. In addition, the classroom teacher should ensure that students with elopement behavior are closely monitored and supervised during transitions.
Any student who is displaying behaviors that are of safety concern (including eloping) should have a Safety/Crisis plan detailing what any staff member would do to recognize potential escalation and respond in a way to reduces the amount of harm to anyone in the situation (staff, other students and the acting out student).
The safety plan will include:
Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Support & the Clerc Center
PGCPS has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University. The Center is a federally funded organization that supports hard-of-hearing students through developing and disseminating innovative curricula, instructional techniques, and products nationwide while providing information, training, and technical assistance for parents and professionals to meet the needs of deaf and hard of hearing (DHOH) students from birth to age 21.
The Clerc team is providing technical assistance for implementing best practices in DHOH education in PGCPS with the goal of improving academic outcomes for students.
The Clerc Center does not conduct formal teacher evaluations, and its observations do not become part of teacher personnel records. Their role is limited to technical assistance and support. All observations conducted by the Clerc Center are for the express purpose of providing feedback to DHH administrators.