The Saugerties Central School District (SCSD) recently conducted an audit of its special education programs in an effort to best serve the close to 20 percent of its student population who receive purpose-built services.
Jamie Churchill joined the SCSD as director of special education prior to the 2023-24 school year. She jumped into the role feet first, working with director of pupil personnel services Lisajane Kappler and others to audit of the district’s special education services and considering where it might make improvements.
Churchill shared an audit follow-up presentation with the board of education during a meeting held on Tuesday, April 6.
Including out of district placements, the SCSD currently has 560 students receiving some level of customized instruction, programs and support services tailored to address the individual needs of students with disabilities. That figure includes 59 out of district placements, and 30 parental placements. It does not include the 71 students with disabilities in preschool.
Of those students, 163 were identified as having a learning disability, 146 have other health impairments, 116 have a speech or language impairment and 58 have autism. Other listed disabilities are emotional disturbance (5), intellectual disability (3), hearing impairment (2), and multiple disabilities (23). Some of that data can be found in the district’s Special Education Services Plan 2024-2026, and are current as of November of last year. That plan was approved by the school board in December.
For the 2025-26 school year, the SCSD is planning on expanding its integrated co-teaching offerings in each of its elementary schools. Currently they received focused ELA and math services for grades 2-4; next year that will grow to cover grades K-6.
Another addition for 2025-26 is the Academic Behavior Communication Academy at the junior high school.
“Due to the need of the sixth graders moving up to seventh grade, we’ve got about four or five students that would have to be placed in out-of-district placement if they didn’t have this program,” Churchill said, adding that it will not require the hiring of a new teacher, but will instead see current teachers handle the duties.
Most school districts are unable to offer a wide enough range of services to meet the needs of all of its students, so many are sent elsewhere. The SCSD’s out of district placements include Ulster BOCES (20), Wraparound Services of the Hudson Valley (13) and the Center for Spectrum Services (10). Of the district’s parental placements, 15 are at Woodstock Day School, 15 at Middle Way, a Saugerties-based nonpublic school centered around Buddhism that received its charter from the New York State Board of Regents in 2024, and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools.
In-district, the SCSD receives alternative learning mental health support from the Rockland Children’s Psychiatric Center.
Churchill said the district plans to increase academic rigor for its special ed students, and is also working to assemble a parent counseling and training initiative.
“It’s falling a little bit flat each year, but we are still working on it,” she said.
More successful was a sixth grade transition night, geared toward helping families and students prepare for a shift from elementary to secondary school.
“We had several families come in and even the special ed teachers,” Churchill said.
Among the goals of the special education services is to see more consistent gains in the graduation rate for four-year, five-year and six-year cohorts. Those figures for all students in the district have generally fallen between 84.13-89.29 percent over the past three years.
But among students with disabilities they’ve fluctuated more.
For the four-year cohort, the highest graduation rate for students with disabilities was 2024, at 75 percent, or 27 of the 36 enrolled in the cohort. The lowest in that cohort was 18 of 32 students in 2023, a percentage of 56.25.
The same disparities are seen in the students with disabilities graduation rates of the five year (70.83 percent in 2023, 55.56 in 2022) and six year (73.68 in 2022, 58.33 in 2023) cohorts.
For more information on the SCSD Special Education Department, including the Special Education Services Plan, visit: https://www.saugerties.k12.ny.us/departments/special-education
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