Kingston, MA: "Special education costs are through the roof"

Jan 18, 2018, Plymouth, MA, Kingston Wicked: Draft Silver Lake budget includes new programs http://kingston.wickedlocal.com/news/20180118/draft-silver-lake-budget-includes-new-programs A seventh-grade teacher to strengthen the middle school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) offerings, a part-time adjustment counselor at the middle school to support new special education programs, a new allied health program at the high school and a new program to support the social emotional needs of students are the line items that would be added. … A new special education program would be a new tuition-based revolving fund program that would require a teacher, an aide and associated benefits. Special education programs also impact the elementary budgets, Blackwood said, so meeting student needs is already built into those budgets. There was little debate over the need for the additional programs, with School Committee members like Jason Fraser praising the transition to more in-house special education programming. … Eric Crone, who also serves on the Kingston School Committee, said special education costs are through the roof, and that it’s important to develop these programs in-house as a way to keep costs down for the member towns. Blackwood said it’s more cost effective for the towns and the reason why the district needed a director of special education like Marie Grable on board. A new special education program was also implemented this year. “When we were hiring a special education director, one of the things I was looking for was someone who could help develop these programs,” Blackwood said.