A group of parents, faculty and community members is spearheading the Special Education Advisory Committee at the Aspen School District to advocate for changes to services for students with disabilities.
A group of parents, faculty and community members are aiming for long-term reform for students with disabilities at the Aspen School District.
The Special Education Advisory Committee, which formed in April 2024, is gearing up to present to district leaders three major recommendations to enhance programs for students with disabilities at the school district. The state-mandated committee spent the last year identifying gaps in programs and services at ASD and is hoping to maintain long-term advocacy for students with disabilities even after involved parents move on from the district.
“(The committee) is not me talking about, ‘Well, my kid needs this or their kid needs this.’ It’s, ‘Hey, this is what we’re seeing as the overall best practice for the whole community,’” said Barry Rosenberg, an ASD parent and committee member.
A group of parents formed the committee at the school district last year with the intention of identifying specific needs for students with disabilities, especially as the population of students with disabilities grows at ASD. Two-hundred and thirty nine students enrolled at ASD are in the district’s special education program, according to the school district.
There are also 103 students at ASD with a 504 plan, which guarantees a right to education and provides individuals with accommodations such as increased time on testing that helps them gain access to equal educational opportunities, according to the state department of education. A 504 plan is not an individualized education program/plan — 504 plans do not mean an individual will necessarily receive special education services, while an IEP is written for students with disabilities who qualify for special education services.
Anjuli DiMaria, a parent at ASD and Special Education Advisory Committee member, also is a member of the state advisory committee, and wanted to extend the conversations at the state level to ASD. Often the advisory committees can become a group of angry parents, she said. But the goal of ASD’s SEAC is to create a problem-solving group that will address best practices for students with disabilities not only at the school district but in the community.
“The beauty of it is it doesn’t just have to be teachers or administration,” DiMaria said. “It has community members, it has a lot of different stakeholders.”
The advisory committee can also quickly become a group of parents who advocate for their students while they are enrolled in school, but who may stop when their children graduate, DiMaria said.
“Right now, it’s a 5-year plan of, take small bites and remember it’s probably not planning for your kid, but the kids down the road,” she said. “That’s the other thing that is beautiful, is we all have a vested interest in our kids right now, but the reality is that we all know that what we do now is really beneficial for kids who are coming up and for the families who might not know about this yet.”
SEAC is not a district-run committee. It is largely parent-run, but there are district leaders who sit in.
During its first year as a committee at ASD, SEAC identified three changes it will present to district leaders soon to enhance special education at ASD. Its first proposal is to implement comprehensive behavior training for all ASD employees.
“When people think of behaviors, our kids are the first kids that they think of with behaviors. They’re loud, or they’re destructive, or they’re mean or those sorts of negative behaviors,” DiMaria said. “But in reality, every single individual has behaviors, and that’s going to benefit your engagement and your ability to work with and create relationships with every single student.”
Behavior training will help with de-escalation techniques, trauma-informed mental health support and improved engagement with all students. SEAC wants behavior training for all staff, including general education teachers, front office staff and more.
ASD has one board certified behavioral analyst that serves the Cottage Preschool and the Aspen elementary, middle and high schools. Behavior training for all staff members will keep the small special-service provider staff from being stretched thin and can help maintain a successful learning environment, especially for students with disabilities, Rosenberg said.
“When we think about behavior … our kids specifically can hit, can get upset, can scream,” he said. “Sometimes they just need help, they need a hug, they need a redirect. Those things can escalate if not handled properly.”
The training will help with de-escalation in all scenarios, not just with students with disabilities, DiMaria said.
Curriculum upgrades
ASD currently uses Unique Learning System for specialized curriculum for students with special needs.
But SEAC wants to see significant curriculum changes for students with special needs, especially students with higher needs, DiMaria said.
“For all parents, future planning is important. When you’re a parent of a neurotypical child, you’re already thinking, how do I get my kid to college, how do I make my kid a successful, happy citizen in the world when they’re out of my home,” DiMaria said. “But it is incredibly important for parents of children with significant needs or high needs or complicated special education needs to be prepared to think 20 years ahead.”
The current curriculum is widely used and offers helpful learning opportunities, but it is not adequate for students with higher needs, she said.
“Skill acquisition takes a really long time … you have to actually maintain that skill on your own, and when you’re talking about significant or moderate needs individuals, sometimes those are years-long endeavors, so we need a curriculum that helps prepare those students with a meaningful way to get there,” DiMaria said. “Right now, the curriculum that we have is not appropriate for the students and families who need that put into place.”
The number of students enrolled at ASD who have higher needs in special education is not insignificant, Rosenberg said. It is around 30 or 40, he said, but the district is not legally allowed to disclose the exact number under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
SEAC is proposing adopting Essential for Living, a curriculum for students with moderate to severe disabilities. It is a comprehensive curriculum that teaches “quality of life” skills rather than typical development or academic standard skills, such as making requests, waiting, tolerating situations and following directions related to health and safety, completing daily living skills and more.
“We talk a lot in the school district about being best in class. We have three college counselors, we’ve got a robotics department, we’ve got an aviation department, we’ve got astronomy, we’ve got all these amazing things going on,” Rosenberg said. “So for us to say, we have a (special education) program and we’ve covered the basics is, in our minds, not acceptable in a school district that’s trying to be exceptional.”
An adequate curriculum must give students context as to why they are learning what they’re learning, Rosenberg said, which the current Unique curriculum does not provide.
School psychology internship program
With a limited team at ASD that is solely dedicated to working with students with disabilities, SEAC is proposing implementing an internship program for psychology students who want to go into school-based psychology.
SEAC will present its idea to the Aspen Education Foundation to request funding for such a program. AEF is a nonprofit fundraising organization that provides funding for supplemental programs that the district can’t afford with its typical funding sources.
Rosenberg pointed to the district’s new Outdoor Education coordinator, a position created for the 2024-2025 academic year and funded by AEF that coordinates educational experiences outside of the classroom.
SEAC is proposing a year-long internship program that provides housing for special service providers who can work with the district’s existing behavioral therapists to expand support for students with disabilities.
The group plans to present its proposals to the ASD school board soon. In the meantime, it wants to increase its communication with families as it goes into its second year at the school district.
“This committee has really taken off in extremely positive and productive ways,” said ASD Director of Student Services Chris Eliott and a faculty adviser for SEAC. “(At the district), we’ve had kind of just massive changes to our student service delivery model and over the last two years, we’ve been able to offer a lot more in terms of specialized programming, instruction and behavior support for kids.”
“I think it’s been successful by having the support of the committee … and trying to just do a better job of meeting individual student needs,” he added.