Dear Parent or Guardian,

The Catskill Central School District is conducting a needs assessment for our District which is inclusive of our curriculum and instruction and special education needs. As part of this needs assessment, a needs assessment committee has been formed and has identified the following questions to be answered:

How and to what extent are special education students receiving educational benefit from the programs and services provided by the Catskill CSD?

Are the processes and organization structures used to serve special education students effective and efficient?
Are resources utilized effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of the special education population?
How and to what extent is curriculum and instruction vertical/horizontal aligned?
How and to what extent is professional development targeting teacher learning and how are we measuring?

To answer these questions, the team identified key areas that data must be gathered and examined. As such, a key area of need is asking your opinion in a confidential survey to gather specific information. This information will NOT be used to identify you, your child, or family. Only our outside consultant Marcia Atwood from Questar will have direct access to this information. We will have this survey available to you at upcoming events, via email, and located within each of your children’s school building main office. Please complete the survey no later than October 15, 2018.

In addition, we will be conducting focus group discussions. Key areas within the District as well as outside community places will be identified for these confidential focus group discussions which we will be asking for your participation in this essential portion of the assessment. Times and locations will be coming shortly.

Lastly, we want you to know should your child be a student with a disability, we are conducting audits of their IEPs, conducting walkthroughs of special education programs, and randomly selecting students for a more in-depth review of their services which will generate a parent/guardian phone call home to ask specific confidential questions.

We are so excited to be working for your children in conducting this assessment so we can provide a comprehensive multi year plan to meet your children’s needs. Should you have any questions and/or concerns, please feel free to contact Dr. Kerri Brown