The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) on Monday debuted a complement to its strategic plan for student learning and development, a report on how to improve experiences and outcomes for students with disabilities.

“Each Child Means Each Child” -- a title referencing the overarching strategic plan, “Each Child Our Future” -- sets out a vision with three main facets:

- Get to the problem early.

- Building educator and system capacity.

- Educate for living a good life.

Superintendent Paolo DeMaria and Jo Hannah Ward, director of the Office of Exceptional Children at ODE, presented the report to the State Board of Education.

DeMaria noted the state’s recent work to settle a decades-long lawsuit over special education, Doe v. Ohio, which focused on how students were served in 11 districts.

“Part of my response to it was, while we’re doing work with these 11 districts … this is the group that has the largest sort of achievement gap of all the different groups that we disaggregate data for, and what we know is, the vast majority of these students are not cognitively disabled. Their cognitive abilities are such that they can master the content the same as any other student,” he said.

Ward described the specifics of that gap -- a 28.3 percent English proficiency rate and 27.7 percent math proficiency rate on tests in 2018 for students with disabilities, versus a rate of 70.1 percent and 66.5 percent, respectively, for their peers without disabilities. For the class of 2017, the graduation rate was 84.1 percent, but among students with disabilities, 70.4 percent.

The plan identified three focus areas, each with specific policy recommendations, tactics and action steps:

- An integrated model of a statewide, multi-tiered system of supports.

- Ongoing, job-embedded and sustained professional learning that focuses on meeting the specific needs of students with disabilities.

- Post-secondary learning experiences and outcomes for students with disabilities.

Board member Antoinette Miranda, who helped develop the report, said the state has long struggled because of ineffective systems, noting her experiences both as a trainer of school psychologists and parent of a child with cerebral palsy. “This is a systems issue. … They approached it as a systems issue, recognizing that you can’t just tinker with one part and think the others are just going to fall in place,” she said.

The full “Each Child Means Each Child” report is available at www.hannah.com>Important Documents & Notices>Library.