edcenter012723

The Newton Education Center. Photo by Dan Atkinson

Almost a quarter of Newton’s students with disabilities are chronically absent, largely due to COVID-19, Assistant Superintendent Casey Ngo Miller mentioned to the School Committee Monday night.

That’s just one bit of information Ngo Miller talked about in her presentation to the committee outlining the district’s Office of Student Services—which includes social workers, teacher aides, special education professionals and others—and how it’s changing the way Newton helps its students thrive.

The Office of Student Services emphasizes social and emotional learning for all students, with much of its work involved with special education.

By the numbers

Ngo Miller broke down the data on Newton’s special education enrollment for the committee to show the diverse array of needs in the district, and there were some interesting points:

  • There are 11.990 students enrolled in Newton schools, including 2,118 students with disabilities.
  • Of those students, 477 (23% of all students with disabilities) are from low-income households.
  • And 59 (3%) are English Language Learning (ELL) students.
  • There are 49 (2%) students with disabilities who are both low-income and ELL students, adding further intersectionality to the special needs population.
  • More than 23 percent of the district’s students with disabilities have autism, which is the most common disability listed in Newton schools, while 20% have a specific learning disability.
  • Less than 1% are listed with only physical disabilities.
  • And around 400 students with disabilities participate in the district’s Extended School Year Programming, which provides academic support, physical therapy and more to students throughout summer break.
This chart by Newton Public Schools shows the breakdown of disabilities among students in the district. Newton Public Schools

The COVID effect

The COVID-19 pandemic led to many families with special needs kids keeping those kids home after schools reopened in 2021.

About 22 percent of students with disabilities are labeled as “chronically absent,” which the state labels any student who has missed 10% or more of a school year, whether those absences are excused or not.

“Chronic absenteeism is an issue the state has also taken on, given the number of students post-COVID who are still not coming to school,” Ngo Miller said.

The pandemic may have also impacted student achievement.

The 2019 MCAS English scores showed 33 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 with disabilities meeting or exceeding expectations for their particular student group, compared with 73 percent of the student population in that age group as a whole.

In 2023, that percentage of special needs students meeting expectations dropped to 25, and the overall number for all students in those grades meeting expectations dropped to 66.

Among 10th graders, however, that trend reversed, suggesting older students had an easier time adjusting to the “new normal” of the pandemic than kids in elementary and middle school.

In 2019, 43% of 10th graders in Newton met or exceeded expectations for MCAS results, compared with 78% of the overall 10th grade population in Newton. In 2023, those numbers rose to 46% and 81%, respectively.

Similar trends are seen in MCAS math scores.

And the gap between special needs students and the student population as a whole still remains large.

The METCO factor

These numbers come with a caveat: METCO.

Ngo Miller said that 30% of Newton’s 417 METCO students are on IEPs (individualized education plans, used with special needs students).

“If you remove that group, we are at 17.5%,” Ngo Miller said. “So there’s an overrepresentation. Students are either disproportionately coming to us with IEPs, or we are over-identifying them as qualifying for an IEP.”

Ngo Miller suggested that the district’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support could help serve more students who may not actually need special education, thus reducing the number of IEPs needed.

“When we have those supports, those interventions for students who don’t qualify for special education, we are meeting their needs in general education in the classroom,” she said. “So it doesn’t pull from special education staff and it doesn’t pull from special education resources.”

You can watch NGO Miller’s entire presentation here.

Share This Story On:

Join our mailing list

Upcoming Events