Meeting          Nov 22, 2021 - Regular Meeting

Category        Consent Agenda – 5.02. Our adopted rules of Parliamentary Procedure, Robert's Rules, provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the Board by a single motion.

Subject           Modification of Contract - Fairfax County Public Schools Special Education Comprehensive Review

Type               Action (Consent)

Recommended Action

That the School Board approve the recommended modification of the Special Education Comprehensive Review Contract between Fairfax County Public Schools and American Institutes for Research (AIR).
 

Staff Contact: Esther Ko, auditor general

Meeting Category: November 22, 2021 – Regular Meeting

School Board Action Required: Decision

Related To: Goal 2 – Caring Culture

Summary/Background (Key Points):

At the October 27 Audit Committee meeting, the committee members concurred with the Special Education Comprehensive Review expansion over: (a) Stakeholder focus groups, (b) Classroom observations, (c) Extant data analysis, totaling $87,443. Audit Committee recommends, to the School Board, to move forward with the additional funding of $87,443 on the Year 2 Special Education Review. The original contract value was at $375,398.  Background: As a result of the September 21 SB work session re Year 1 Special Education Review report, AIR took the School Board suggestions and proposed modifications to the Year 2 work.

300 Individualized Education Program (IEP) scope expansion (from the original 300 to a total of 600 IEPs) - AIR pointed out that the margin of error will be reduced by 1.4% with this expansion (from 4.9% to 3.5%). The Audit Committee did not recommend proceeding with expanding the sample size for the IEP review due to diminishing returns to expanding the sample size and an additional cost of $43,487.

Instead, AIR proposed to analyze the original 300 IEPs data further, at no cost to FCPS. AIR further inspected the disability subgroup sample sizes and did not feel confident that this analysis will produce statistically significant results. However, AIR believed that this analysis will still yield important information for the School Board, and they agreed to do it at no cost to FCPS.

Attached is the full Year 2 work modification proposal.

Recommendation:

That the School Board approve the recommended modification of the Special Education Comprehensive Review Contract between Fairfax County Public Schools and American Institutes for Research (AIR).