Mary Byrne
Belmont sends more of its special education students out of district for services than any of its neighboring towns, a fact underscored in a recent study aimed at gauging the feasibility of bringing more special education programs into the district.
Belmont — compared to other districts participating in the Lexington, Arlington, Burlington, Bedford and Belmont (LABBB) Educational Collaborative, which delivers special education programs to partnering schools — has out-of-district placements higher than other LABBB districts, according to a study by Ribas Associates and Publications.
Between June 2020 and June 2023, the number of students Belmont sent out of district climbed from 119 students to 155.
Retired superintendents Cyndy Taymore and William Lupini led the study.
Because of the state’s mandated 14% increase in private out-of-district tuition for special education, the associated costs have jumped.
In fiscal year 2025, the Belmont school system is projected to spend $13 million -– or about 20% of its total budget — on out-of-district tuition and transportation. In fiscal year 2019, the cost was about $7.5 million.
“You do have a limited continuum of services. What we’re talking about is when students reach a level of need in Belmont, they’re either placed in a LABBB classroom or an out-of-building program,” Taymore said to School Committee members, who clarified that both designations are characterized as out-of-district placements.
Recent discussions of Belmont’s proposed $8.4 million override have focused on the cost of out-of-district placements, and looked at bringing more services in-district as a way to control spending.
Exhaustive Review
The Ribas Associates and Publications study involved a literature and budget review, interviews with staff and faculty, and a look at similar districts.
Some of the recommendations presented to the school committee last week included increasing professional development days and allowing general education teachers to become “well-trained in modifications and interventions,” a role now delegated to para-professionals if students aren’t placed out of district or in a LABBB classroom.
Other recommendations included identifying and responding to needs beginning in the general education classroom. In particular, the consultants noted insufficient support at lower and middle levels for reading intervention.
The study also suggested assigning a chairperson for team meetings — a practice that is inconsistent across the district — and to designate the special education leader as a department head, which would involve them in more discussions and amplify the voice of that school population.
Integrating LABBB
The consultants also recommended the schools’ LABBB program should be viewed as part of the school environment, which could mean ensuring students are participating in school assemblies or are receiving school-wide communication from school administrators.
“We heard in our discussions from Belmont parents … the LABBB program was housed in the same building, but it felt like a different place,” Lupini said.
Where and when paraprofessionals are used also needs to be analyzed, according to the findings of the study. Taymore noted that the district has 129 paraprofessionals and aids, a majority of whom support special education. In total, these staff represent about $2.7 million of the budget.
“This is a fine balancing act,” Taymore said. “Nobody can ever underestimate the importance of special education paraprofessionals to the smooth running of programs …but sometimes it becomes a little too easy when there is a classroom issue to put a paraprofessional in the room rather than to address the instructional strategies that need to be implemented.”
Superintendent Jill Geiser added that with more than 500 staff members and 4,400 students in the district, change would be a long process.
“It takes time to build a culture around the kind of practice we’re looking for,” Geiser said. “We’re trying to do that with a lot of people in a situation where our budget resources are really constrained. … We started here because we don’t have the funds to pack our schools with interventionists.”
With the creation of a strategic plan already underway, the consultants told committee members the district is headed in the right direction. In particular, they said, the plan should lay out key metrics for how to measure success.
“This is not a magic bullet; this is not a quick fix – any of what we’ve recommended,” said Lupini. “Creating programming is ultimately about better control of those costs and, from my perspective …. parent satisfaction and better outcomes for kids. If you’re not hitting on all those metrics, then something’s not working and you have to review what you’re doing.”
[…] But there are other looming challenges: years of anemic revenue growth and the resulting “level service” (read: “level funding”) budgeting has slowly eroded both Town and public school services. Among other things, that’s led to increased costs for things like state-mandated special education, with Belmont’s bare bones K-12 system resulting in more of its students with special needs being sent out of district for services than any of its neighboring towns, according to a recent study. […]