Four months after a long-awaited job filled an eight-month vacancy, the Special Education Division of Frederick County Public Schools is once again working to hire a community liaison.
Anyone who the state needs in each county’s school system and who plays a part-funding role is reported to the school district’s director of special education. They assist parents of children with disabilities in navigating the complex world of special education, planning community events and conducting workshops.
FCPS special education directors Linda Chambers and Troy Keller said an important function of the position is to make parents feel comfortable asking the school district for help and clarification.
“Obviously in our situation, that’s the key,” Keller said in an interview Wednesday. “People may be reluctant to reach out to Linda and me, but we get it.”
In December 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had investigated the school district’s abuse of isolation and restraint for students with disabilities and subsequently settled with the FCPS.
Since then, school boards and some members of the community have called for greater emphasis on FCPS’s special education programs.
Community liaisons are a “critical” part of the district’s response, Chambers said.
“We want to connect with family,” she said. “We want to support them”
Carla Phillips, one of the leaders of the School Board’s Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee, served in that position for four years before retiring in October 2021.
The school district spent months searching for a replacement for Phillips — a process that included multiple pay raises for the position — and hired Katie McCormick in June.
McCormick resigned in late September, citing personal reasons.
Salary constraints made it difficult to partially fill the position, Chambers said. The state only provides substantial funding for the position, and if that proves insufficient, the district must raise additional funding on its own.
This is a 12 month position. In other words, liaisons do not have a summer vacation.
Chambers and Keller said it presents another challenge, given that their ideal candidates are parents of children with special needs.
Keller said there were similar positions in other districts where he worked, and those were being replaced regularly.
Ideally, the FCPS could have a team of people to help the liaison work, said the director.
“Certainly, we know that the work of supporting families of students with disabilities is not a one-man job.
The Blue Ribbon Task Force, formed in response to DOJ research, recently recommended that school boards establish “advocacy centers” to assist special education families in each of the district’s 10 feeder patterns. did.
“I hope so,” Chambers said Wednesday. “But at this point, I want to fill this one vacancy.”
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