Any questions for Mr. Emory? I I don't have a question. I would like to comment that the uh the second graders were doing um their reading assignment and reading theater or whatever it was called. But every child was engaged, every child was reading along, every child participated. Um, you know, it was really just like really active reading with um everybody doing something like they were all having their parts that they had to read, but they all had to follow along. So, they were silently reading as long as as well as the children were reading out loud and it looked like a lot of fun too for them. So, you know, home run. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Anything else? Hey, thank you for that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a good summer. Yeah. So, we're going to move now to uh the Bridges program update.
Thank you. And the one piece on here you'll see the different numbers like 60. So when you're looking at the pullout model it'll say 6050 and integrated 6050. That first number is 4K5 and that second number is 468. Okay. I was wondering that. Thank you. So many details, right? It's gonna add that the targeted instruction, those are the teachers that we have in the cohort as many as possible and the integrated instruction we have them going to PD on our quarterly foundational seminar. Okay. I think that's okay. I think you might have may have answered it but as far as determining what model is being used that is then up to it's individual by school based on like their staffing and it yes is that something that just like the principal decides or is that like a team decision or how does so our guidance is that um we really need our students as much as possible to be either in the dual language immersion model at those two sites or in the 2-hour model.
And before we do that, uh Dr. Bman, you want to give us just a primer on that? So I do want to say that when we talk about the the bridges update may look at the agenda and say what is the bridges program we should be saying that because we really don't know and we're we're really lucky that we have Mrs. clean as our our director of people services because in a cabinet meeting we talked and I challenged her to come up with a program and she did and not only did she come up with a program this is really really good what what she's going to share with you and we're just lucky I I normally would say that after facts but I want to say before facts So you number one you you realize how how fortunate we are to have a director of people services that number one cares about kids that's her number one responsibility and and number two is forward thinking of where we want to be as a school district and part of what I'm I'm sure she'll slide this in part of what Bridges is going to allow us to do and I know some of you if not all of us think a little bit about finances, how this is going to save us money financially and that's part of our budget and it could save us more money and she's going to talk about that.
And so that is the first step and that's what we start with. So make your your master course schedule for the 2-hour model. And then once the assistant principles get into it and this is the process that we're in right now, they find that that's not always possible. And so then we look at well do can we make this work? Can we be creative and figure it out or do we need to move to the pullout model? And um it is so the each so we have um four coordinators in our department and so each coordinator works with specific assigned schools like two or three of them to work this out and then um if we need to switch from the two-hour to the pull out or if like in the case of Larry C. Kennedy when we're like we we just can't figure it out with the number of teachers and students that we have then we go to Dr.
But what you need in a school district is a very forwardthinking director of pupil services who's not afraid to work and she's not afraid to work. And I I got to even commend her before she even starts because you're going to see a program that that's a win and a a program that a lot of districts are going to be looking at us to say number one, how do you do it? And number two, can we get involved? So, this is cool. That was a great intro, right? Thank you, Dr. Already watching. So, um that was very kind. Thank you. Uh good evening um Chair Daniels, Board of Education. I am thrilled to be here this evening to provide all of you with an update on our special programs and services. And today the focus is our new program bridges. Before I jump into that program, go to the second slide.
Pombo and work from there. But it does have to be approved by me or the incoming director if they're going to do a different model besides a two-hour model. Okay. After we try to figure out every way that we can make the schedule work, any other questions, Not at the moment. Let me Thank you. Stop looking at my mistake. All right. Okay. So, these are the questions that were sent via email. And so, one question was, "What predictive indicators are we using prior to the release of the Azela data to identify students, classrooms, or campuses in midyear intervention?" And so we this is a very big question that we could talk about for a really long time. Um is in terms of data. So like qualitative we qualitatively we look at coaching and classroom observations right and then quantitatively when we're looking at data for predictive indicators with numbers.
I do want to share a little bit of background and context on how this all came about. And Dr. Gman is absolutely right. was sharing with him some of um our realities within special education and um he did absolutely challenge me in that meeting and said what can we do to bring programming and support our most complex learners and I said you know what challenge accepted. So so I took that and I ran with it. um across the nation, across the state, our Farmington Valley, and right here in Canton, we continue to see rising complex needs of students with emotional dis disabilities, um behavioral needs, uh and trauma backgrounds. So, educating those students and making sure that we're meeting those needs is always at the forefront of my mind. It's complex. It often takes layers of support bringing in behavioral consultants, behavior techs, inclusion specialists, and sometimes even despite our best efforts, we're required to seek outside for therapeutic day placement.
Um we that is something we're looking forward to being able to identify with a focused group that is focused only on language acquisition. So since we are splitting the language literacy team into a team of language and literacy um our coaches and new coordinator will be able to come up with a plan for that. some of the things that we have been talking about. We we've had discussions here about we our interim measures we look at DNA and that's not necessarily the best indicator and we've talked about you know there are different things that we were exploring and we have actually I think this was in a different question but um we have landed on we still need to explore the potential things that we have talked about before here as options are not going to give us what we were hoping they would. So, we are still looking to see what can we do.
As you can imagine, all of those extra supports absolutely add up over time, but they are our children's right. Under IDA, students with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate public education. So, it is our job to make sure that we're seeing that through. So, I just wanted to make you aware that those needs fiscally are always in the back of our mind and it's that balance of how we support our students, putting our students first and remaining fiscal stewards to the town and the district. Um, this, as I said, is not unique to Canton. The CTO just had an article the other day saying that statewide the prevalence rates for special education are over 18%. And in the last two years from 2023 to 2025 excess costs which are all the extra related services that we need to add on in special education to ensure faith have risen by over 25% statewide and we know that excess cost has been shortfunded over the years.
Um I do want to add um Sarah Beth George that this this um Thursday like super superintendent man just shared we're going to be exploring intram measures that are predictive and so this is the process we're going to be going through on Thursday. So that's why it says potential options because we're going to have the team of u people that are working on the language acquisition goal um to explore intram measures for this and what we could look at as a predictive measure. Yes. And one of the really exciting things that will be new for next year and is already ready to go is that we have um with our consultant and our language literacy instructional coaches. They have designed a specific scope and sequence for writing and grammar for our language for our multilingual learners in the SEI targeted time. So in when you look at the pull out model and you've got half and half like half integrated half targeted that targeted time will always be writing and grammar and we have now a specific scope and sequence that's merged into our unit guides for that.
So much so and I'm very passionate about that. So at the state level submitted testimony have gone and spoken at the state level advocating um and provided written testimony along with many other advocates, parents, leaders, lots of voices. We are very fortunate that the state provided $40 million in emergency funding this year um to help support that need. We're grateful for that, but that's a onetime one-year fix. So it's still not enough. So there was some urgency in my mind that we needed to look at programming and think about what we could do here. So that commitment for me was the beginning of bridges and it tightly aligns to board street. So the bridges program all about bridges. So it's offsite. It's located in Avon, Connecticut, and it operates through a strategic partnership with Quantum Behavioral Consulting. Our vision for the program is access stabilization and independence.
And so where you see the common formative assessments that's the next step is to create those common formative assessments aligned to the unit guides they just created last month. Amazing. Sorry, I just uh thought of something that popped into my head. Um, of course, thinking back to yesterday's um briefing that I attended, is there a way to um on this show us where our our sped students, multilingual learners are with their like what's the word? Disagregate the the data to kind of include a line for them specifically. Does that mean we can definitely do that in the future in educ um different subgroups and and look at their data that way. It's one of the reasons we added that tool set. So before you'd have to like have Tyson do a research project to pull it out. Now we'll actually be able to go into the new system and set filters and be able to filter down, you know, to look at either specific groups or answer specific questions.
Bridges is filling a critical gap in our area for students who have those complex disabilities that I was just talking about with the trauma background. We'll be able to take up to 10 students in the program. And the idea around it, honestly, the seedling of it started last school year. We were faced with students who were showing verbal aggression, physical aggression, alopment, which means they were trying to leave an area unsupervised, self-dangerous behaviors. When that came up, I reached out to Quantum and Scott Rderick, who is my partner in this venture and I had said, "Scott, we need to support these kids in district. What can we come up with?" And we developed a plan that involved a behavior intervention plan and wraparound supports. So, he had just started a clinic and we had and I wanted to make sure this child or children had access to their peers.
And it and it could be multilingual learners who also are, you know, tagged as a special education student. They could be tagged as a gifted student. You could even put combinations of tags in and be able to get to very specific groups of students. So, yes, and I can share with you because I just finished this count last night. This was a hand count because we're still working on getting everything in Head to Climber. Um, but 20% of our multilingual learners are also receiving special education services and I just shared that today and Gretchian responded. So, I know that it's not new information. So, she knows that. Thank you. Sorry not not to call attention again to to the page with the mistake. But let's go for it. Uh, we need to change the PA to the to IMA. Yes, that. Yes, I will. Yes.
So I said, "Hey, what if we did like a hybrid where they spent half their day at school and half their day at the clinic with that BT and they have their wraparound behavioral support so that BT travels with them to and from said let's try it." We tried it and I'll tell you it met with great success. So much so that we were able to replicate it with multiple students. And then at that PBT this year when we were going over the success at the end of the PBT the parents stay behind and said thank you you get it this team gets it for the first time I don't feel like I'm in the community and people are talking about my kid as that kid. So, they were so appreciative. Um, and that that just meant everything to me. And that was the heart of how important this program is because it felt like we're making sure that all of our kids are seen, all of our kids are supported, all of our kids are safe.
Yes, I will. This is from the spreadsheet we're using all year. So, I absolutely will do that when I send you the correct version. It looks beautiful. All right. So this question is I mean that's the reality. We have over 30 home languages, right? So with over 30 home languages, how are SEI instructional supports differentiated by language group or acquisition patterns to address unique linguistic challenges? So one thing is like one piece of information is that our adopted ELA resources do provide specific guidance to teachers. It's an additional resource that's in their platform. We also have it linked on our internal language acquisition site and it's it's really fascinating if you're interested and it shows what those different acquisition patterns are based on home language. So that's a resource that is available. Um one of the the realities is that we do prioritize strategies that scaffold language instruction across the proficiency levels using the researchbased strategies regardless of home language.
Um, so that's another key part. So, as I said, located offsite in Avon. This program will be part of Canton public schools and it will be a part of our continuum of supports. So we go from Janed to inclusion to resource self-contained programs like learning lab programs like thrive and now we have our version of a therapeutic day program that can do either hybrid where they spend part of the day at the clinic and part of the day in their home school or fulltime at that school. Um we have a beautiful space. I have a short video that I'm going to show you in a few minutes to give you an idea of the space. I'm no videographer, so you're going to bear with me. It's a little blurry when we get there. Um, yeah.
And so we explicitly, especially with our new um scope and sequence of writing and grammar instruction, we're explicitly teaching how the English language works as opposed to teaching in a way that relies on the home language. So, for example, if you're like, for example, when I was a a language learner of Spanish and English was my home language, I learned that the adjectives and the nouns are switched in the two languages, right? And that's how the instruction was given to me. And so that would be relying on that pattern versus explicitly teaching this is the rule in the new language and providing scaffolds to help the students and the learners really put that together in a new context without relying on attaching it to their prior context. And so um we the reality is that these students are spread across nine campuses and nine grade levels.
Any questions at this point? I the the 10 students that are 10 students or is that I appreciate that question. So, the program right now where we're kind of soft piloting it, we have we have four Canton students and I have two students um that are slated to begin July 1 from outside districts which we'll be able to receive revenue and tuition for. Um in the last week, I've had four additional referrals from uh New Hartford, Avon, Simsbury, and region 10. So, we're going to be full. We're going to get you a bigger building. Yeah. Yes. Anybody? Really quick, just similar to Loose. So, it's based in Avon, but it has nothing to do with Avon public schools. Nope. Okay. It's a Canon public schools program. This happens to be offsite just over the line in Avon. Got it. Okay. And and what we need to part of the process that we had to do this is vetted by our attorneys, vetted by um our insurance company, and approved by the state.
So that 19 that we saw for Somali that speak Somali is a home language. The first consideration is that's home language of all of our students in the district. It's not the home language necessarily if they're language learners. So the number might be smaller even though again today I looked it up and it was 25 but that is I mean it is it's spread across so far that it's it it is really hard to be able to group students by language acquisition pattern. All right. Considering 49% of our multilingual learners are still at the pre-emergent emergent level. what supports are in place to accelerate growth beyond current trends? So, that is an excellent question and something we've been really working on this year. Um, one, so one of the considerations is to consider a newcomer program. We did not have the capacity to do that this year and we also needed to take time to really figure out who these multilingual learners are who are at the pre-emergent emergent level.