Special Education
The Assistant reads your master contracts and rate sheets, compares each position with districts your size and writes the explanation your cabinet will ask for.
In special education, a few agency contracts carry a large share of the budget, and every number in them gets questioned. The Assistant reads the agreements, rate sheets and invoices, compares them with districts your size and gives you the reason behind each figure before cabinet asks for it.
The work
Ask about a position, an agency or a year in your own words. It reads the agreements, does the math and links each figure to the page it came from.
Speech, occupational therapy, behavior, school psychology, nursing: it lines up your hourly rate for each contracted position against the median of similar districts, with the agreement and page behind every rate.
Try asking
Compare our SLP, OT, BCBA and nurse rates with districts our size, by vendor.
When an agency sends a new sheet, it sets each position’s rate beside last year’s and the county median, so you can see which increases go past what similar districts pay before you sign.
Try asking
This agency sent next year’s rate sheet. What changed for each position, and how does it compare with our county?
Master contracts, rate sheets, amendments and invoices are read and labeled as they arrive, with each cap, term and renewal date pulled out. If you inherited the department, you can see what it holds.
Try asking
I’m new in this role. What agreements do we hold, what does each cap, and what renews before June?
It separates rate from hours from the number of placements, so the brief says what drove the change this year, with sources your cabinet can open.
Try asking
The cabinet asks why special education staffing costs more this year. Draft the brief with sources.
It reads public FCMAT reviews, board packets and bid awards to show how similar districts staff a program and what they pay for it, with a source on every row.
Try asking
What do districts our size do for behavior services? Use public FCMAT reviews and board packets.
Standing work
Saved analyses run again when new data arrives, so the version you bring to cabinet in May reflects the rates you hold in May, and the letter that follows is ready to edit.
Workflows
Set a run rule once. When a new rate sheet, invoice file or PO export comes in, the comparison runs again and anything that changed lands on your Home page.
Try asking
Re-run our agency rate comparison whenever a new rate sheet comes in.
Letters
When a rate moves past the county median, it drafts the letter on your letterhead, citing the rate review clause in your agreement. You edit it and send it yourself.
Try asking
Draft a letter asking this agency to match the median rate in our county.
Memory
It keeps short notes as you work: which agency covers which positions, who signs off, what cabinet asked for last time. You can read and change every note, and it won’t keep a note about a student.
Your year
Tie routines to the California dates your department already plans around, and the analysis is waiting before each one.
All year Coming up
IEP meetings, assessments, compensatory services and due process.
What the Assistant hands you: This work stays with your team. The Assistant’s special education work runs on contracts and costs.
Jul to Aug Coming up
Extended school year runs, and NPS and NPA master contracts start on fiscal-year terms.
What the Assistant hands you: The agreements that start July 1, with rates by position and caps.
Sep Coming up
Caseloads are assigned and agencies fill the open positions.
What the Assistant hands you: Agency cost against in-house cost for each open position.
Early Oct Coming up
Census Day sets total enrollment for the year.
What the Assistant hands you: Special education enrollment set against total enrollment, over five years.
Dec 15 Coming up
First interim report, where the general fund’s contribution to special education shows.
Ed Code 42130
What the Assistant hands you: Spending this year against last, by agency, with what drove the change.
Spring Coming up
Agencies and the county send rate sheets for next year.
What the Assistant hands you: What changed for each position, set against your county and similar districts.
May Coming up
Board items for next year’s agency and NPA contracts.
What the Assistant hands you: The board item, with rates against similar districts and the fiscal impact.
Jun Coming up
Program and staffing decisions for next year, before the budget is adopted.
What the Assistant hands you: Options for cabinet, with the cost of each.
Try asking
These are requests a special education director might hand it. Each one runs on agreements, rates and spending.
Rates
Compare our SLP, OT, BCBA and nurse rates with districts our size, by vendor.
Rate sheets
This agency sent next year’s rate sheet. What changed for each position, and how does it compare with our county?
Agencies
We buy the same positions from two agencies. Which one should get each position, based on the rates we already hold?
Spending
Show our agency and NPA spend this year against last year. Was it the rate, the hours or the number of placements?
Cabinet
The cabinet asks why special education staffing costs more this year. Draft the brief with sources.
Staffing
What would it cost to hire three teachers with benefits instead of these eight agency positions?
Letter
Draft a letter asking this agency to match the median rate in our county.
Board
Draft the board item for next year’s agency and NPA contracts, with the fiscal impact.
Research
What do districts our size do for behavior services? Use public FCMAT reviews and board packets.
New in the role
I’m new in this role. What agreements do we hold, what does each cap, and what renews before June?
Systems
It works from your shared folders of agreements and rate sheets, finance exports for spending, board packets and public state data.
There’s no connection to your IEP system. Special education work in District Focus runs on agreements, rate sheets, invoices and public data.
Privacy and security
Platform
We’ll show you the Assistant comparing that kind of sheet with districts your size, and walk you through how files that name a student are handled.
