Dear families,

We are writing to inform you about a change to the Citywide DCD and Autism Program at Minneapolis Public Schools. The changes reflect a commitment to the MPS community schools model, as well as aligning with national best practices for delivering services to students.

We want to assure you that no changes are made to programming or services for any special education student without comprehensive engagement of families. Parents are involved at every step as decisions are made about how to best meet the needs of their child. As you know, parents and IEP teams work together when determining the placement of a student in a community school or the citywide program. Over the past number of years, more parents are exploring options within their community school.

As a result, we have had unfilled spots within our Citywide DCD Program at Lake Harriet Lower this year and have made the decision to go down from two DCD classrooms at Lake Harriet Lower to one DCD classroom at Lake Harriet Lower.   We will continue to work closely with Merry Tilleson, principal at Lake Harriet Lower, to ensure quality special education programming for your child at Lake Harriet Lower for the 2017-2018 school year.

2017-2018  Lake Harriet Lower DCD program
1 DCD teacher
 3 SEAs
8-10 students
I want to be very clear that no children are being moved out of the program. The change in classrooms at your school means your child will have more classmates next year and may end up working with a different teacher. Please know that through these changes we will continue to maintain a high standard of teaching and learning. We will continue to evaluate and monitor our enrollment in citywide programming as we move forward in the future.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email Amy Johnson, Director of Special Education Programs, or by phone at 612-668-5402.

Thank you for working together with us to support your student at MPS.

Sincerely,

Rochelle Cox
Executive Director of Special Education