Pittsburgh Public Schools to transition students out of Oliver Citywide Academy under new special education plan
The Pittsburgh Public School District has released its three-year plan for the district’s special education.
This plan will apply district-wide but includes some notable changes to Oliver Citywide Academy.
Assistant Superintendent Patti Camper oversees the Program for Students with Exceptionalities.
“We should be overachieving our standards, so where we are now is that we’re not even in compliance, and my hope is that over the next three years, not only do we become compliant, but that we actually exceed those standards for all of our students and especially students with disabilities,” Camper said.
The presentation explained that the district aims to have special education students in regular education classrooms 80% of the time, or more. In Pittsburgh Public Schools, that’s happening about 55% of the time.
“School districts understand that we are pre-obligated to serve students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, and we should do it, because it’s best practice for all students, but how to actually do it, and doing it is really hard,” PPS board member for District 4, Pam Harbin, said.
A district spokesperson said more than 2,000 PPS students have an IEP, an Individualized Education Program.
Oliver Citywide Academy has around 100 students, all with IEPs.
This plan includes moving Oliver Citywide’s grades 3-5 to a satellite site in a neighborhood school during the 2023-24 school year and creating a pilot program to establish transition satellite sites for structured transitions of grades 6-12 back to regular schools.
The district said this plan was created in March, before the fatal shooting of an Oliver Citywide Academy student in May. Derrick Harris, 15, was shot and killed outside of the school.
At the end of the presentation, board member Sala Udin stressed the urge to not meet special education standards but exceed them.
“The board needs to think about how we construct a system of monitoring our special education program on an ongoing basis,” Udin said.
The district could not comment on how these planned changes, specifically to Oliver Citywide Academy, will impact the state of the school during and beyond the next school year.
