NASHUA — The U.S. Department of Justice continues investigating the Nashua Board of Education for allegations the district is not adequately serving students whose primary languages are not English.

Meanwhile, a report from the New Hampshire Department of Education now shows the district was out of compliance with standards for special education in 2017.

Nashua School District Director of Special Education Marcia Bagley brought forth information regarding a Special Education Compliance and Improvement Monitoring Review Report to board members during their Wednesday meeting.

“We learned from this experience that we, as a special educator administrative team, need to provide more oversight and mentoring to our staff, including our building administration, to help them better understand the process and requirements,” Bagley said.

In 2017, the district was chosen to undergo an evaluation by the Bureau of Special Education to determine compliance.

According to the Department of Education, the state has a responsibility under federal law to have a system of supervision that monitors the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by school districts.

One way the state monitors the implementation is through the Special Education Compliance and Improvement Monitoring review, which is intended to improve outcomes for students with individualized education programs (IEPs) by ensuring school districts are following state special education requirements.

The state follows a specific procedure when it comes to selecting which school will be reviewed.

Each school district is put into one of six cohort groups based on its size. Once in a cohort, schools are rated with points based on a number of factors. According to Bagley, the districts with lower point values have a less likely chance of being selected for review.

Since Nashua was selected, Bagley said they will not be selected again for another five years.

As part of the selection process, the district was advised by the state to provide a list of 91 students with disabilities. During the onsite visit, which occurred Nov. 14-17, 2017, the monitoring team pulled 63 of the 91 files to review.

“It was a very big undertaking,” Bagley told board members.

Any student with an IEP that the district is financially responsible for could have had files pulled, according to Bagley.

Data in the report found that in October 2016, there were 11,131 students enrolled in the district, including 1,797 identified with disabilities.

According to the report, based on the review, the monitoring team determined findings of noncompliance that needed to be corrected as soon as possible, and no later than six months from the date of the report.

The findings of noncompliance included:

• The lack of specification of an evaluation procedure and standards that will be used to evaluate whether a child has a specific learning disability in the district’s Special Education Procedures Plan;

• The lack of a public participation component that describes the district’s procedures to ensure the district application is available for review by parents and the general public; and

• The lack of clarity when describing the district’s procedures to ensure coordination with other local and state agencies.

There were also student-specific findings of noncompliance.

Once problems were identified, the bureau provided corrective action steps for the district to follow. Feedback was given back to the schools in January 2018 and the school was back in compliance with state standards in October 2018.

“We needed to have better communication with our staff across the district,” Bagley said. “We’ve changed some of our practices, as you’ll see in the close out letter. By October, we met full compliance for the department of education.”

As a result of this, Bagley said new hires will be going through new mandatory training.

“We have continued to provide very targeted professional development around their requirements,” she said.

Bagley also said the administrative team has a much better handle on this and a better understanding surrounding the specific language in IEPs.

“I’m pleased to hear you’ve learned and taken it as a learning exercise,” Board member Howard Coffman told Bagley. “It gives me assurance. I’m confident in what you’re doing.”

Board member Dotty Oden said she and board member Susan Porter, both former teachers, have worked with IEPs in the classroom and know “what’s involved in it and how difficult it is and what a lot of work goes into it.”

“Thank you so much. I can’t imagine what that job was like. I thank you for not only doing it, but doing it so promptly,” Oden added.

Board President Heather Raymond read a letter from the state DOE that had been shared with the board.

“It has been determined through follow-up visits at the Nashua School District for the last remaining findings that all areas of noncompliance have been fully corrected,” Raymond read.

Grace Pecci may be reached at 594-1243, or at gpecci@nashuatelegraph.com.