Director of Special Services - Ontario, United States - REAL Journey Academies

REAL Journey Academies

Verified Company

Ontario, United States

3 weeks ago

Posted by:

Mark Lane

beBee recruiter

Description

REAL Journey Academies (RJA) is a non-profit public charter school management organization designed to significantly increase college entrance and graduation rates for underserved students, in addition to educating a highly prepared workforce. We aim to impact and revitalize communities through the integration of high quality educational programing, as well as supportive community and family partnerships, to ensure we reach our goal of supporting each RJA student to reach their promise as learners.

Reporting Structure:

The Director of Special Services is a member of the REAL Journey Academies' Academic Leadership Team, reporting to the Assistant Superintendent.

Primary Responsibility:

The primary responsibility of the director is to ensure that Special Education (SpEd) and English Learner (EL) programing of each REAL Journey Academies' schools are of the highest quality, and produce students who are fully college and career ready. The director will be responsible for all aspects of the RJA Network's SpEd and EL Programing, as well as supporting the daily improvement of classroom instruction that results in high levels of student academic performance. The director is responsible to ensure students achieve high standards for student academic performance and to do so with a high level of integrity. The director also supports the district's initiatives to maximize student performance across the curriculum by leading efforts to fully integrate an inclusionary approach by supporting students in the least restrictive environment. The director will have a range of state and local reporting responsibility, as well as maintaining a close working relationship with our local authorizers and Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA).

Essential Functions & Responsibilities
-
Responsible for providing support and coordination on a variety of projects and activities related to the performance of RJA schools through the Academic Leadership Team in support of maximizing student outcomes for RJA students, particularly diverse learners (SpEd & EL).
-
Work with others to create a shared vision of instructional excellence; develop partnerships, resources, and capacities to make the vision a reality.
-
Complete and maintain all records as required by the California State Department of Education, County Superintendent's Office, and/or authorizer connected to SpEd or EL programing.
-
Develop programing and organize the services mandated by IDEA for special education and legal guidelines for educating English Learners into a service delivery model to best fit the structure and scope of each RJA school. Collaborates with RJA and school administrators to integrate effective special education and language acquisition programing into all classrooms.
-
Evaluate, in collaboration with building principals, teachers and support staff working to specifically support SpEd and EL students.
-
Develop and manage a process to develop highly effective and compliant Individual Education Plans (IEPs) in all RJA schools, including professional development. Develop and manage a plan to ensure IEP compliance with federal and state requirements.
-
Interacts with schools, parents, and SpEd/EL students as appropriate, to meet the needs of all Special Education and English Language Learners.
-
Maintain records, attend IEP meetings as necessary, and coordinate integration activities of students contracted through state operated programs, including contracting for independent evaluations as necessary.
-
Develop a Professional Learning Community for diverse learner service providers (SpEd and EL) with a defined focus on staff development, including holding periodic staff meetings for the purpose of discussing business pertaining to the department.
-
Participate in the periodic meeting of our authorizers and partner districts; serving as a liaison between our authorizers and/or our local Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) for each school.
-
Ensure full compliance to appropriately identify diverse learners, including the management of EL testing and reporting requirements and development of appropriate "child find" systems for SpEd.
-
Possesses a sense of vision and projects that sense, involves others in accomplishing goals and solving problems, and interacts with diverse groups successfully.
-
Demonstrates success incorporating culturally-competent strategies and utilizing culturally-responsive communication and engagement strategies with all members of the school community.
-
Oversees data collection and analysis for planning, scheduling, and leads in the use of language proficiency data with state level assessment and achievement data to improve the overall achievement of ELL students.
- ** Participates in the design and implementation of a strategic Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) to ensure that SpEd and EL issues are fully int