Maya McFadden file photo
SCSU students moving onto campus in August.
The city’s school district is teaming up with Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) to train a group of paraprofessionals to help fill New Haven’s special education teacher gap.
That planned partnership took a step forward Tuesday afternoon as the Board of Education’s three-person Finance and Operations Committee favorably recommended a new $70,000 agreement between the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) and the local state university.
The proposal was one of two abstracts and 12 agreements that the ed board committee signed off on during Tuesday’s Zoom-hosted meeting. The deal now advances to the full Board of Education for further discussion and a potential final vote.
NHPS Director of Student Services Typhanie Jackson told the committee members on Tuesday that the alternative certification program will see 10 current NHPS support staff members participate in the SCSU partnership. (Click here to view the full agreement.)
The partnership will provide nine paraprofessionals and one behavioral specialist with training to earn their teaching certifications in special education through SCSU’s Master’s In Teaching (MAT) Program in Special Education. The educators will be required to pass all the program’s required exams in order to receive a final certification.
This is the district’s first cohort for the program, Jackson said.
The F&O Committee signed off on the proposal at a cost of $70,000, with the special education training program to cost the district $7,000 per student.
The goal of the inaugural cohort is to create more certified special education teachers for the NHPS district. The agreement’s documentation states: “The implications of not approving this agreement would be that our district would continue to have a big gap as it relates to special education services.”
The proposal comes against the backdrop of a district-wide teacher shortage in New Haven.