Greenville County Schools recently completed a comprehensive evaluation of its special education services for students with disabilities.
More than 12,000 students receive special education in GCS, accounting for approximately 16% of the total student population. Each student with a disability has an individualized education plan tailored to their specific needs, as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Internal and external reviews of GCS’s special education services were conducted last year to identify areas in need of improvement. The last comprehensive review was completed in 2014.
The school district kicked off the Shared Ownership Strategic Review Process in January 2025. Feedback for the internal review was collected from families, staff and community partners through surveys, focus groups, forums and a two-day summit held in September.
The American Institute of Research was hired to conduct the external review to specifically evaluate GCS’s special education systems, procedures, polices, staffing, communication and alignment with general education. The external review began in April.
Final reports on both reviews were presented to the GCS Board of Trustees during its Committee of the Whole meeting on Feb. 10. Each report outlined recommendations to improve outcomes for students with disabilities, enhance communication with families and support special education staff.
Parent communication
A common finding from both reviews of GCS’s special education services was the need for improved communication with parents and guardians of students with disabilities.
Parents specifically requested that the school district provide a centralized platform for special education communication. Another recommendation was to create a comprehensive resource guide for parents, detailing special education processes, IEP procedures and other useful information.
The internal review also highlighted that parents want to be more involved in the district’s conversations surrounding special education moving forward. For the past two years, several parents have been advocating for GCS to create a special education advisory council that would address districtwide issues related to special education. Board Vice Chair Angie Mosley supported the idea of creating a parent council during the Feb. 10 meeting.
Read more about the special education advisory council
“I do think there has to be a way for us to create that mechanism, not so much to tell the district how to do their job, but to have the conversation and ask the right questions and say, ‘Hey, this would be another sounding board,’” Mosley said.
An annual special education forum was another strategy identified in the internal review that would allow parents to share input regarding special education in GCS. Superintendent Burke Royster said district administration will need to determine the most effective way to ensure parents’ voices are heard in a manner that directly and positively influences the actions that occur throughout the school district.
Staff training
Increased support of special education teachers and staff was another topic outlined in the internal and external review reports. For example, the external review highlighted the need for GCS to ensure special education staff have manageable workloads to avoid burnout and turnover.
Another recommendation was for the school district to provide more professional learning opportunities for teachers and staff, specifically focused on meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The external review recommended that certain trainings be made mandatory for school leaders, special education teachers, general education teachers and paraprofessionals.
“This is a short-term and an extremely long-term fix that we need to do as much that will have the greatest impact as quickly as we can, but again, providing the quality we need to provide and recognizing everybody’s not in the same place and we got to tailor some of that to people who need more and to people who need less,” Royster said.
The need for additional support materials for special education teachers was also identified during the internal review. Some of the resources requested by teachers include strategies for behavior management/classroom control and a resource library on disability categories.
Next steps
District administrators plan to spend the next month reviewing and comparing the internal and external review reports. Royster said they will need to determine the most appropriate path forward for implementing the strategies and recommendations.
Other recommendations from the two reports included:
- Increasing collaboration between general education and special education staff
- Providing training opportunities for parents of students with disabilities
- Improving the transition process between grades and schools for students with disabilities
- Regularly review and update district-level special education guidance
The school district plans to start working on finding a new digital platform to streamline communication with parents of students with disabilities. Royster said they are putting together a request for proposals to find a replacement for the district’s Backpack platform. District leadership aims to select a new platform before the start of the 2026-27 school year.
GCS also plans to hire a parent resource representative. Royster explained that this position would help parents navigate through the services and processes for special education within the school district. A job posting will be created within the next week for the position.
For more information, visit greenville.k12.sc.us/About/main.asp?titleid=shared.
