College Station ISD highlights student health initiatives, special education progress

Included in SHAC's key recommendations:

• Support for adding a floating nurse position to improve coverage when school nurses are out and expanding partnerships to build a stronger nurse pool
• Participation in National Walk and Roll to School Day, Oct. 7
• Creating a subcommittee on active transportation
• Create another subcommittee for a future Healthy Families Expo, to be held in the spring of 2027

Also on the agenda

Trustees also received an extensive update on the district's special education department, which reported increasing evaluation requests and ongoing program improvements.

As of April, the district had completed 675 initial special education evaluations, continuing a trend of rising demand.

Blaire Grande, executive director of special services, highlighted several program success, including:

• Student participation in Special Olympics competitions
• A transition-focused "pop-up market," allowing post-high school students to sell goods to the community
• Strong reading growth among kindergarten through third-grade students receiving services

A major operational change will return central office instructional coaches to campus teaching roles while restructuring caseloads for specialized facilitators.

Grande said the move places staff directly in classrooms where they interact daily with students while reducing reliance on contracted services. She said this will generate an estimated $300,000 in savings.

Students exiting special education programs are performing at levels comparable to their typical education peers, Grande said, which signals positive academic outcomes.