a message from the cse president
Dear CSE Community,
Happy New Year! 2025 is certainly off to an energized start at Lower Merion School District!
In addition to the announcement of new leadership, the Committee for Special Education is pleased to present our newest endeavor, The LMSD Guide for Special Education and Related Student Supports.
This special project is a collaboration of efforts between the CSE and LMSD Administration -- a living/virtual document designed to be a valuable tool in helping our families navigate the world of special education at LMSD.
As a parent of a student with special needs, I am personally so pleased to offer you this comprehensive guide. I truly wish that something like this had been available for my family to utilize when we were first introduced to the world of special education. It was hard enough managing a diagnosis, symptoms and life at home. It was an emotional and chaotic time. I remember being overwhelmed as I took that deep dive into massive amounts of district paperwork, web pages and policy documents to find the information we needed to best prepare my child for his many hours, weeks, months and years spent at school.
I hope that the creation of this Guide eases that stress for others. It is all here, in one easily accessible place for parents/guardians/students/staff to examine as needed. Note that the Guidebook is not meant to explain anything that used to exist in the past, nor is it intended to state our wants/needs/wishes for the future. It is a comprehensive guide to LMSD special education in the here and now. District administration has committed to revising it at least on an annual basis, providing updates as educational programming and extracurricular offerings change. It will also be modified on an as-needed basis to accommodate for changes in education law and alterations made to LMSD policies.
As I’m sure many of you already know, it takes a village! Please allow me a moment to thank those in our village who helped foster this initiative from just “an idea” to reality. Thank-you-in-advance to LMSD Student Services Director Kimberly Fraser and her team of Special Education Supervisors.
This team will be presenting the Guidebook, chapter-by-chapter, at two upcoming LMSD community education Zoom sessions, co-hosted by CSE. Please mark your calendars. Two different presentation times are being scheduled to accommodate for the Guidebook’s length. They will include differing content, so please plan on joining us for both.
In advance of these Zoom meetings, we are asking parents/guardians/students to submit any questions you may have in advance by filling out this questionnaire. We look forward to receiving your questionnaire feedback no later than Thursday, January 16.
Please make sure you schedule time to read through the LMSD Guidebook for Special Education and Related Student Supports before submitting your responses.
Each Zoom session will have time set aside for Q&A with District staff answering your questions specifically related to the Guidebook topic chapters. Again, please submit your questionnaire feedback no later than Thursday, January 16.
Much appreciation goes to Past Superintendent Dr. Steven Yanni, the initial leader and cheerleader of this project who set the tone for complete and equal collaboration between CSE executive officers and LMSD special education staff in co-authoring the content. We are forever grateful for his enthusiasm and the amount of time and energy he spent on this initiative during his final months at LMSD.
After his departure, Acting Superintendent Megan Shafer took over managing the many drafts and edits, coordinating with LMSD’s Special Education and Student Services department staff. Ms. Shafer also helped set a new schedule of benchmark deadlines that brought us to where we are today. We are very grateful for her expertise on the topic of legal equity and her familiarity with LMSD policies related to special education. Her commitment to make this a transparent communication document is very much appreciated.
Additional thanks go out to PaTTAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network) who provided valuable consultation and support throughout the 10-month creation process. They also provided many of the helpful charts and attachments embedded within our Guidebook. And the next time you run into one of our CSE Executive Officers, please extend them a hearty thank you! In the spirit of true community volunteerism, a lot of their personal time was spent crafting this document as a labor of love, creating what I think is a true gift to our LMSD special education community – one that will have a lasting impact for many years and for many students to come.
Thank you for taking time to read through this email. We look forward to receiving your feedback and seeing you at our first Zoom information session on January 23rd.
Best wishes,
Cara Herrmann
President
Lower Merion School District Committee for Special Education
Happy New Year! 2025 is certainly off to an energized start at Lower Merion School District!
In addition to the announcement of new leadership, the Committee for Special Education is pleased to present our newest endeavor, The LMSD Guide for Special Education and Related Student Supports.
This special project is a collaboration of efforts between the CSE and LMSD Administration -- a living/virtual document designed to be a valuable tool in helping our families navigate the world of special education at LMSD.
- The Guide provides a list of special education and related support topics, explained to our parent/guardian/student community in a transparent and factual manner.
- This resource communicates anything and everything that LMSD currently offers to our students receiving special education services.
- It is written with the intent to be easily understood and readily available to our diverse community – whether your child is joining our district for the first time as a kindergartener, or you are a seasoned member of our parent/guardian community, with perhaps an older student newly diagnosed and thus receiving special education services for the first time.
- It is helpful for age-appropriate students to use as a tool for self-advocacy and it is also intended to be a resource for LMSD teachers and staff.
As a parent of a student with special needs, I am personally so pleased to offer you this comprehensive guide. I truly wish that something like this had been available for my family to utilize when we were first introduced to the world of special education. It was hard enough managing a diagnosis, symptoms and life at home. It was an emotional and chaotic time. I remember being overwhelmed as I took that deep dive into massive amounts of district paperwork, web pages and policy documents to find the information we needed to best prepare my child for his many hours, weeks, months and years spent at school.
I hope that the creation of this Guide eases that stress for others. It is all here, in one easily accessible place for parents/guardians/students/staff to examine as needed. Note that the Guidebook is not meant to explain anything that used to exist in the past, nor is it intended to state our wants/needs/wishes for the future. It is a comprehensive guide to LMSD special education in the here and now. District administration has committed to revising it at least on an annual basis, providing updates as educational programming and extracurricular offerings change. It will also be modified on an as-needed basis to accommodate for changes in education law and alterations made to LMSD policies.
As I’m sure many of you already know, it takes a village! Please allow me a moment to thank those in our village who helped foster this initiative from just “an idea” to reality. Thank-you-in-advance to LMSD Student Services Director Kimberly Fraser and her team of Special Education Supervisors.
This team will be presenting the Guidebook, chapter-by-chapter, at two upcoming LMSD community education Zoom sessions, co-hosted by CSE. Please mark your calendars. Two different presentation times are being scheduled to accommodate for the Guidebook’s length. They will include differing content, so please plan on joining us for both.
- Thursday, January 23rd beginning at 7:00 pm on Zoom
- Wednesday, February 5th, also beginning at 7:00 pm on Zoom.
In advance of these Zoom meetings, we are asking parents/guardians/students to submit any questions you may have in advance by filling out this questionnaire. We look forward to receiving your questionnaire feedback no later than Thursday, January 16.
Please make sure you schedule time to read through the LMSD Guidebook for Special Education and Related Student Supports before submitting your responses.
Each Zoom session will have time set aside for Q&A with District staff answering your questions specifically related to the Guidebook topic chapters. Again, please submit your questionnaire feedback no later than Thursday, January 16.
Much appreciation goes to Past Superintendent Dr. Steven Yanni, the initial leader and cheerleader of this project who set the tone for complete and equal collaboration between CSE executive officers and LMSD special education staff in co-authoring the content. We are forever grateful for his enthusiasm and the amount of time and energy he spent on this initiative during his final months at LMSD.
After his departure, Acting Superintendent Megan Shafer took over managing the many drafts and edits, coordinating with LMSD’s Special Education and Student Services department staff. Ms. Shafer also helped set a new schedule of benchmark deadlines that brought us to where we are today. We are very grateful for her expertise on the topic of legal equity and her familiarity with LMSD policies related to special education. Her commitment to make this a transparent communication document is very much appreciated.
Additional thanks go out to PaTTAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network) who provided valuable consultation and support throughout the 10-month creation process. They also provided many of the helpful charts and attachments embedded within our Guidebook. And the next time you run into one of our CSE Executive Officers, please extend them a hearty thank you! In the spirit of true community volunteerism, a lot of their personal time was spent crafting this document as a labor of love, creating what I think is a true gift to our LMSD special education community – one that will have a lasting impact for many years and for many students to come.
Thank you for taking time to read through this email. We look forward to receiving your feedback and seeing you at our first Zoom information session on January 23rd.
Best wishes,
Cara Herrmann
President
Lower Merion School District Committee for Special Education