Recommendations Presented to the State Board of Education to Reimagine the Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) leaders presented a series of recommendations to the State Board of Education (Board) today to reimagine the DESE-operated Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled (MSSD). Those recommendations include

• Consolidating MSSD’s 34 locations during the next 10 years, beginning in the 2026-27 school year, into 12 newer facilities, rebuilt or remodeled to better serve students with extensive support needs (ESN); and
• Creating a grant program to build capacity within Missouri’s local education agencies (LEAs) to better serve students with ESN and incentivize the formation of LEA cooperatives to provide high-quality programming in key geographic areas.

Established by state law in 1957, MSSD serves children and youth with ESN between the ages of 5 and 21. Students are currently referred to MSSD when their local school district is unable to meet their unique educational needs. Missouri is the only state that still uses a system of separate state-operated schools to educate students with ESN.

Throughout the last two years, DESE worked with Public Consulting Group LLC (PCG) and Capital Asset Engineering to independently evaluate the operational and educational programming of MSSD to ensure students within the program receive the highest quality educational opportunities. In September 2024, a Long Range Planning Advisory Committee (LRPAC), made up of more than 50 stakeholders, was established to review the findings of the PCG study and make recommendations to the Board. The LRPAC held its last formal meeting in February to finalize the recommendations presented to the Board today.

“We appreciate the commitment the LRPAC members demonstrated throughout their work,” said Commissioner of Education Dr. Karla Eslinger “I know they did not make these recommendations without careful consideration. Ultimately, their recommendations reveal that consolidating our efforts would result in a more efficient program that enriches the resources we provide at each MSSD location and enhances the services provided to students with severe disabilities and their families. LEAs can rest assured that, if necessary, the state will help provide the resources and support needed to educate their students with severe disabilities locally.”

During the group’s work, the LRPAC identified many strengths among MSSD’s work, including staff and leadership who are supportive and knowledgeable and team members who provide a caring environment for students. The LRPAC also recognized several unique challenges MSSD faces:

• Enrollment: MSSD has experienced a 36 percent enrollment decline during the last 16 years (1,033 to 660 students statewide).
• Staff recruitment and retention: There is currently a 23 percent vacancy rate among MSSD staff (115 vacant positions), along with a high turnover rate in MSSD leadership roles.
• Facilities: Most MSSD students are being served in aging facilities that were not designed to serve students with ESN. Many buildings also do not provide enough learning space or have excessive wasted and unused space.
• Instruction: Currently, there are inconsistent measures in place for progress monitoring, student outcomes, or alignment to statewide alternate learning standards. There’s also limited ability for MSSD students to interact socially with their non-disabled peers.

“Since fall 2023, staff vacancies have forced the emergency temporary consolidation of six MSSD schools,” said Office of Special Education (OSE) Assistant Commissioner Dr. Mark Wheatley. “Those temporary emergency consolidations were necessary to ensure MSSD students were safe and provided essential educational opportunities, but we must do more to improve on these conditions. We know this will be challenging work, and we appreciate the partnership and collaboration of all stakeholders involved as we work to do what’s best for students.”

“I appreciate DESE and MSSD including the perspective of special education directors statewide in the LRPAC process, as we all come together to address these challenges and improve outcomes for students with unique educational needs,” said Liz Smith, current President for the Missouri Council of Administrators of Special Education, who also serves Reeds Spring Schools as the Director of Business and Finance, and formerly as the Director of Special Education. “The LRPAC recommendations focused on building capacity within LEAs and LEA cooperatives will be crucial to this success. The pledge from DESE and MSSD to support local educators with professional development and access to funding for the specialized equipment, skilled personnel, and other resources necessary to meet these students’ needs shows the state is committed to a thoughtful and deliberate long-term strategy to best serve students and their families.” 

OSE and MSSD leaders are also working to ensure Missouri students with ESN are being educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE), a guiding principle of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that ensures students with disabilities are educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate. Currently, 36 states are educating students with ESN in less restrictive placements than Missouri does.

“The LRPAC thought carefully about LRE and how our state can most appropriately ensure that students with ESN have access to the free, appropriate public education they are guaranteed in IDEA,” said Dr. Wheatley. “It is also important that we consider how to provide students with ESN more opportunities for interaction with their non-disabled peers and opportunities for successful educational outcomes within or closer to their local school community.”

At this time, no final decisions have been made regarding large scale changes to the program. MSSD leaders plan to ask the Board to act on the LRPAC recommendations at the Board’s meeting on June 3, 2025.

The LRPAC’s recommendations presented to the Board are available on DESE’s website. The MSSD Report and Executive Summary, along with the monthly LRPAC meeting materials, can be found on DESE’s MSSD LRPAC webpage.