New Mat-Su special ed group looks to connect parents with district officials

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su School District is forming a Special Education Engagement Team to improve communication between parents of students with special needs and district officials.
• The initiative follows advocacy efforts led by a district parent. While the new group will not have formal policy-making authority, it can provide input on updates to special education programs.
• The team will meet quarterly during the 2025-26 school year. A kickoff meeting later this month will focus on reviewing current services and defining the group’s purpose.

PALMER – A new Mat-Su school committee looks to connect parents of students with special needs to the district officials who oversee their education programs.

The Special Education Engagement Team will hold its first meeting Monday. It will create a space for “constructive feedback” on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District’s special education programs, district spokesperson John Notestine said in a statement.

The group will meet quarterly during the 2025-26 school year, according to a district announcement issued this month. The first meeting will include an overview of current special education services and a discussion of the group’s purpose, Notestine said.

The announcement follows months of requests for such a group from district parent Rebecca Emerson, a special education advocate who regularly speaks at school board meetings. Her 7-year-old son, a first grader with Down syndrome, is enrolled in a district elementary school and frequently joins her at the sessions.

While she believes her son is receiving excellent services at his current school, Emerson said that’s not always the case for every student. Parents of students with specialized learning plans or classroom accommodations — known as IEPs and 504 plans — often struggle to navigate the public education system, access services and advocate for their children, she said in an interview.

Emerson launched an online petition last fall to build support for the effort and gathered signatures from more than 100 district parents, she said.

She hopes the new group gives families a way to work with the district to improve special needs support and communication despite ongoing budget challenges.

“I think when you’re in a resource-constrained environment, if you don’t speak up, then it’s hard to allocate those limited resources because you might not know what the issues are,” she said. “I thought it was really important to have some sort of parent and teacher input to these decisions so we don’t get overlooked.”

Emerson, who volunteered in special education advocacy in other school districts and at the Defense Department before moving to Mat-Su last year, initially asked the district to empower the group with an official special needs policy advisory role.

The new engagement team won’t set policy, but it could help inform that work, Notestine said.

That’s a good first step, Emerson said.

“I am an optimist. I’m going to make this work,” she said. “And if it turns into something that isn’t working, I’m gonna try to change it.”

The group announcement comes amid an ongoing lawsuit filed in late 2023 against the district and three employees, alleging the district illegally restrains and isolates disabled students in violation of state and federal laws and its own guidelines.

The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage by district parents on behalf of their child and other disabled students. A status conference for that case is scheduled for May 8 in Anchorage.

Individuals can attend the Special Education Engagement Team’s first meeting from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 28, at the district administration building in Palmer. Future meeting times will be scheduled based on feedback. A registration and feedback form is available.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com