Dr. Louis Barber, a private educational consultant, presented the results of his evaluation of the BCPS Special Education Program in May 2004. Dr. Barber spent a year visiting classrooms, schools, educators and administrators. He regularly consulted the Citizen's Advisory Committee for Special Education and studied the overall practices and procedures of the BCPS Special Education Program.

Dr. Barber recommended that BCPS do the following:
· Revise staffing practices to anticipate special education staffing needs.
· Increase the placement of students with disabilities in their home schools.
· Develop a comprehensive Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Plan, including a short- and a long- range plan to accommodate students in their home school.
· Implement a plan for training IEP Teams to ensure their understanding of the law and implementation of the new direction for serving students in their home school.
· Include accountability for implementing Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) in the evaluation procedures of school principals and other school administrators.
· Provide sufficient staffing and other incentives for school administrators to bring students with IEPs back to their home schools in a systematic manner.

You can review Dr. Barber's (Executive Summary and Full Report ).