The special education program in Howard County public schools has been under fire for years.

But on Thursday at a Board of Education meeting, the school district unveiled a new strategic plan that aims to restructure and bolster the program.

The plan was received well by board members, but some concerns were brought up.

Plan to improve special education

The five-year plan -- named Building Better Together: Strategic Support for Growth and Success -- was created with input from staff, students, families, and other community groups. 

The overarching goal is to make special education in the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) a consistent experience across the board.

"We have heard and understand that we have best practices in the delivery of instruction in many of our spaces, but we are not consistent at a district-wide level in our delivery," said Jennifer Riccardi, the acting director of special education.

The plan has five themes:

• Accelerating Student Learning
• Enhancing Supportive and Safe Learning Environments
• Increasing Staff Support and Capacity Building
• Implementing Organization Improvements
• Fostering Family and Community Engagement

Each theme has its own goals, strategies, and methods of measuring progress. 

Some of those goals include improving IEP progress, creating more professional learning pipelines for educators, and increasing transparency with families.

Some of the plans that have already been implemented, adding staff like coordinators and autism specialists.

The plan even includes timelines.

Jolene Mosley, Board of Education chair, expressed some concern Thursday. 

She said the plan's progress is measured too much by students' progress.

Mosley believes the plan should look more to educators for that.

"If [educators] are feeling like they are able to meet the needs of their students, if they feel like their students are making progress, and things that are defined by that," Mosley said. "Not on the shoulders of the student."

An implementation team has been made and will monitor the plan's progress.

Riccardi and Jenn Webster, HCPSS's Chief Academic Officer, say the plan can go beyond special education.

"Whether we're talking about students with an IEP, a multilingual learner, a student who is just having an emotional crisis -- there's a lot of pieces here that will give us strong infrastructure for all students," Webster said.

A public dashboard will be made for anyone to monitor the plan's progress.