Where Hinsdale D-86 Falls Below State Averages

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86's four-year graduation rates for special education students are lower than state averages.

Residents Catherine Greenspon and Kim Notaro pointed out these numbers at a recent school board meeting.

In response, the district released a statement to "current and future" District 86 families calling the residents' information and conclusions "incomplete" and "misleading."

The women got their numbers from the Illinois Report Card website, which contains information collected from school districts themselves.

The district has about 550 students who are receiving some form of special education. Each one has an "individualized education plan," or IEP.

In 2021, 35.5 percent of South's students with IEPs graduated after four years of high school. That compares with 72 percent statewide. At Central, 62 percent graduated, also under the state average.

Central's and South's numbers have dropped in the last five years. In 2016, 65 percent of South's students with IEPs graduated, compared with 71 percent statewide. Central exceeded the state average with 82 percent.

The district notes that its transition center helps students with special needs from 18 to 22 years old.

At the board meeting earlier this month, Greenspon referred to the drops in graduation rates among students with IEPs as "alarming."

"Is District 86 helping at-risk students close the academic gap or is it manufacturing students for the transition center?" Notaro asked.

The district's message to families focused on the residents' reference to South's 35.5 percent graduation rate among students with IEPs.

"While their efforts may have been well-intentioned, the information they presented was incomplete and opinions/conclusions they shared were misleading," Superintendent Tammy Prentiss said in the statement.

She said the residents failed to provide a "complete or accurate picture of the critical transition services we offer to our students with special needs, or the path they need to take to pursue their ideal future."

Prentiss said 69 of the South's 377 seniors in 2021 had IEPs and were eligible to receive services through the transition center.

"In order to be eligible, these students had to have enough high school course credits to graduate," Prentiss said.

According to the district, 45 of the 69 students with IEPs and enough credits to graduate chose to move on to the transition center. The other 24 also had enough credits and decided to continue with something other than the center, the district said.

"Despite having enough credits to graduate, there is an existing state law that precludes students who participate in transition programming from being included in our graduation rate until they are done receiving services from Transition/District 86," Prentiss said. "In addition, if these services extend beyond six years (four years in high school and two years in Transition), the state will not include them in our graduation data regardless of when they finish with us."

The district plans to address the graduation rate issue at its meeting Thursday.

In the meeting presentation this month, Greenspon and Notaro apparently expected officials to bring up the transition center in their response. The women said they found that other schools with such centers achieved considerably higher four-year graduation rates than District 86.

For example, Joliet Central High School, which has a transition center, graduated nearly half of its students with IEPs in 2021. That's lower than the state average, but higher than Hinsdale South.

At Joliet Central, 60 percent of students are considered low-income. That rate is far higher than either Central or South.

Greenspon noted Notaro has spoken about issues related to special education students for years, but her pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

"I need to remind you that it is your obligation as a board member to look at the entire data set prior to making a decision that would affect the entire study body or a subset of the student body," Greenspon said.