Ingenuity Prep prepares PreK, elementary, and middle school students in Ward 8 to succeed in college and beyond as impactful civic leaders. Our innovative instructional model promotes small group learning for students, collaborative teaching teams, and robust coaching and professional development opportunities for teachers. Our teacher career ladder rewards strong performance over time, giving teachers the opportunity to earn higher levels of base compensation and bonuses as they demonstrate effectiveness with their students and colleagues. Our instructional leaders are charged with supporting teachers by providing clear expectations, ongoing feedback, and targeted development.
We are looking for an outstanding Director of Student Services to help shape our vision of excellence in serving students with disabilities and identified needs, ensure that students are receiving the services that meet their unique needs, and provide services to students as needed. This is an exceptional opportunity for an educator to combine a leadership role with an opportunity to provide fidelity in experiences for our unique learners.
WHAT WE’RE ABOUT
- Mission: We’re closing the opportunity gap. Students and families in Southeast D.C. have too few options for high-quality elementary, middle, and high schools. Ingenuity Prep aspires to right this systemic injustice providing an exemplary educational option for Southeast D.C. 's students and families.
- Model: We pair high expectations with high support. Too often, our students are underestimated. At Ingenuity Prep, an innovative teacher development model, paired with best-in-class training from strong instructional leaders, allows us to grow great teachers who, ultimately, lead high-expectation and high-support classrooms.
- Results: Our students are defying expectations. Ingenuity Prep’s students outperform their neighborhood peers on rigorous, national, college-track assessments. Already out-performing many of their more privileged peers around the city, in the coming years, Ingenuity Prep’s students will provide an expectation-defying and achievement-gap-closing proof point — showing what our kids are capable of when we provide the right opportunities, expectations, and support.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
The Director of Student Services will:
Lead Ingenuity Prep’s Special Education Programming by:
- Provide leadership and supervision for the special education program including the monitoring of Individualized Education Plans-IEPs for students with disabilities
- Ensure compliance with federal and state laws and regulations related to special education, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, along with overseeing internal processes for LEA compliance with special education requirements
- Oversee school-wide compliance on service hours, and provide feedback and thought-partnership to case managers on meeting service hours.
- Ensure high quality planning and implementation of Extended School Year
- Ensure comprehensive data reviews and progress monitoring to drive selection of interventions, revision to plans and programs, and consideration of additional or alternative supports;
- Coordinate the evaluation, identification, and placement of students with disabilities and oversee the provision of appropriate accommodations, modifications, and specialized instruction to meet their educational needs
Provide People and Team Management by:
- Establishes, articulates, aligns, and promotes the Student Services Team (SST)’s vision, mission, values, and goals. The SST team currently consists of two school psychologists, two speech language pathologists, one applied behavior analyst, one occupational therapist and any contracted related service providers.
- Own responsibility for ensuring that the SST team meets or exceeds its annual goals, and oversees execution of all action steps necessary to hit benchmarks.Advice and support academy Principals in the development of Special Education Vice Principals.
- Design and oversee execution of a robust professional development plan for SST members; collaborate on professional development opportunities for school staff.
- Create and maintain a strong, positive adult culture achieved through empowering coaching and management practices
Provide School Wide Support by:
- Serve as the school’s point person for legal matters/counsel associated with our Special Education program.
- Collaborate with the leaders of the Student Support and Wellness Team to ensure families served by the SST are getting high-quality support that meets their needs, as well as with other school leaders and all members of the Executive Team, and complete other duties as assigned.
As a member of the Senior Leadership team, you will:
- Ensure compliance and the effectiveness of student services programming by providing feedback and thought-partnership to Senior Leadership Team
- Meaningfully engage with organizational priorities through continuous collaboration with members of the senior leadership and executive team
WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR
Ingenuity Prep may be the right fit for you if:
- You have at least five years of combined experience as a lead or special education teacher, service provider, or instructional/sped leader in a low-income school.
- You want to work closely with your peers, and in a school where collaboration is a critical component of the instructional model.
- You want to work in a feedback-rich culture, and are eager to grow your practice as well as the practice of teachers.
- You have deep experience in areas of compliance.
- You have expertise on providing trauma-informed support to students.
- You believe effective instruction is full of joy and rigor.
- You have experience working with a variety of school-based assessments.
- You have a Bachelor’s degree and, ideally, a graduate degree in education, preferably Special Education
MORE ABOUT US
Ingenuity Prep offers among the strongest compensation and benefits packages of any public charter school in Washington, D.C. Our compensation and benefits package includes:
- Salary starting at $104,545 with increasing commensurate for 1-10 years of experience.
- 100% of medical and dental premiums for employees paid for by Ingenuity Prep, along with 100% of dependent premiums.
- 100% of employee’s short and long-term disability and life insurance plans paid for by Ingenuity Prep.
- A minimum of two weeks maternity/paternity leave at 100% pay for all staff -- regardless of gender. Over time, that increases to as much as six weeks -- all at 100% pay.
- A 100% match -- up to 3% -- on your 401K retirement plan.
- A 100% Ingenuity Prep-paid cell phone plan. You can even bring your current number into our plan.
- MacBook Air computer for professional and personal use.
Ingenuity Prep does not make hiring decisions on the basis of race, color, creed, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, age, disability, veteran status, religion, political affiliation or any other characteristic protected by state, federal, or local law. A COVID vaccination (or exemption) is required for all Ingenuity Prep staff.