Special Education in Institutional Settings (SEIS)

Since July of 2008, the Collaborative for Educational Services has been working with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the delivery and coordination of special education services in four Massachusetts state agencies, through the Special Education in Institutional Settings (SEIS) program. SEIS provides special education services throughout the Commonwealth to approximately 730 students per month in the County Houses of Correction (CHC), residential treatment programs in the Department of Mental Health (DMH), the Department of Youth Services (DYS) and the Massachusetts Hospital School of the Department of Public Health (DPH).  

Through the SEIS contract, the Collaborative recruits, hires and trains special education teachers, and collaborates with host agency leaders in improving the educational programs in each facility. SEIS teachers receive specialized training through the Collaborative’s Professional Development Department in how to best help their students to achieve levels of learning that they never dreamed of reaching. 

The SEIS student population presents complex and enormous challenges for educators. Learning challenges may be physical, cognitive, and/or psychiatric, and educators must find ways to help students access the material, and express what they have learned. In the Department of Public Health, for example, a young boy who is paralyzed may learn to manipulate his wheelchair and his computer through adaptive technology operated solely by his mouth. At the Department of Youth Services, a court-involved teenage girl who reads below grade level due to attention and other learning disorders may 'engage' for the first time through a writing project that integrates rap music with core academic subjects. 

Highlights of the past years in SEIS include substantial improvements in the professional development of educators. SEIS provides up to seven full days of professional development for teachers working in these institutional settings. Instructional coaches have also been hired to provide onsite supportive coaching for SEIS teachers as part of the overall professional development system.

As part of the effort to integrate technology into the curriculum, the Collaborative is working on the development of a web based student information system. The system will help educators acess student data in order to focus and improve the quality of instruction so that students can improve their academic success and life outcomes.        

For further information about the SEIS program, please contact:

Mary Lou Chapman
Administrator of Special Education
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