Third Quarter Report
2024-2025
Kentucky Educational Collaborative for State Agency Children
Kentucky Educational Collaborative for State Agency Children Mission
We are committed to the belief that all children can learn and have a right to quality education.
KECSAC protects and assures this right by accessing resources and providing support to programs that educate State Agency Children.
Those children who do not receive an education of quality cannot realize their greatest potential.
We believe these goals are achieved through the process of interagency collaboration.
To accomplish the mission, all members of this statewide partnership must exemplify and publicly promote collaborative relationships with its partners and other associates.
Interagency Advisory Group
Lalah Brewer, Department of Education
Jeremy Camron, SACSAA President, Owensboro Day Treatment
Lacheena Carothers, Department of Juvenile Justice
Diane Gruen-Kidd, Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities
Shannon Jett, Department of Juvenile Justice
Mark Kopp, Superintendent, Franklin County School District
Sarah Vivian, SACSAA President-Elect, The Academy
Christina Weeter, Department of Education
Lorraine Wilbur, Department for Community Based Services
Angela Winkfield, Department for Community Based Services
“Working Together to Educate All of Kentucky’s Children”
In accordance with the KECSAC regulations, 505 KAR 1:080, the Kentucky Educational Collaborative for State Agency Children has a governing structure that includes oversight by an Interagency Advisory Group (IAG) composed of representatives of the state agencies, KDE, the State Agency Children School Administrators’ Association (SACSAA) and a superintendent from a school district that provides education to state agency children. This group is to provide recommendations for policy and procedure development for KECSAC. The independent representatives of the state agencies, including KDE, are appointed to serve on the IAG by their respective commissioners. The president and president-elect of SACSAA serve on the IAG and are elected to those positions by the membership of the independent organization. The superintendent member of the IAG is selected by standing members of the IAG, based on recommendations or nominations by SACSAA membership. All members of the IAG serve without compensation from KECSAC.
A Message from KECSAC Director Dr. Ronnie Nolan
My Fellow Kentuckians,
Spring is such an exciting time of the year! As we transition from the dreary weather of winter to the colorful days of spring, we marvel at how each season brings new reasons to be thankful for the opportunities we have to impact the life of a child. In the various roles we have in our work with state agency children, we have even greater abilities to change the life path of our students by building relationships they’ve never known, providing experiences they’ve never seen, and offering hope for a brighter future than they’ve ever dreamed possible. Even during an uncertain political climate that has greatly affected federal funding and how the U.S. Department of Education operates, we continue to pivot to meet the changing times, and continue to focus on providing high quality educational services to children and youth in the care or custody of the Commonwealth. We also continued our efforts to educate our state agency partners about the financial needs of our school districts and our children. I’m so grateful for my role in this work, but especially appreciative to the teachers, counselors, aides, administrators and others who are the agents of change to state agency children.
Our efforts during this third quarter culminated in our Special Allocation of Targeted Funds (SATF) process for school districts serving state agency children. We initiated the SATF process in early February and received numerous quality applications outlining programs designed to positively impact student achievement. The proposals are outlined in more detail in this full report, but ranged from greenhouse garden projects to technology updates. We are excited about the opportunity to showcase many of these exceptional programs in the coming months and can’t wait to see the impact on our students’ achievement. During this quarter we also continued providing on-site technical support to our programs while maintaining a high quality program improvement process, and recognized our amazing students artists across the state.
These accomplishments, and many others, are highlighted in this third quarterly report. You will find enclosed a summary of our work and accomplishments, as well as details related to our ongoing initiatives. The ambitious action agenda we are highlighting here could not happen without the broad base of support we have formed with our state agency partners, our local school districts and the teachers and administrators working on behalf of state agency children. We appreciate your continued support as we work to enhance the educational services provided to our students.
Sincerely,
Ronnie Nolan, Ed. D.
2024 KECSAC Census Preview
Each year since KECSAC began in 1992, as part of the Department of Education’s Child Count, KECSAC staff have gathered and reported demographic information about the students served in KECSAC-funded programs. The information received from the census provides a one-day descriptive snapshot of the students educated in KECSAC-funded programs, including but not limited to: age, grade level, race, gender, identified disability, the number of students in the program on that day, and the total number of children served during the previous 12-month period.
The census count shows 1,605 students received all or part of their educational services from one of seventy KECSAC-funded programs located in forty-six school districts throughout the state contracted with KECSAC through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). KECSAC also asked administrators to report how many different students they served in their program during the 12-month period between December 2, 2023, and December 2, 2024. Administrators report that 8,668 different youth received educational services during that period.
Service to state agency children (SAC) is provided by one of Kentucky’s three state agencies that provide direct care to children, the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (DBHDID).
As shown in Figure 1, 51.6 percent (n=828) of all state agency youth receive educational services while living in one of thirty programs contracted with DCBS. These students may live in group homes, psychiatric residential treatment facilities, hospital settings, treatment centers, or temporary shelters.
DCBS contracts with private providers to administer the necessary care and treatment for these students. Programs operated by or contracted with DJJ provided educational services to 46.7 percent (n=750) of all state agency children in one of thirty-eight operated or contracted programs. DJJ operates and owns twelve residential facilities, five daytreatment programs and two residential group homes. Youth in DJJ-operated residential programs have been adjudicated by the courts and committed or probated to the custody of DJJ for a specific period. Sixty-two percent (n=467) of the DJJ population are in DJJ owned and operated programs. DJJ also contracts with local school districts to provide nineteen additional day-treatment programs. Youth in contracted day-treatment programs are court ordered to attend the program as an attempt to stabilize the youth before placement in a more restrictive environment, such as a residential program, or as a requirement of probation. Thirty-eight percent (n=283) of the DJJ population attend contracted treatment programs. In 2024, 1.7 percent (n=27) of all youth in KECSAC-funded programs receive services from a mental health day treatment (DBHDID) program.
The KECSAC census, conducted as part of the IDEA Child Find project, identifies state agency children who have been diagnosed with an IDEA educational disability. On December 2, 2024, 46 percent (n=739) of all youth receiving educational services in a program funded by KECSAC had been identified with an educational disability that adversely affects their educational progress. As illustrated in Figure 2, 34.2 percent (n=253) of all children identified with an educational disability and receiving educational services in a KECSAC-funded state agency program on December 2 have been diagnosed with an Emotional-Behavioral Disability (EBD) while 29.8 percent (n=220) of SAC diagnosed with an educational disability have a disability in the Other Health Impairment (OHI). Disabilities in this category include chronic or acute health problems such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, leukemia, and Tourette syndrome. From year to year, the types of disabilities diagnosed most often in the state agency children population changes. Although the types of educational disabilities change, one thing stays constant, students in the care and custody of the state and placed in a SAC program continue to have extensive educational needs because of the severity of the educational disabilities they exhibit.
Fig. 1
The census taken each year provides valuable information about the race and ethnicity of the youth in state care. According to the December 2 census, 65 percent (n=1044) of SAC are classified as White while over 21.9 percent (n=352) are classified as Black or African American. According to the state 2023-2024 school report card, 71.4 percent (n=453,870) of all students in Kentucky public schools are classified as White and 10.8 percent (n=68,983) are classified as Black or African American. With more than twice the percentage of Black students in state agency programs than in regular Kentucky public schools, a disproportional number of Black or African American youth are being educated in state agency programs. Youth classified as Two or More races represent 7.6 percent (n=122), and youth identified as Hispanic/Latino account for 4.5 percent (n=72) of all SAC. Just 0.9 percent (n=15) of all SAC in a KECSACfunded program on December 2 was identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian; or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
Educational Disabilities of State Agency Children
KECSAC-funded state agency educational programs provide funding to students between the ages of 5 and 21. On December 2, 2024, the average age of a youth in KECSAC-funded programs was 12 years old. The largest age group of state agency children are 16-year-olds with 20.9 percent (n=336) of the population followed by 17-year-old students with 18.4 percent (n=296).
The largest numbers of SAC were in 9th and 10th grade, representing 41.4 percent (n=665) of the entire SAC population in a KECSAC-funded program. Youth in grade eleven represent 15.5 percent (n=248) of the SAC population while 7 percent (n=113) are in grade twelve. Grades six through eight represent 26.8 percent (n=430) of the population. Students in grades Kindergarten through five represent 8.3 percent (n=133) of the population. Students in grade 14 (special education students participating in alternate assessment who have previously progressed through grade twelve assessments), and Graduates represent just one percent (n=16) of the SAC receiving educational services in a KECSAC-funded program.
The gender division of youth in KECSAC-funded programs changes very little from year to year. According to information submitted on December 2, males represented 68 percent (n=1098) and females represented 32 percent (n=507) of the total population.
Local school districts employ the equivalent of 307.50 full-time certified teachers who provide educational services to youth in KECSAC funded programs across the state. These teachers generally teach in classrooms located at the treatment program (not in a district building) and may teach several grade levels in one classroom. Seven of these teachers hold a National Board Certification and 59 percent (n=181.25) are certified in special education. Fourteen teachers in KECSAC-funded programs were emergency certified. School districts also provide 88.5 full-time equivalent teaching assistants and 100.55 full-time equivalent educational support staff to meet the intense educational needs of state agency children. Thirty-three districts provide a full-time administrator to oversee SAC education programs.
Policies and Ongoing Initiatives
KECSAC’s 2025 Student Art Competition Winners
We are proud to announce the winners of our third annual Statewide KECSAC Student Art Competition that was open during the third quarter from January 16 until February 21, 2025. Entries were open to any medium of art and categories consisted of Elementary, Middle School and High School students. We had many great entries and the review team was very impressed with the amazing talent demonstrated by our students, which made the competition tough! Our judges reviewed each submission and while all were compelling in their own right, the following entries were identified as winners in their categories. Each winner will receive a gift card and certificate of recognition for their amazing talent. Congratulations to all our winners!
Elementary School Division
First Place: N.D., “Secret Planet” - Purchase Youth Village
Second Place: R.W., “Squid” - Purchase Youth Village
Third Place: B.G., “Drippy” - Purchase Youth Village
Middle School Division
First Place: K.S., “Weirdos” - Guardian Angel School
Second Place: K.Y., “You’re Not Alone” - Heartland Youth Village
Third Place: R, “Birds” - Otter Creek Academy
Honorable Mention: K, “Disabilities” - Otter Creek Academy
High School Division
First Place: M.G., “3-D Still Life” - Warren Co. Day Treatment
Second Place: T.D., “Landscape Silhouette” - Warren Co. Day Treatment
Third Place: T.J., “Black Girl Magic” - Purchase Youth Village
Honorable Mention: J, “Sunsets” - Otter Creek Academy
Honorable Mention: B.P., “On the Horizon” - Future Forward Education & Career Center
Program Improvement Process Updates
As part of KECSAC’s ongoing program improvement process and continual growth model for helping local school districts meet the educational needs of state agency children, KECSAC Program Improvement Specialists perform annual site visits and monitoring of each of the 70 funded KECSAC programs, operating in 46 local school districts across the Commonwealth for 2024/2025. Throughout the monitoring period (which coincides with the school year) programs receive individual in-person visits, virtual visits if necessary, or “team” visits where both of the Specialists conduct a joint monitoring at the same program. At the time of this quarterly report 68 visits had been conducted for the year. KECSAC will continue to use the Program Improvement Monitoring Tool and SIDE document that aligns our monitoring standards to Cognia standards, which KDE uses for their school monitoring. In addition to the Cognia standards, the monitoring tool also includes standards that relate to alternative settings and KECSAC requirements as well. A self-assessment is also used to gauge how programs view their own progress and strengths prior to the monitoring visit.
Policies and Ongoing Initiatives
KECSAC IAG and SACSAA Meets During Third Quarter
KECSAC’s Interagency Advisory Group (IAG) met once during the third quarter on February 11, 2025 virtually since there was inclement weather that affected meeting in person. During the meeting the group discussed legislative updates, federal funding impacts, behavior management in programs, student competition outcomes, and the results of the special allocation of targeted funds that KECSAC programs were awarded. Partners also shared news and important dates relating to their respective state agencies.
During the third quarter KECSAC also conducted the Spring Statewide State Agency Children School Administrator Association (SACSAA) Virtual meeting on March 7, 2025 in order to meet MOA requirements and keep school administrators informed of state agency children news. Dr. Nolan and SACSAA President Jeremy Camron presented SACSAA updates and KECSAC news, including current legislative updates affecting KECSAC programs, KASA affiliation updates, and budget information. Attendees also received information about results of student competitions, the Special Allocation of Targeted Funds that were awarded, a preview of the 2024 Census, and upcoming professional development dates. Administrators earned three EILA hours for participating.
KECSAC Operating and SACF Totals for Third Quarter
**SACF fund reflects budget information totals submitted by districts as of 04/15/25
Budget Updates
KECSAC’s Special Allocation of Targeted Funds for 2025
Despite the amazing efforts of state agency programs across Kentucky to provide the best learning environment for their students, the reality of educational budgets often means that some supplies, technology, and projects that enhance learning aren’t feasible. In order to help this deficit for academic initiatives in currentlyfunded programs, KECSAC endeavors to make supplemental “special funds” available each year if there is an availability in the State Agency Children’s budget. This Special Allocation of Targeted Funds is intended to help programs implement projects designed to meet the significant academic achievement needs of the state agency children they serve.
What makes these targeted funding opportunities available is the fact that each year KECSAC earmarks a certain amount of State Agency Children Funds (SACF) to mitigate the impact should there be a mid-year state budget reduction. If the state does not issue any reductions during the spring legislative session, then some of these funds are funneled back to KECSAC programs as an increased per-child rate. Otherwise, all KECSAC educational programs are given the opportunity to apply for a “special allocation” for them to utilize in ways that will directly impact the achievement gap our students face. Sometimes funds also become available for special allocations if programs close during the academic year.
The KECSAC office began accepting applications from February 6 through March 4, 2025. By the deadline for submissions, 41 proposals from different KECSAC programs were received highlighting the use of varied projects and initiatives, including school supplies, technology for the classroom, textbooks, library books, science tools and curriculum, career and technical education supplies, music and art supplies, and much more. This year, each application was limited to $10,000 per program, and submissions outlined details, goals, and the impact of the project/initiative if it were awarded. The KECSAC team reviewed each proposal carefully based on the allowable criteria for funds, and this year all the requests received were funded partially or in total. All recipients of the targeted funds are also encouraged to report back to KECSAC the outcomes and successes of their projects.
You can review the list of KECSAC programs that received KECSAC’s Special Allocation of Targeted Funds and a very brief description of projects and supplies to be funded in the following table.
1 Adair County Adair YDC $5,000.00 Behavioral Incentives such as hygiene items and snacks.
2 Beechwood Independent Guardian Angel
$8,000.00 Computer-based curriculum (Legends of Learning, Generation Genius, Amplify). Technology needs such as headphones and mobile white boards.
3 Bowling Green Independent Warren RJDC $8,000.00 The Beat of Life music program.
4 Bowling Green Independent Children's Crisis Stabilization Unit $8,000.00 Technology needs such as new Chromebooks and a Promethean Panel, etc.
5 Boyle County Boyle Co. Day Treatment
$8,000.00 Cameras. New Chromebooks. Sets of class books. Student furniture.
6 Breathitt County Breathitt Learning Academy $8,000.00 ViewSonic smart board. 3D printer supplies.
7 Calloway County Calloway Co. Day Treatment $5,600.00 New Chromebooks. Microscopes for science class and prepared slides.
8 Campbell County Alexandria Educational Center $8,000.00 Hands-on project-based learning opportunities based around career opportunities and student interest.
9 Christian County Cumberland Hall School $5,000.00 Curriculum software platforms (Acellus, Moby Max, & Brain Pop). Remediation programs for math and reading. Professional development for staff.
22 Jessamine County All God's Children
$10,000.00
Innovative, project-based learning platform TEQ iBlocks Sequences and necessary materials.
$10,000.00 Two sets of ClassVR Premium virtual reality learning tools.
$8,000.00 New Chromebooks. Art supplies. Cooking class supplies. Professional development for staff.
$8,000.00 Outdoor garden supplies. Greenhouse project. New Chromebooks.
$6,000.00 Library books and resources. Community partnership career program. Creation of calming area.
$1,000.00 Wood burning hobby kits and supplies. Hands-on career kits. 3D printer supplies.
$5,000.00 Student and classroom furniture. Vocational kits and supplies.
$8,000.00 Promethean boards for teacher instruction. New computers.
Promethean Boards for teacher instruction. New computers.
$8,000.00 Life skills education kitchen and laundry setup. Library books and audio books. Outdoor fitness equipment for physical education.
$8,000.00 New library books and resources to increase diverse, inclusive, high-interest, and popular titles.
$5,000.00 New Chromebooks for students and staff. Weight room physical education equipment. 23 Jessamine County Ashgrove Academy
24 Knox County Knox Learning Academy
25 Knox County Knox Appalachian School
$8,000.00 Hands-on virtual reality career and science kits.
$8,000.00 Life skills education project for food preparation and catering and necessary resources.
$8,000.00 Life skills education kitchen classroom and supplies. Paxton Patterson Career Discovery Labs supplies. 26 LaRue County The Life Connection
27 Marshall County Purchase Youth Village
28 McCracken County McCracken Regional School
29 Menifee County Frenchburg Success Academy
30 Morgan County Woodsbend YDC
31 Nelson County Heartland Youth Village
32 Newport Independent Newport Regional School
33 Ohio County Ohio Co. Day Treatment
34 Pike County Pike Co. Day Treatment
$9,430.00 New computers. Materials for speech and reading recovery.
$8,000.00
Subscriptions for learning materials and online education software. School supplies and instructional materials. Guest speakers. Professional development for staff. Sensory materials.
$8,000.00 New MacBook Air Computers.
$7,500.00 Imagine Learning online classes. New Chromebooks. Small lockers for the classroom. STEAM activities. Professional development for staff.
$8,000.00
Reading and MTSS specialist. Greenhouse project supplies. Materials and activities for blended learning.
$8,000.00 New Chromebooks and technology resources. Behavioral program to be used for MTSS. Library resources.
$8,000.00 Professional development for staff.
$5,000.00 Online science curriculum. Literature workbooks. Professional development for staff.
$5,000.00 Instructional software (IXL Learning, Renaissance STAR) and other online resources.
35 Pulaski County Pulaski County Eagle Academy $4,661.34 New computers. 3D pens for art instruction. PBIS program incentives.
36 Pulaski County Cumberland Adventure Program
37 Todd County Todd Co. Day Treatment
$7,500.00 Educational field trips. Art supplies and community art instructor. Updated textbooks.
$2,500.00 Support and professional development for staff.
38 Warren County Warren Co. Day Treatment $8,000.00 New Chromebooks and technology resources.
39 Wayne County Lake Cumberland YDC
40 Wayne County Otter Creek Academy
41 Wolfe County Dessie Scott School
$8,000.00 Student computers and teacher workstations.
$8,000.00
Sports Equipment for P.E. Class. Greenhouse and Gardening Supplies. A 75inch TV on wheels. Art and 3D printer supplies.
$8,638.00 Outdoor GaGa ball pit and safety equipment for life skills and physical education.
Total $294,829.34
