The Detroit school district is revamping its special education department, increasing the number of self-contained classrooms for programs, but reducing the number of schools offering services.
Bridge Detroit reports that in 2025-26, the school district plans to have 185 self-contained classrooms, up from 174. However, the number of schools offering programs as part of the district's Exceptional Student Education (ESE) department will be reduced from 60 to 38.
This means some students will have to transfer in August to one of the new sites that offers a program specifically for their disability.
One goal of the restructuring is to ensure every ESE classroom is fully staffed with teachers and support staff. The restructuring also will reduce travel time for families by offering programs in their high school feeder pattern, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says.
“Those (ESE) programs since I’ve started as superintendent, have been scattered throughout the city and often, a student would have to attend up to four different schools from pre-K to 12th grade, depending on where those programs were at,” he said. “So, the changes were about limiting those to two (schools). Students would go to a pre-K to eighth grade program in one building and obviously, when they’re done in eighth grade, they go to high school. By being closer to their home, it means it will be easier to transport students every day, which should lead to students coming to school every day and therefore, improving achievement.”
The realignment plan is expected to help the Detroit district accommodate the growing number of special education students. Enrollment dipped to 6,884 in 2023 because of the pandemic, but the number of special education students in the district is rising again. For fiscal year 2024, enrollment was 7,132 students and 2025 enrollment is projected to be about 7,708 students.
