The total number of students served in special education programs at RPS grew more than 38% in the decade from 2013-14 to 2022-23 increasing from 2,534 to 3,512.
Even though the district already had plans in motion, the change also had been power charged at the state level with the passage of the Read Act this past legislative cycle.
"It's kind of the epitome of adaptive change," Kim Gibbons, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, said. "There's so many things that have to work together to produce the outcome."