Director of Specialized Programs, Office of Special Education; C133-2627

POSITION
:
Director of Specialized Programs, Office of Special Education

REPORTS TO
:
Executive Director of Special Education

The Director of Specialized Programs is a key leadership position within the Special Education Department responsible for overseeing specialized education programs, including Early Childhood, IGOAL, STEP, and RISE, as well as educational services for students placed at the Hartford Juvenile Detention Center and case management for Hartford Public Schools students with IEPs placed in Regional Detention Centers. This role requires exceptional leadership, sound judgment, and creative problem-solving to ensure continuity of educational services, appropriate programming, compliance with state and federal requirements, and high-quality supports for students with disabilities in traditional and non-traditional educational settings.

The Director serves as the district's programmatic leader for specialized and non-traditional educational settings, ensuring that each program has a clearly defined instructional and student-support model, appropriate staffing and service structures, effective transition practices, and continuous improvement systems responsive to the needs of students with disabilities.

This position requires extensive knowledge of special education law, strong leadership abilities, excellent communication skills, and a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to supporting students with disabilities while maintaining compliance with all regulatory requirements. The Director must demonstrate the ability to think creatively and solve complex problems for students whose educational needs must be addressed across specialized, alternative, detention, and other non-traditional settings.

• Provide supervision and leadership for specialized education programs, including Early Childhood, IGOAL, STEP, RISE, and educational programming for students placed at the Hartford Juvenile Detention Center, ensuring effective program implementation, case management, continuity of services, and appropriate educational programming.
• Provide case management oversight for Hartford Public Schools students with IEPs placed in Regional Detention Centers, including coordination with detention education providers, families, school teams, related service providers, and other agencies to support IEP implementation, educational continuity, transitions, and re-entry planning.
• Establish clear program expectations, operating practices, and service-delivery standards across assigned specialized programs while monitoring implementation, student access, program quality, and alignment with district priorities.
• Develop creative, individualized solutions for students in non-traditional educational settings when conventional programming, scheduling, service delivery, or placement options do not adequately address a student's academic, behavioral, social-emotional, or disability-related needs.
• Provide leadership to program administrators and staff in addressing complex student cases, strengthening interdisciplinary problem-solving, and coordinating academic, behavioral, related-service, and transition supports.
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with district departments, community agencies, detention education providers, and other stakeholders to expand supports and opportunities for students served in specialized and non-traditional settings.
• Partner with the Director of Accountability and Compliance to ensure accurate state and federal reporting, Child Count data, documentation, and audit readiness for assigned specialized programs and students.
• Resolve complex, sensitive inquiries and complaints related to assigned programs through effective stakeholder communication, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution strategies.
• Prepare program analyses, reports, presentations, recommendations, and communications for the Executive Director regarding program performance, student needs, resource requirements, emerging trends, and opportunities for improvement

• Lead the design, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of specialized programs, ensuring each program model is responsive to student needs and aligned with district standards, state requirements, evidence-based practices, and the department's improvement priorities.
• Monitor instructional programming, staffing models, schedules, related services, behavioral supports, and student-access…