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Free · five minutes · results on screen, no email needed

The Special Education Readiness Diagnostic

Special education measures compliance in exhaustive detail: every IEP, every timeline, every signature.

What districts almost never measure is whether the people delivering services can do the work in the hours they are contracted to work.

That means direct service, evaluations, IEP writing, meetings and travel, set against a contracted week, provider by provider.

This diagnostic asks fifteen questions in four parts. The first three give you an exposure score for measurement, hidden capacity and evidence.

The fourth checks what you would need in hand to see your own caseloads.

Your answers also place your department on the four stages of the Sustainability Maturity Model, from The Measurement Gap:

  1. Stage 1, Compliant. Plans are written and timelines are met, but staff capacity is not measured.
  2. Stage 2, Aware. Workload is measured provider by provider, direct and indirect, so the gap is visible.
  3. Stage 3, Responsive. Training, staffing and budget decisions run on that measurement.
  4. Stage 4, Sustainable. Capacity is managed all year and tied to student outcomes and placement decisions.

Most districts live at stage one. Stage two is the gate: a district cannot manage what it has never measured.

Your results show on this page as soon as you answer the last question. If you want a copy, you can ask for it by email at the end.

Part 1 of 4 · The measurement gap

How far is the data you're accountable to from the data you can reach?

1. In a typical week, how many staff-hours go into assembling, updating, or reconciling caseload and service data by hand?
2. If your superintendent asked today, “Are we delivering all of our IEP service minutes?” How long would it take to answer with confidence?
3. Where does caseload and schedule planning live today?
4. How does start-of-year provider scheduling get built?

Part 2 of 4 · Hidden capacity

Could you find capacity you already pay for?

1. How do you usually find out a provider is overloaded?
2. Could you see today whether one building has surplus provider capacity while another is over capacity?
3. When a service need appears mid-year, what is the first answer your team reaches for?
4. When weighing an out-of-district placement against building the program in-house, what data supports the decision?

Part 3 of 4 · The evidence gap

Can you turn need into evidence, and evidence into a yes?

1. Think about your last staffing or program request that got pushed back. What was it based on?
2. If you had to defend your special education spend line-by-line at a board meeting next month, how confident are you in the data behind it?
3. How are delivered service minutes documented for reimbursement (state excess-cost, Medicaid, or both)?
4. What's on your calendar in the next 90 days that better data would strengthen?

Part 4 of 4 · Trial readiness

Three yeses and your trial can be live inside two weeks.

1. Can you name the person who could produce a CSV export of student and service data if asked?
2. Can you name who signs data privacy agreements for your district?
3. Can you name a meeting or milestone your trial results should be ready for?
0 of 15 answered

Answer all 15 questions to see your results. Nothing is sent until you ask for your readout by email.