UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2025
In response to your concerns, your building principal will hold a Response to Intervention Team (RtI) meeting to determine if additional building-level services will accelerate your child's learning.
In accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) and Part 200 of the Commissioner’s Regulations, the District must have a pre-referral intervention (Response to Intervention/RTI) process to support a student’s education program before consideration of referral to the Committee on Special Education (CSE). In keeping with this policy, it is the responsibility of the school’s principal and building RtI team to investigate all possible avenues of general education support services that would enable the student to achieve the learning standards.
General education support services may include supplemental instruction in English, language arts, math, social studies, and science as well as support services such as counseling to deal with barriers to student progress such as attendance, discipline, health, family nutrition, and transient issues will be afforded to students who are struggling. The school district may include the RTI process as part of the district’s school-wide approach. These schoolwide approaches shall serve as pre-referral interventions prior to consideration of special education programs through the Committee on Special Education (CSE).
Please feel free to contact your child's teacher, the school principal, psychologist. and/or guidance counselor assigned to your child's building to discuss your concerns.
School Psychologists:
Elm Drive & Out of District: Michelle Quattrone
Alden Place, Early Intervention Services and CPSE: Tonya Pulver
Millbrook Middle School & Cardinal Hayes School: Jennifer Obrizok
Millbrook High School: Cayla Kuey
School Counselors:
Millbrook Middle School: Kelly Domino
Millbrook High School: Lauren Prince- A to K & Thomas Chanowsky- L to Z
It is your right to have your child evaluated for eligibility as a student with a disability at any point according to IDEA regulations. Please contact Pupil Personnel Services (845-677-4200, x1107) to exercise your right at any time.
Please know I am available to you at any time to discuss your child's progress in any of our educational programs. I look forward to working with you throughout the school year.
Ana Nyarady
Interim Supervisor of Pupil Personnel Services
845-677-4200 ext 1106 or 1116
Child Find
“Child Find" requires all public school districts to have in place a system to identify, locate, and evaluate all children with disabilities who reside in the district, including children who are homeless, in foster care, and students whose parent(s)/guardian(s) choose to enroll them in nonpublic schools located within the district. In order to meet our Child Find obligations, our District pursues multiple avenues, including publication on our website regarding the referral process and ongoing training for staff regarding our obligations.
Referral to the Pre-School Committee on Special Education (CPSE), Committee on Special Education (CSE), and 504 Committee
If a parent or guardian suspects that his/her child may have a disability that adversely affects his/her child’s education or access to school, the parent(s)/guardian(s) may initiate a referral to the Committee on Special Education [(CSE) students in grades K – 12], the Committee on Preschool Special Education [(CPSE) ages 3 – 5 and not enrolled in Kindergarten], or the Section 504 Committee. Referrals to both committees are initiated by sending a letter requesting an evaluation either to the child’s building principal or to the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Pupil Personnel Services. Direct referrals may also be initiated by a designee of the District to include building principals, chairpersons of the CSE, and the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Pupil Personnel Services.
Response to Intervention (RtI)
School professionals, in cooperation with the building-level Response to Intervention (RtI) Team, also make requests to refer students suspected of having a disability to the CSE. Building principals and chairpersons of the CSE are allowed to initiate referrals directly. In addition, a professional staff member of the District, a child’s physician and judicial officers, or a student who is over 18 years of age or an emancipated minor, may request a referral to the CSE. In cases where a request is denied, the CSE must notify the child’s parent, in writing, of the right to initiate a referral directly.
CPSE, CSE, and 504 Plan Referral Processes
Within ten (10) school days of receiving a written referral to the CPSE/CSE, the District must either: request parent/guardian consent for evaluation or provide the parent/guardian with a copy of the request for a referral. In addition, the District must inform the parent(s)/guardian(s) of their right to refer for an initial evaluation and offer the parent/guardian an opportunity to meet with the building administrator or other designee of the District to discuss the referral. During this meeting, appropriate general education support services for the student should be discussed. In some cases, this meeting may lead to the withdrawal of the referral.
Regardless of the source of a referral, a parent/guardian must provide written consent to enable the District to conduct an initial evaluation. Upon receipt of the parent(s)’ or guardian(s)’ written consent, the District has sixty (60) calendar days from the date of the receipt of the consent to evaluate to complete the evaluation process (unless such time period is extended by mutual agreement of the parent/guardian and the CSE). Once the evaluation process is complete, the District must convene a meeting of the CSE on a date/time and place mutually convenient to the parent/guardian and the CSE.
Finally, the District will conduct an evaluation of any students who, because of a disability, needs or is believed to need a 504 accommodation plan.
Local Preschool Evaluation Agencies
Abilities First Preschool – 167 Myers Corners Road, Suite 104 Wappingers Falls, NY 12590
Contact Person: Leann Coyle, Director (845) 298-2090
Astor Early Childhood Special Education - 50 Delafield Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Contact Person: Lauren Sweeney, Disabilities Coordinator (845) 452-4167
Achieve Beyond – 2700 Westchester Ave, Purchase, NY 10577
General Office Contact Number: (914) 328-2868 x511
Carriage House Preschool/River Valley Speech – 50 Springside Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
General Office Contact Number: (845) 462-6701
Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital Preschool – 115 Delafield Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
General Office Contact Number: (845) 431-8803
Contact Person: Marisa Wolpert, Specialist (845) 431-8292