Cheena Burt

Office for Students with Disabilities

• Ensures the needs of 70,000+ Chicago Public School students with disabilities are addressed by facilitating high-level communication and decision-making with District, Network, and school administrators.
• Serves as a special education subject matter expert, providing oversight and guidance on IEP processes to all school types (District-run, Non-Public, Charter, Options, and Residential) to ensure adherence to best practice standards.
• Manages a team of 55 professionals, fostering partnerships with network schools, charter/contract schools, non-public schools, and community partners to ensure systematic resolution of unique special education and related services issues while promoting family engagement for students with disabilities.
• Developed an evaluation frameworks to monitor and improve IEP quality and implementation, directly addressing the district's Needs Intervention (Tier 3) designation from the Illinois State Board of Education.
• Prepares comprehensive board reports for executives, leveraging special education data to drive strategic planning.
• Designs and delivers professional development on special education best practices, adherence to laws, district policies, and high-quality IEP development and implementation for school leaders, IEP team members, CPS staff, and external partners.
• Provided guidance on navigating challenging student behaviors, collaborated with the Office for Social Emotional Learning to develop professional learning and resources that target proactive intervention strategies over punitive measures leading to an 11.05% decrease in out-of-school suspensions for students with disabilities in SY24.
• Manages a $13M annual operating budget, ensuring responsible allocation of resources across multiple teams, facilities, and personnel.
• Contributes to the creation and supports the implementation of OSD's district-wide strategic plan that promotes the rightful presence of students with disabilities.
• Ensures compliance with all local, state, and/or federal guidelines and policies as they relate to screening and assessing eligibility for specialized services and/or assignment to specialized placements, per the students’ Individualized Education Program (IEP).
• Spearheaded professional learning and support initiatives that led to district-wide compliance rates of 96.92% for evaluation completion and 98.36% for annual IEP completions in SY24.
• Developed and executed a hiring initiative for the Procedures and Standards team, improving the fill rate of active job openings from 56% to 82% during SY23.

Office for Students with Disabilities

• Provided direct oversight for the district's referral process for students made eligible to attend non-public schools (therapeutic day and residential programs) for 1,000+ students.
• Managed, developed, and collaborated with District Representatives to ensure that quality professional development was developed and successfully facilitated to support school-level teams and special education staff.
• Evaluated school implementation of IEPs and provided feedback to charter/contract administration, network leadership, non-public school leadership, school building administrators and case managers through the District Representative on an ongoing basis.

Office for Students with Disabilities

• Monitored the implementation of procedures and IEP-required services for a network of 34 schools.
• Developed and facilitated professional development for adult learners around special education best practices, procedures and policies to audiences of educators, case managers, principals, assistant principals, network staff, network chiefs, deputies and members of senior leadership teams.
• Effectively collaborated with district staff, district leadership, families, special education teachers, case managers, principals, assistant principals, related service providers and the community members for the purpose of planning, developing, implementing, maintaining, and evaluating educational services and/or programs.
• Facilitated IEP-related and team meetings for the purpose of implementing and maintaining special education programs and services of the district which achieve desired objectives.
• Served as a representative for the district when disputes related to special educations escalated to mediation or due process hearings.

• Maintained a safe and orderly environment on school grounds while being responsible for more than 1,300 students and more than 150 staff members.
• Led staff through professional learning around topics including: the district and school's vision, equity, and progress monitoring.
• Facilitated weekly Data Meetings with grade level teams to support teachers with understanding how to best utilize student data to drive instruction.
• Analyzed school-wide disaggregated data to ensure students were receiving proper interventions, accommodations, modifications and supports based upon their individualized needs.
• Assisted in the direction and coordination of educational, administrative, supervisory and counseling activities at Nightingale Elementary School.
• Supported the development and implementation of the Continuous Improvement Work Plan (CIWP).

• Developed and implemented annual Individualized Educational Program (IEP) plans for students to include: present levels of educational performance, special education needs, instructional goals and objectives, and the special education and related services required to meet those goals.
• Delivered effective and differentiated classroom instruction to range of students based upon individuals goals written in each students' IEP.
• Designed and engaged individualized lessons that follow best practices and aligned with the Common Core Standards.
• Maintained student portfolios to monitor learning progress and completion of work required for promotion to next grade level.