Director of Macon-Piatt Special Education District (MPSED)

Phone: 217.362.3053

Email:

Degrees and Certifications:

Kathy Horath

Mrs. Kathy Horath is Director of the Macon-Piatt Special Education District (MPSED), which manages Special Education services for Decatur Public Schools and other member school districts within Macon and Piatt counties. 

MPSED provides services to approximately 1,300 students with disabilities in Decatur Public Schools. The combined efforts of dedicated professionals and concerned parents allow us to provide quality services that are truly student focused. The Individualized Educational Program (IEP) team, which includes the parents, determines the appropriate program and need for related services based on the individual educational needs of the student.

MPSED programs include Cross Categorical resource and instructional support, Essential Skills Program, Life Skills Program, Early Childhood Program, Hearing Impaired Program, Visually Impaired Program, and the Social Emotional Learning Academy.
 
MPSED is a separate entity from Decatur Public Schools and is governed by its own Board, comprised of Superintendents from member school districts. Click here to access the MPSED website.

Assistant Director of MPSED

Phone:

Email:

Degrees and Certifications:

Travis Friedrich

Mr. Travis Friedrich is the Assistant Director of the Macon-Piatt Special Education District (MPSED), which manages Special Education services for Decatur Public Schools and other member school districts within Macon and Piatt counties. 

Phone:

Email:

Degrees and Certifications:

Elizabeth Lang

Ms. Elizabeth Lang is the Assistant Director of the Macon-Piatt Special Education District (MPSED), which manages Special Education services for Decatur Public Schools and other member school districts within Macon and Piatt counties. 

Department Overview

  • Macon-Piatt Special Education District (MPSED) is a joint agreement between Decatur and the surrounding eleven (11) school districts to collaborate for the provision of special education and related services.  We provide a variety of cooperative programs and services that students from all member districts may access to meet a variety of educational needs.  We provide quality student-focused special education services to approximately 3,100 students.  The structure of the cooperative has an executive board made up of all twelve (12) superintendents of the member districts.  These 12 board members act as the board that governs the Director, who functions as the chief executive officer for the cooperative.  The joint agreement is written that it needs an elected governing board to ratify the actions taken by the executive board.  Historically, Decatur SD 61 has taken the role of the administrative and fiscal agent, and the Decatur board does ratify specific actions occasionally.  

    Our cooperative programs include Early Childhood Special Education, Social/Emotional Development, Life Skills, Essential Skills, and the separate public day school, Social-Emotional Learning Academy (SELA).  Students can only access the programs when their IEP teams indicate they need more than the services provided at the students’ home schools.  

    Our support services include itinerant teachers for the blind or visually impaired, and deaf/hard-of-hearing, along with brailling and interpreter services.  We have vocational teachers to assist with transition to adult work services.  Our educational audiologist provides hearing evaluation and equipment support.  We provide physical and occupational therapy services, social work services, speech-language services, behavior team support, and administrative oversight service.  In addition to this, we provide comprehensive evaluations for consideration of special education and related services.  

    The overall cooperative budget is $23,000,000, and we employ approximately 300 individuals.  There are several revenue sources for the provision of services, and the executive board votes annually on how to assess the member districts for the costs.