Skip to content
main content starts here

Instructional Services

HFM BOCES panorama

Instructional Services’ goal is to provide collaborative support in order to meet the diverse needs of our districts as they strive to meet state and local goals for raising academic achievement.

Tara Caraco, Administrative Coordinator
Phone: (518) 736-4360, FAX: (518) 736-4361

School Improvement  – COSER 532

Per New York State Education Department (NYSED) CoSer guidelines, general staff development services to districts require that BOCES establish a base-fee structure and that a district subscribe to the base service before a district can receive aid on staff development services. The fee is determined by each district’s RWADA.

Activities and benefits included in the base service are as follows:

  • Six days of embedded coaching
  • BOCES Aid for district staff attendance in shared district workshops
  • BOCES Aid for in-district staff training/consultation by BOCES employees
  • BOCES Aid for substitute teachers for participants attending half- or full-day training
  • BOCES Aid for cooperative curriculum development projects involving at least two districts
  • New York State Alternate Assessment administration training and support
  • Meetings for secondary and elementary principals
  • Support with New York State Learning Standards in planning for implementation
  • Curriculum Council Meetings
  • New mentor training
  • Regional Superintendents Conference Days support
  • Danielson Framework and APPR training
  • Trend reports for English Language Arts (ELA) and math (grades 3-8)
  • Data analysis and data report generation

    Other opportunities are available for an additional fee. To see a full list of all our opportunities and to register, visit MyLearningPlan.

    In-District Coaches

    Instructional Services can assist districts in their efforts to improve student achievement through high quality, research based professional development and school-based consulting services.

    The service includes:

    • Instruction: Support districts through high quality, research based staff development geared to specific instructional strategies designed to support teacher practice and student achievement.
    • Data: Provides assistance to component districts in creating, improving/sustaining a culture of data-driven decision making through protocols, common language and goal setting. Collection and analysis of data focuses on district and schoolwide measures for instructional focus.
    • Instructional Technology: Supports districts by providing to teachers meaningful professional development with the implementation of technology in their classrooms for the purpose of instruction. This service will create and evaluate a needs assessment to help determine goals and will work with administration to create a plan for support and success.
    • Curriculum: Provides initial consultation and district- or building-wide assessment as well as curriculum review, development, and mapping of current curriculum in use.
    • Data Analysis (Tableau): This service provides assistance to component school districts in data analysis. This includes: state assessment error analysis, analysis of Tableau reports and program evaluation. The service may also include supporting administrative teams, departments or Professional Learning Communities in collecting and analyzing data and creating targeted professional development and instructional practices.\
    • District Data Coordination: This service provides districts with a staff member to monitor and optimize the needs of the district to comply with federal and state data reporting requirements. Services may include collection and analysis of school data to facilitate informed decision making for instructional practice.

    NYS 3-8 Assessment and Regents

    Instructional Services will facilitate the regional scoring or third-party vendor scoring of these assessments and Regents exams.

    Arts in Education – COSER 414

    This service allows component districts to receive BOCES aid on activities designed to integrate the artsA students uses drumstick on a bucket, another uses her hands on a lap drum and a third students uses drumsticks on her legs into education. Unlike other CoSers, activities that are single-district in nature can be aidable. The sharing requirement is met through participation in the Core service.

    The Core supports the coordination of programs and provides the following services:

    • Coordination of scheduling, contracting and payments to any performances, theaters, authors and institutions;
    • Technical assistance for local Arts-In-Education program planning;
    • An advisory council composed of school district representatives;
    • Evaluation of the Arts-In-Education programs; and
    • The Arts and Enrichment Service’s online directory of resident artist-educators, listing all approved providers.

    Exploratory Enrichment – COSER 412

    Activities scheduled through the Exploratory Enrichment COSER extend instruction to address the state learning standards for academic or occupational subject areas.

    The program is designed to provide students with activities that exceed or are different from content offerings found in standard courses.

    Activities are BOCES aidable if they meet the following criteria:

    • Activity focus is curriculum-based for academic or occupational subjects;
    • Activities must be shared in one of two ways:
      • 1.  In-school activities must be held at another participating district during the same school year; OR
      • 2.  Out-of-school activities must be attended by at least two districts

    Related costs NOT eligible for BOCES aid include transportation, food and admission tickets.

    The Arts and Enrichment/Exploratory Enrichment Resources directory contains a section that identifies many Exploratory Enrichment providers.

    Home School Instruction Coordination – COSER 560

    Lisa Gargiulo
    Home School Liaison
    (518) 571-8955
    Fax: (518) 736-4361

    Districts are faced with state-mandated responsibilities for students who are instructed at home. These mandates are based on state legislation or interpretation of federal opinions. In addition, the courts are involved settling precedent-setting disputes which can further inform districts. Home school coordination as a BOCES service provides consistency in process, definitions, expectations, documentation and communication for parents.

    The Home School Coordinator will review and maintain all student documentation to ensure compliance with state mandates, and keep parents informed of their obligations under Part 100 while providing districts with regular updates regarding compliance.

    The service will also provide parent support by offering assistance with completion of paperwork.

    Regional Certification

    HFM BOCES cross contracts with Capital Region BOCES for Regional Certification services. Certification questions and requests can be directed to:

    Ken Ziegler and Tommy Holecek
    Ph: (518) 862-4918
    email: certification@neric.org

    NEW! Community School Resources COSER 570

    Dr. Aaron Bochniak
    Assistant Superintendent for
    BOCES Operations and Component District Services
    (518) 736-4305
    FAX: 736-4301

    BOCES Community Schools Resources will deliver co-located or school-linked academic, health, mental health, nutrition, counseling, legal and/or other services to students and their families in a manner that will lead to improved educational and other outcomes. Community School Resources will provide for students’ social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs through a variety of potential services.

    HFM BOCES will provide an organizational structure and process that creates a cooperative and proactive inter-agency service delivery system that provides for students’ social, emotional, physical and intellectual needs through planning, professional development, technical assistance, up-to-date information referral services, and coordination of services and partnerships.

    Services to participating districts may include:

    • Covid-19 testing support;
    • Ongoing District Needs Assessment;
    • District plan development based on identified needs;
    • Consultation and technical support (via email, phone, or face-to face meetings) for district staff;
    • Coordination of services, outreach and relationship building with providers;
    • Regular meetings of a Partner Advisory Committee comprised of program, district, and community agencies and other stakeholders (at least quarterly);
    • Customized professional development sessions;
    • Ongoing progress monitoring, data collection, analysis and reporting;
    • District-driven customized community school resources and services;
    • Coordination of contracts with partnering agencies for delivery of community school resources

    Based upon district specific needs, HFM BOCES will work with districts individually to develop plans that target their specific needs and then link districts with similar needs to community partners to develop services and supports to address those needs. Possible target areas may include:

    • COVID-19 testing
    • Family engagement
    • Extended learning opportunities/youth development services
    • Mental health and social services
    • Universal social-emotional screening service
    • Early learning opportunities
    • Nutritional service
    • Dental service
    • Medical service
    Top