Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District

What Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District does

Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District (WOVSED) is a Special Education Joint Agreement cooperative serving 21 K-12 public school districts across Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Pope, Saline, Wabash, Wayne, and White Counties in southeastern Illinois. Founded in 1968 and headquartered at 800 South Division Street in Norris City, Illinois, the organization coordinates and delivers specialized educational and therapeutic services to students with disabilities whose home districts lack the scale to operate independent special education programs. WOVSED is governed by representatives of its member districts through Executive and Governing Boards, with Regional Office of Education #20 playing a fiscal oversight role. The organization employs 70+ staff across its Central Office, Glassford Center (PRIDE HOUSE), and Norris City Annex.

WOVSED's service portfolio is comprehensive within special education: Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, School Social Work, School Psychology, Audiological Services, Assistive Technology, Response to Intervention (RtI), Section 504 Accommodations, Preschool Screening for ages 3-5, and the Secondary Transitional Experience Program (S.T.E.P.) for employment preparation. The Glassford Center operates PRIDE HOUSE, providing Independent Living, Vocational Assessment, and Social Skills Development, while the Norris City Annex serves as an alternative setting for students with emotional/behavioral issues or communication difficulties requiring intensive intervention. The underlying technology layer consists of third-party IEP management platforms — Embrace IEP, iTAMES, and a read-only Virtual IEP system — rather than proprietary software.

WOVSED's business model is a publicly funded cooperative: revenue derives from member district contributions and Illinois state special education funding, with services delivered at no direct cost to families. There is no commercial pricing, no sales motion, and no private capital structure. Marketing is limited to a website (wovsed.org), email communications, a public Google Calendar, and direct relationships with member districts. Strategic partnerships include the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) for vendor data privacy management and the Ohio and Wabash Valley Regional Vocational System (OWVRVS), which is housed at the WOVSED main office. Director Monica Girten leads the organization.

Name

Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District

Legal name

Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District

Website

https://wovsed.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District is a public special education joint agreement cooperative serving 21 K-12 school districts across 9 southeastern Illinois counties, delivering coordinated therapy, psychology, and transition services to students with disabilities through centralized facilities and member-district funding.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Special Education Services

NAICS

Elementary and Secondary Schools (6111)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Regional Education Service Agencies (ESAs/BOCES/Intermediate Units) (EDADABAC)

Keywords

• Special education services
• School-based therapy services
• IEP development support
• Special education cooperative
• Transition services

Headquarters

HQ city

Norris City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Public Education Funding: Funded through member school district contributions and Illinois state education funding as a special education joint agreement cooperative

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District (WOVSED) is a Special Education Joint Agreement between twenty-one K-12 school districts in southeastern Illinois. It delivers coordinated special education services, school-based therapies (physical, occupational, speech-language), school psychology and social work, assistive technology, and specialized programs such as the Glassford Center (PRIDE HOUSE) and the Norris City Annex to students with disabilities in member districts.

Product overview

Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District (WOVSED) is a Special Education Joint Agreement between twenty-one K-12 School Districts providing special education services and resources. Rather than a software platform, WOVSED offers a coordinated suite of educational and therapeutic services including Physical Therapy, Speech Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, School Social Work, School Psychology, and specialized programs like the Glassford Center PRIDE HOUSE and Norris City Annex. The organization also provides early intervention through Preschool Screening, diagnostic services including Audiological evaluations, transition support through S.T.E.P., and accessibility services including Assistive Technology. Additional support programs include Response to Intervention (RtI) and Section 504 Accommodations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Special Education Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 21 K-12 school districts served across 9 southeastern Illinois counties
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers20 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Ohio and Wabash Valley Regional Vocational System (OWVRVS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDevelops and fosters partnerships among schools, between business and education, and between parents, communities and schools. Housed at WOVSED main office. Fiscal Agent is Regional Office of Education #20. Director: Jill Fulkerson, 618-378-2274.
• Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC)coreTechnology or IntegrationCollaborative of schools, districts, regional, territories and state agencies, policy makers, trade organizations and marketplace providers addressing data privacy concerns. WOVSED uses SDPC to enter into data privacy agreements with third-party vendors who handle student data.
• Regional Office of Education #20coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerServes as fiscal agent for Ohio and Wabash Valley Regional Vocational System. Beth Rister serves as Ex-Officio Executive Board Member.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Cooperative Association for Special Education (CASE): DuPage County, Illinois special education cooperative organized as a joint agreement of school districts providing special education and related services — a structurally identical model to WOVSED's Joint Agreement.
• Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL): Illinois special education cooperative serving multiple K-12 member districts in Lake County with a comparable Joint Agreement / cooperative structure delivering special education and related therapy services to districts that could not operate them independently.
• School Association for Special Education in DuPage County (SASED): DuPage County special education joint agreement that coordinates special education services and supports across member districts, structurally aligned with WOVSED's cooperative model.
• Northern Suburban Special Education District (NSSED): Illinois special education cooperative serving north suburban Chicago school districts with shared special education staffing, programming, and facilities — directly comparable in function and structure to WOVSED.
• Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization (NSSEO): Northwest suburban Chicago special education cooperative providing shared special education programming and supports to multiple member districts — a directly analogous Illinois cooperative to WOVSED.
• Black Hawk Area Special Education District: Illinois special education district that delivers special education and related services to member K-12 districts across a multi-county region, functionally equivalent to WOVSED's regional cooperative footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Frontline Education: Larger education-sector software vendor offering IEP and special education management platforms (e.g., Frontline Special Ed) that compete with the Embrace IEP and iTAMES tools WOVSED uses for student-data workflows.

Emerging players

• PresenceLearning: Provider of online speech-language, occupational, and mental health therapy services to K-12 schools, overlapping with WOVSED's therapy service lines but delivered via a virtual model rather than a regional cooperative.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wabash-and-ohio-valley-special-education-district

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wabash and Ohio Valley Special Education District