Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
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January 14, 1999, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: WEEKLY - MD; Pg. M01
LENGTH: 950 words
HEADLINE:
Schools Finish Strategic Plan; Goal Is Improving Special Education
BYLINE: Linda Perlstein, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Since the late 1930s, when Howard
County first considered a class for "mentally backward" students, and even since
1960, when eight special education students enrolled in the first program, the
school system--like the nation--has traveled miles in how it educates disabled
children.
But educators and parents say the county still has a way to go
in serving its 4,200 students with special needs, and they hope a $ 4.7 million,
three-year strategic plan will bring them there.
The plan, which
Superintendent Michael E. Hickey will present to the school board as part of his
$ 293 million budget today, recommends the hiring of 71 teachers and 82 other
employees, ways to boost both instruction and staff development and a push to
improve parent-staff relations, which all sides said need improvement.
The impetus behind the plan--drafted by a task force of teachers,
administrators and parents--is primarily the 1997 reauthorization of the federal
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. The law says
special-ed students must have greater access to the general curriculum and also
must be held accountable for meeting the same standards as any student in order
to graduate. In Maryland, that means that starting with the Class of 2005,
special-ed students who want diplomas will have to pass graduation exams,
instead of just graduating after attending classes on a modified curriculum and
passing the far less rigorous state functional tests.
"That has a
dramatic impact on any student," said special education director Sandra Marx,
"but especially a student who is 'behind.' "
The change will require
parents and educators to focus on how well a child is absorbing the curriculum
and what he or she needs to accomplish to get a diploma, school officials say.
For some people, it may mean getting off the diploma track--which nearly all
special-ed students are on now--and getting a completion certificate instead.
Most of the funding in the special-ed plan is for salaries. Under the
plan, special education students, who are no longer primarily taught in separate
classrooms, would be counted as part of elementary and middle schools' general
enrollment. That would change existing teacher-student ratios, making it
necessary to hire 30 general education teachers, at a cost of $ 915,000.
The plan asks for an additional $ 823,000 to bring the schools into
compliance with established minimum numbers of special-ed teachers and
instructional assistants, and for $ 620,000 to hire teachers for a pilot program
to ensure high school special needs students can pass the graduation
assessments.
The county also hopes to better educate teachers--who may
have been certified with as few as three credit hours in special education--and
administrators. Recommendations in the plan include workshops on implementing
better teaching strategies and improving collaboration between special and
general education teachers.
The plan's emphasis on parental involvement
and improved relations is designed to reduce the intimidation factor for parents
facing a tableful of professionals talking about their child and for staff
members who often meet with parents who are accompanied by lawyers.
The
strategic plan includes a commitment to "develop more collaborative and
respectful relations between parents and staff."
That includes:
employing an ombudsman and a full-time liaison between special-ed parents and
staff; recruiting more special-ed parents for advisory committees; using
newsletters and the Web to better communicate with parents; and requiring
principals and assistant principals who oversee the process of identifying,
educating and evaluating special-ed students to take courses on making the
process more parent-friendly.
"We wanted to take the initiative in
reaching out to parents," said Sandra J. Erickson, associate superintendent for
instruction. "I'd like us to be leaders in the country in this area."
Dan Dotson, who served on the task force that developed the plan and who
has a second-grader with cerebral palsy, suggested the county could have started
by adopting a less condescending tone in the plan.
The vision statement,
for example, says that "Parents and children are heard and understood, and their
input is valued."
"I thought that was kind of talking down to us--'Oh
yes, we'll understand you; we'll listen to you.' It should have been stronger.
Parents are an integral part of the process, and we're not just 'heard' and
banished aside," he said.
Others are more positive. Cheryl Reed, mother
of an eighth-grader with learning and behavioral difficulties, is chairman of
the county's Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee. She said the
proposal "doesn't go as far as we would ultimately hope to see it, but it does
go a long way. . . . It's a massive paradigm change."
The plan also
suggests the school system:
* Develop better ways to help all
underachieving students, including the expansion of one-on-one reading
instruction and extended-day kindergarten. The goal is to avoid referring a
student for special education when the child just needs extra help.
*
Continue to study the over-representation of minorities in special education.
Last year, black students made up about 21 percent of Howard's special-ed
population but only 16 percent of the total enrollment.
* Collect data
pertaining to special-ed students, including standardized test scores and
results from countywide satisfaction surveys.
* Expand programs for
children with multiple intense needs, including $ 1.3 million to lengthen the
county's preschool classes from half days to full days and to provide the
classes to more students.
LOAD-DATE: January 14, 1999
