Advocates: Special ed kids lose out with Regents decisions

Posted

PROVIDENCE – After months of meetings and hearings, the Rhode Island Board of Regents has voted to accept proposed changes to special education proposed by the Department of Education.

For many of those most invested in educating children with special needs in private schools as well as public – the teachers, therapists, parents and administrators – the decision rankles. By and large, these changes make the regulations less specific, and leave more of the day-to-day decision-making to individual principals and superintendents. The lack of firm, specific guidelines – the exact number of children that a speech therapist is responsible for servicing, for example – was a major point of contention during the four public hearings that preceded this decision.

Hundreds of those most affected attended the hearings and voiced their opinions on the proposals, the vast majority urging the board to reject the proposals in the interest of maintaining the quality of services that students with special needs receive.

For students at Catholic schools and other private schools the changes in regulations will affect the way their special education needs are funded. Right now, money comes from both the school district where the private school is located and, if it is different, from the school district where the child lives. The first school district gives a standard set amount, referred to as a proportionate share, which comes to about $1,100 per child. Then, if there are additional needs, the school district where the child lives makes up the difference, usually in services and materials rather than money. But as of July 1, 2009, the regulations eliminate the second school district's responsibility.

Simply put, if a child with special needs lives in Central Falls and attends St. Mary elementary school in Pawtucket, the Pawtucket school district will contribute a proportionate share of funds to St. Mary school to meet that child's needs, but the Central Falls school district will be under no obligation to contribute money or services.

Lillian McIntyre, assistant superintendent of schools for the diocese, expressed disappointment, but said the time frame is of some comfort. The rest of the changes will take effect on July 1, 2008, but the board gave private schools an extra year to comply.

"We would have liked the status quo," she said, "because it's really and truly about the kids. These kids are going to suffer." But, she added, "The Regents was adamant that before any of the changes are in place there are protocols and a mechanism in place to affect a smooth transition."

The extra year, she hopes, will allow her office and individual school administrators time to develop a plan to deal with the impending decrease in funding. She said they will likely begin to look at "other ways of possibly funding the services that are going to be removed from our kids."

In addition to allowing schools time to deal with the change, McIntyre hopes to spend time developing a strategy to begin a legislative appeal. Father Bernard A. Healey, government liaison for the diocese will assist in this process of looking at the legislative options and possibly finding a sponsor for a bill in response to these changes.

For McIntyre, the fact that the impact is on some of the least fortunate children in the state is the most worrisome aspect. "The children that are going to be most impacted are the ones coming from the systems that can least afford to provide these services," she said. "In some cases they were pulled from these schools because they weren't getting what they needed," she added.

Although the outcome was far from what she had hoped, McIntyre does not believe that the statements made at the public hearings were lost on the board. "I would like to think it wasn't just an exercise in futility, I believe we were listened to," she said. "Being listened to doesn't mean that we get our way; it means there was an authentic dialogue."

Board of Regents member and secretary Colleen Callahan cast the sole dissenting vote. She was also the only board member who attended each of the public hearings. Callahan assured the audience at the last hearing in early December that although they were not in attendance, the remaining members of the board would receive a transcript of the statements to review. "We are listening," she said.

In addition to the changes in regulations affecting private school students, there were also several other changes to special education in general.

Guidelines regarding the length of extended school year services in public schools now simply state that when a special education student's individual education plan, or IEP, requires extended school year service, the school is responsible for providing it. Also, the new regulations remove specific class size and case load caps for special education classrooms and special education providers. The exact numbers are up to individual principals or superintendents. These two changes were vehemently opposed during all of the public hearings.

There was one victory for special ed proponents. A controversial proposal to change speech therapy from a special education service to a related service, which would essentially have eliminated the ability of many students to receive speech therapy because they don’t have another special education need, was amended. The change says: "Speech and language shall remain a special education service for students through age eight."