Catholics oppose special ed changes

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SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The Rhode Island Board of Regents will decide this week whether or not to accept the Department of Education's proposed changes to special education regulations or craft their own compromise of regulations.

This decision comes after months of public debate that was often emotionally charged.

The last of four public hearings on the special education regulations was held at South Kingstown high school on December 3. Like the previous three, the hearing was very well-attended by parents, teachers, therapists and administrators, although only two members of the Board of Regents were there.

Like the hearings before it, this was an opportunity for members of the public to voice their opinions about the proposed changes, and the public nearly unanimously disapproves of many of the proposals.

The most controversial issues – changing speech therapy from a part of special education to a "related service," eliminating specific extended school year requirements for students with special needs, eliminating case load and class size caps for special education teachers, and changing the way special education is funded in non-public schools – were the topic of most statements made at the final hearing.

These will undoubtedly be issues the Board of Regents discusses while they deliberate this week about whether or not to accept the proposals.

Public outcry has been loud. The first hearing was so crowded that it unexpectedly had to be moved to a larger capacity room. After that hearing the Board of Regents decided to add two more hearings to the schedule to accommodate everyone who wanted their opinion heard. None of the other three hearings was so crowded, but each was very well-attended.

At the third hearing, on November 26 at Davies Career and Technical High School in Lincoln, Assistant Superintendent of Catholic schools Lillian McIntyre read a prepared statement opposing the changes in funding for special education in non-public schools.

McIntyre spoke about the problems of funding that came up over and over again in meetings of the Board of Regents. "If it is about limited resources in terms of personnel and tax dollars, then why would anyone suggest that parents of children with learning disabilities remove their children [from non-public schools] and enroll them in public schools?" she asked.

And yet, that is what the Department of Education seems to be suggesting with their proposals. When they didn't incorporate the existing state regulations into their new proposed guidelines, they, in effect, set up a system that can only accommodate children's needs to a certain dollar amount per child. If a child has special needs that cost more than that allotted amount – needs like special hearing or visual aids and speech, language or physical therapies – there is no protocol set for funding them.

During the North Kingstown hearing Lawrence E. Purtill, the president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, summed up the points of many of the parents, teachers and other advocates who spoke: "This is not about adults, this is not about what's financially expedient, this is about what's best for kids."

Many other speakers echoed his cries for careful consideration of these proposed changes. Henry Fiori, the principal at St. Pius X school in Westerly, spoke during the North Kingstown hearing. "Please keep the needs of the children at the forefront of your decision," he implored the board. "Know that the students and faculty at St. Pius X in Westerly will be praying for you during this time of decision which will affect all of our Catholic school students with special needs,"

Patty Zuchowski, the parent of a special needs student in a Catholic school, asked the board to consider her child and others like him. As parents of disabled children, she said, "We don't want your sympathy for our children, we want your empathy. We want you to walk in our shoes, we want you to feel what we feel. Our children need what they presently have."

At the end of the public comment, Colleen Callahan, the secretary of the Board of Regents, who has attended all of the public hearings assured those in attendance that all the members of the Board would carefully consider their testimony. "We are listening," she said.