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Schools must mainstream more students
Thursday, June 28, 2007

By KATHLEEN CARROLL
STAFF WRITER

Four leading child advocate groups sued the state Department of
Education on Wednesday, claiming it is denying thousands of special-
education students the right to be taught in regular classrooms.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Newark and
highlights the struggles of a Clifton 10-year-old, criticizes the
state for teaching too many students in separate classrooms and
schools. Federal law requires that schools provide students with
special needs the "least restrictive environment" for learning when
possible.

But the state isn't enforcing the rules, the suit claims. About 10
percent of special-education students are taught in separate settings
in New Jersey -- by far the highest in the nation and almost triple
the national average of about 4 percent. In addition, many
neighborhood schools lack accommodations to help special-needs
students succeed there, advocates say.

"Countless children with disabilities in New Jersey have been
unnecessarily segregated," said lead attorney David L. Harris of
Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland. The state's current special-education
plan "holds little promise for redressing this situation within the
educational lifetime of today's students."

State education officials declined to comment specifically on the
suit Wednesday, saying they had not reviewed it thoroughly.

"We have taken action to address out-of-district placement,"
spokesman Jon Zlock said, recalling Governor Corzine's recent $19.5
million grant program to help districts expand services for special-
needs students in regular schools.

The federal lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs New Jersey Protection and
Advocacy, the Education Law Center, the Statewide Parent Advocacy
Network and the ARC of New Jersey on behalf of the families they
counsel.

Advocates presented the state with a draft filing six months ago, in
the hopes of forcing intensive monitoring and enforcement, said
Joseph Young, deputy director of New Jersey Protection and Advocacy.
The groups filed suit when officials did not promise the desired
actions. The suit echoes similar complaints in Pennsylvania and
Illinois, Young said.

The groups are seeking a comprehensive plan "so that standards are
set on specific timelines and there's a way of rewarding or
sanctioning districts," he said. Thus far, the state has offered
incentives to promote inclusion, but not punishments for districts
that fall short, he said.

Lisa Guglielmini of Clifton, whose daughter is one of five students
mentioned as a case study in the suit, said she agreed to take part
so "that other children won't have to wait as long as my daughter to
get what they need."

Her 10-year-old daughter, identified as T.G., struggles with reading
but performs normally on state tests in other subjects. She has
bounced between regular and special-education classrooms over the
years, but both placements have proved too extreme, Guglielmini said.

In a regular class, she struggled to keep up, while one-on-one
tutoring was sporadic and ineffective, Guglielmini said. In special-
education classrooms, she was isolated from most of her peers and
fell behind in math and science because instruction was too slow.

"They should have something that's in between," said Guglielmini, who
said district officials recently granted her request for summer
tutoring and a one-on-one aide next year.

In an interview Wednesday, Clifton Superintendent Michael Rice said
he had not seen the complaint, which does not identify the student's
district or school.

"We look forward to reading the document," he said, "and to the
extent that there is something we can address to better the education
of this child, we certainly want to do so."

A Special Test
By TONY MARRERO lmarrero@hernandotoday.com
Published: Sep 2, 2007
BROOKSVILLE — In a corner classroom at West Hernando Middle School last week, some of the county’s most

challenged students took a swing at an old favorite.
“Take me out to the baaaallll game... Take me out with the crowwwwd...”
One boy screamed the lyrics. Another beat so furiously on a drum that a teacher had to remind him

to take it easy. A girl jumped up and down as she slapped a tambourine, smiling widely all the while.
Others didn’t participate at all.
In the corner of the room, another teacher tended to a girl lying prone in a hospital bed.
Another boy sat at a desk, looking down with a pained look on his face and his fingers in his ears.
“Sensory overload,” principal Joe Clifford explains to a visitor. The fingers, Clifford said, are

 a way to cope with the din of his boisterous classmates.
“And it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out at the old...ball...gaaaaame!”
It’s a typical seen at a school where teachers work with about 50 of the lowest-functioning students

 in the school district. The children don’t know it, but they are the focus of an intense effort by Clifford

and district officials to get what he calls a fair shake for his school.
They may be on his last strike.
The U.S. Department of Education has denied an appeal to rework an equation that determines

whether schools such as West Hernando have made adequate yearly progress or AYP, under the federal

No Child Left Behind Act.
The school now faces federal sanctions.
Clifford argues his school would have met the goals if officials would take a fairer and

more logical approach to the calculations.
He has asked U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite to intervene. The Brooksville Repub-lican has agreed.
“Our kids and staff have worked exceptionally hard and I’m not going to lay back and accept

some bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo,” Clifford said. “I’m not going to go away.”
‘Still battling’
Not every student takes the FCAT.
In the past, School districts have been able to choose how to gauge the progress of those with the

 most severe physical and cognitive challenges such as autism, cerebral palsy and very low IQs.
West Hernando Middle, on Ken Austin Parkway, is a “center” school, pulling special needs students

from throughout the county. About 25 of its students are at the lowest level, the so-called “participatory” tier.
The Hernando school district and others throughout the state used the Florida Alternative Assessment Report

to test those children.
The U.S. Department of Education, however, decided the test didn’t meet its standards.

The DOE left out the scores for the special needs students, but didn’t remove them

 from the total number of students tested.
That skewed the data enough to cause West Hernando to miss its goal for adequate yearly progress.

Schools are required to test at least 95 percent of their student population.
Schools throughout the state, including here in Brown-Waite’s 5th Congressional district,

 found themselves in similar predicaments, according to Charlie Keller, Brown-Waite’s spokesman.
Florida education commissioner Jeanine Blomberg appealed the ruling. Hernando officials filed their

 own appeal on behalf of West Hernando Middle.
So far, the U.S. DOE hasn’t budged on their stance and has said the appeals period is closed.
Brown-Waite said she is trying to schedule a conference call with all the parties to come up with a resolution.
“We’re going to continue to pursue this but I’m just not sure the feds are going to change their minds,” she said.
There’s another wrinkle for West Hernando, however.
State education officials sent a letter to school superintendent Wayne Alexander saying

that even if the U.S. DOE did change the formula, West Hernando still would not meet

progress goals because the school’s economically disadvantaged students fell short in reading proficiency.
Peirce and Clifford say they find it hard to believe that removing the special needs students

from the equation wouldn’t have significantly affected the results of the economically

 disadvantaged group and helped West Hernando reach their goal. They have asked for a detailed

account of how the state came to their conclusion.
“We’re still battling,” Peirce said.
“This energy may be for naught, but it’s helping to educate the public,” Clifford said.
In the meantime, the state has come up with a new, federally approved alternative test.
Elizabeth Whitaker, an exceptional education teacher at West Hernando,

 said she is encouraged by the program and its potential to fairly gauge the progress of her students.
“It really seems like it could work,” Whitaker said.
Sanctions on the horizon
Clifford stresses that his special needs students

 did in fact achieve their goals in reading in math.
“That’s a big deal,” he said, once again crediting his teachers and staff.
And, he points out, West Hernando is an A school and has been for the last two years.
But under the No Child Left Behind law, schools that don’t meet yearly are hit with sanctions.

 Among them is school restructuring that could include replacing Clifford and teaching staff.
Clifford said his school is working to come up with a restructuring plan.

He expects the district will have to replace him.
Alexander said it’s too early to say that for sure.
“It’s not a done deal in any way,” he said.
Alexander said the situation emphasizes the need to ask tough questions

about whether the center school approach is the best way to meet the needs of the district’s

 exceptional students and also be fair to West Hernando.
“It’s an absurdity that an A school can’t make AYP,” Alexander said.
Clifford agreed, saying he is encouraged Alexander and other district officials

seem to share the goal to provide other schools with the training, materials and

other resources to take some of the load from West Hernando.
But he acknowledged funding is limited, and not everyone shares the same philosophy.
“It doesn’t happen overnight,” he said.
Most essential, Clifford and other teachers said, is to continue to whenever possible

include exceptional needs students with the general education population.
“When you see a (special needs) kid light up because he’s made a connection with one

of his (general education) peers, it brings a tear to your eye,” said Eileen Walls, a behavior specialist at West Hernando.

 “That is so much more important than any number on a test.”
Reporter Tony Marrero can be contacted at 352-544-5286.

United Cerebral Palsy publicly released a report,

The Case for Inclusion 2007, on how states are serving Americans

with intellectual and developmental disabilities under Medicaid.

 The report ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia on how

well the states are providing community-based supports.
http://www.ucp.org/medicaid/index.cfm?thisPage=ranks#rank

Subject: Family Cafe Inclusion

 Hi family members,
 You came to see my presentation at Family Cafe a few weeks ago; I
 hope that you enjoyed it. As promised, I am sending you the link to a
 blog that I have started that will maintain information and
 user-friendly materials that I have used to train teachers who are
including students with disabilities in general education classrooms.
 In addition, these are also materials that I have used as a former
 inclusive classroom teacher.
 The infused IEP matrix seems to help gen. ed. teachers make sense
 of what they are responsible for teaching a child with disabilities
 across the general education school day (see the sample I've provided
 as well). The data collection matrix is an easy to use weekly chart
 that can document progress on IEP goals related to level of support
 (prompts) needed to sucessfully meet a given IEP goal.
 Please feel free to comment or provide feedback via comment
 sections within the blog. I hope that you enjoy the rest of your
 summer and have a great school year next year!

 Warmly,
 Jill Storch
>> BLOG ADDRESS:

http://www.alachuacountyinclusion.blogspot.com

  Jill Frenchman Storch
 Doctoral Student
 University of Florida
 Special Education Department

Extra, Extra - go read all about it !!!

"Every parent should be celebrating today!"


Alert: On 5/21/07, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in

Winkelman v. Parma City School District. On the question presented as to whether

the Winkelman's "either on their own behalf or as representatives of the child,

may proceed in court unrepresented by counsel though they are not trained

or licensed as attorneys" the Court unanimously, in a 9-0 decision, ruled that they could.

Justice Scalia, with Justice Thomas, issued a separate Opinion that concurred with the Court's

ruling with an explaination that he agreed that parents could "proceed pro se in seeking reimbursement

and allegations about procedural violations." His dissent noted that the issue of FAPE is

the child's right to FAPE, and not that of the parent.

The full text the Court's unofficial summary, known as a Syllabus, the actual Opinion, and Justice Scalia's Opinion is available at:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussuptct.winkelman.pdf

Thank goodness this guy was wrong on his legal "prediction":

http://www.lawmemo.com/sct/blog/2007/02/winkelman_v_par.html

Occupational therapist Amy Perry  

works with Ethan Hammons who is

 a child with Autisn work on lines in shaving cream in the mirror.

Tampa Tribune article
Parents Say Therapy Needs A Place At School
Skip directly to the full story http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBBCTBU51F.html#content

By MARILYN BROWN The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 1, 2007

TAMPA - Some Hillsborough County parents are spending hours driving their children to physical therapy after the school district banned their private therapists during class time.
Those parents say that chore dominates their lives, and some can no longer do it.
"It makes no sense," said Gina Hammons, whose 12-year-old son has autism and attends Maniscalco Elementary School in Lutz. Hammons drives her son up to 20 miles one way six times a week for physical, occupational and speech therapy.
"We have other children," Hammons said. "The thing is, the majority of our moms work. How are we supposed to do this?"
Parents say their children don't make the same progress without additional therapy outside of what they may get at school. Hammons' son has trouble focusing in class if he doesn't get morning therapy, his mother said.
For more than a decade, the Hillsborough school district allowed private therapists to pull clients from class and use vacant areas for services. That ended this school year.
"It got so flexible, it got out of hand," said Mike Grego, Hillsborough's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Private therapists were coming and going on campuses and upsetting schedules. "We were really accommodating."
Wynne Tye, the district's director of special education, said allowing it cut into students' instructional time.
"When a private provider comes on board, they are pulling a child out of the classroom," Tye said. That interferes with the district's legal obligation to provide a full day's education, she said.
She acknowledged that the district hires outside therapists through private contracts to fill a critical need.
Nearly 26 percent of the district's 191,000 students are classified as having some type of disability, but administrators kept no count of how many received private therapy on campus. When the change was made, five to eight parents a week complained, Tye said, but few do now that the school year is winding down.
Federal law requires public schools to provide services that children with disabilities need for their education. District staff and parents work out what that entails. A few families fight for years over services, and some seek private therapy while they wage that battle or after they give up the fight.
The state leaves it up to districts whether to allow private therapists in school, a state Department of Education spokeswoman said. The state doesn't have a list of which districts allow it.
Students Fall Behind
Brandon mother and military wife Sedonia Bernard uses private military insurance to pay for occupational therapy for her 6-year-old son, Jackson.
Jackson received occupational and physical therapy at school from the time he was 6 months old, she said. When the family moved to Tampa in January 2006 from Tucson, Ariz., his therapy at school was greatly reduced. Now he gets group speech therapy at Schmidt Elementary.
Jackson gets private occupational therapy for an hour on Saturdays, instead of at least three times a week, which a private therapist recommends. He has a weak body trunk that has delayed his motor skills, his mother said.
A few weeks ago, Bernard was called to a teacher's conference and told that her son hasn't mastered handwriting.
"They want him to repeat kindergarten," Bernard said. The family may get more private therapy to help him catch up.
Parents are willing to take their children after school or on Saturdays, but therapists and the district acknowledge it's tough for all of them to get therapy during the few hours after school. Children with disabilities are often too tired for therapy at the end of the school day, parents said.
Topic Elicited 'A Lot Of Dissension'
A district task force met for months and recommended last spring not to allow the private therapists on campus. If a principal and district agree, therapists may pay a fee for after-school access to do their therapy. The new rules were phased in by July 1.
One task force member, Sharon Baron, disputes that official report, saying the task force did not reach consensus on that point.
"It was one of the two most important topics of the entire task force," said Baron, who said she was one of the few members who attended every meeting. "There was a lot of dissension."
Baron has a 9-year-old son with autism who gets 300 minutes of speech therapy and 30 minutes of occupational therapy a week at school.
Medicaid also pays for physical, occupational and speech therapy outside of school, some of which Baron is trying to get the district to provide in school. She sees children who have lost their private therapy.
"I can see what it's done for some of the kids in my son's class," Baron said. "The schools are dealing with the behavioral challenges."
Amy Perry, a private therapist the district hired to evaluate students' treatment needs, did an independent evaluation of Ethan Hammons, Gina Hammons' son with autism.
"I definitely recommended school-based therapy," Perry said, although the district did not add it to his individual plan. "To me, he needs the therapy so he can learn to write his name. There are a lot of academic pieces he's not doing."
Perry attends meetings on Ethan's progress at school and said his teacher welcomes her input and the therapy she provides.
Ethan has a full-time aide who works with him in class, but he is focused and behaves better when he comes to school after his morning therapy, Perry and his mother agreed.
"As a therapist, I would want him to have services in school," Perry said. "The problem is, you can sit in a class all day and if background noise bothers you, if disruptions are happening, how much are you really getting out of school?"
Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.
                                  

Amy works with 12 year old Ethan at Foundations Therapy in her

Clearwater office. "This is his core therapy, this is his lifeline;" 

---

Time Change for School Board Meetings!!! Hillsborough County

Starting September 18, 2007, the School Board of Hillsborough County will change the start time for its meetings. The new start time is 3 p.m. – two hours earlier than the current start time.
The School Board also is reserving a time for public comment at approximately 5 p.m. rather

 

 A Little Inclusion/Universal Education Holiday Cheer even after the Holidays
are over we want to keep it here to share!

Twas the night before Christmas through all of the schools.....
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the schools
No students were present to break any rules
The budget was written and every dime spent
With no one quite sure where it all went

The school board was snuggled all safe in their beds
While visions of budget increases danced in their heads
When all of a sudden there arose such a clatter
They leaped from their beds to see what was the matter

Away to the board room they went in a dash
Too see who it was that threatened the cash
And there before them who did appear
With issues they thought finished this year

Once more before them plainly to see
Were parents of children they called ESE
We've done this before and we were quite clear
So once again tell us why you are here

One of them stepped forward and soon was apparent
That this person before them was one informed parent.
The presentation was prepared with great thought and care
With federal law quotes that brought them great glares

With a voice loud and clear they were all called by name
These are not new laws and the meaning is plain
IDEA ADA LRE and 504
It is time to remind you just like before

We wish you good tidings great hope and good cheer
The time for inclusion is finally here
Why won't you listen to this our plight
To be included is not privilege but right

We want them included right from the start
To become part of the whole and not kept apart
We want them included and yes all means all
Don't make them feel different don't make them feel small

For such a long time the seed has been planted
Why do we still struggle for what to others is granted
No not right now but we'll tell you when
We've heard that same story again and again

So on this the holiest of nights
We say inclusion is not privilege but right
And on this issue we firmly do stand
The rights of our children we do now demand

As the meeting concluded ending the night
It was heard.........

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
AND TO ALL EQUAL RIGHTS