Heidi is the stepmother of a special needs student at Kent-Meridian High School. She can’t always understand what he says, which comes out in short bursts of “ye” and “nu,” but she can see the fear in his eyes when she talks about sending him to school.
Heidi’s son functions at a level barely above third grade, and Heidi says he learns best through repetition and constant coaching. Such tasks can be sweeping or writing a word, but learning requires constant repetition, specified on his IEP (individualized education program).
Heidi is concerned that the school never even looked at the IEP. She requested that her last name and her stepson’s name be withheld for privacy.
Heidi believes that the problem is that K-M hasn’t tailored its special education instruction to students’ IEPs, instead opting for top-down curriculum. Because her stepson isn’t getting the repeated instruction that he needs, she said he’s regressed in his limited intellectual ability.
Heidi has written multiple extensive emails to the school district and teachers, and has repeatedly gotten the runaround from teachers and administrators. She has become so distressed that she filed a complaint with the state’s Office of the Education Ombuds to investigate the issue. She isn’t the only one to do so.
According to data from the ombuds office, there were 16 complaints in the Kent School District regarding special education between July 2013 and June 2014. Only six months into the reporting year there are already 14 special education cases against the district. According to ombuds data analyst Brad Fulkerson, the district is on track to exceed the complaints from last year.
And the complaints aren’t just from parents. Teachers are also filing grievances and taking problems to the district regarding the issue. A K-M teacher filed a grievance on Jan. 5 over the lack of a de-escalation space in his class.
Kent Education Association president Cindy Prescott said that the complaints aren’t localized to the two schools.
“I do know that this is a complaint that we’re hearing throughout the district,” Prescott said.
Prescott said that between lower staffing and higher student loads, teachers are having a harder time developing curriculum that will fit each student’s IEP.
“It used to be there were some materials that were used that were specialized, but now what they’re saying is that common core standards are the thing,” Prescott said.
Designing curriculum for a special education program is time consuming, and according to Prescott, the district has opted for a top-down system that incorporates common core , which teachers then tailor to a student’s needs.
Fights and violence are also common in special ed classes, and contribute to Heidi’s son’s fear of K-M. The fights and violence toward teachers and students are prevalent in other schools.
According to emails obtained by the Kent Reporter, Jenkins Creek teacher Jill Todoroff has made repeated trips to urgent care after students have attacked and injured her during episodes. An email from Instructional Support Team Program Specialist Holly Bailey described Todoroff’s room as “a classroom where both students and adults are unsafe.” Because of the nature of the disruptions in the room, Bailey said in her email that any kind of effective programming is “near impossible to do when there is one fire after another to put out.”
District Inclusive Education (renamed to include gifted as well as disabled students) Director Matt Patterson said that they are aware of issues in the programs but couldn’t speak directly to solutions. He did add that efforts have been made to improve communication between teachers and senior staff to provide materials as needed, such as sustaining the Special Education Advisory Committee. Other programs the district has implemented include the transition fair and PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports).
He also said that the inclusive education department is working with limited staff and resources, and doing the best they can to provide services to students. He believes that overall teachers think the quality of inclusive education has improved.
“If you were to get a good sampling, it’s hands down improved over the last six months,” Patterson said.
Education for special needs students comes from both state and federal mandates, but most are unfunded.
“These unfunded mandates are but one part of the inherit challenge in delivering unique and tailored system-wide services,” said KSD communications director Chris Loftis in an email. “School districts must then make difficult choices in strategies and tactics to be both successful and in compliance with the law. “
“With 2,823 special needs students, that’s four school districts,” Loftis said. “It’s a huge undertaking and there are ongoing applications of resources.”
Resources being the key word.
“You can do anything with time and money,” Loftis said, “and a school district has limitations of both.”
Note: Chris Loftis, of the Kent School District, responds to points made in this article. Find his guest piece online and in next week’s edition.
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