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Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor. She observed in a number of different special education classrooms in Decatur Public Schools District 61 prior to writing this article.
A pile of books sits in the hallway, a reminder of a student's emotional meltdown on Monday. The placement might not be exact — a teacher picked them up and put them back twice — but the intended message to the student is clear: This is your responsibility.
The tall, dark-haired young man is back in school after an absence on Tuesday, picks up his books and is escorted to the "white room." The small, windowless room with nothing but a desk and chair is designed to help students get their emotions under control. He has been at Muffley Elementary School in Decatur less than two weeks prior to the book-throwing incident. He recently changed custodial parents, which meant changing schools.
It's difficult fitting in. The teacher hopes "time out" in the white room will calm him down. Hope and patience are both in big demand.
For students like this boy, behavior difficulties lead to learning problems, which can result in an individual education plan (IEP) and assignment to special education. For others, developmental or health issues lead to placement. The reasons for special education are as varied as the faces of the students. And the process to identify and place students often takes time.
For board members to understand all the facets and legal requirements of special education would be too much to ask. The 2004 bill to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is 162 pages. The rules for certification of special education teachers fill a 147-page pdf on the Illinois State Board of Education Web site. And those are just two of the documents that regulate how districts must address students with special needs.
While they do not need to know all the nuances and mechanics, school board members do need to know what special education means to their district, to their individual schools and to their students, both in terms of dollars and people.
Every district is different. What follows is a glimpse of what special education looks like in a few classrooms in Central Illinois.
In terms of dollars
A group of middle school students come directly from adaptive physical education to life skills class. Some of the boys still need to change from gym clothes to street clothes. They're hot and sweaty; the room is chilly enough that an aide is running a space heater. There's no provision for these boys to have any assistance in the regular locker room, the teacher says, so they come back to their classroom and take turns changing in a kitchen area in the other room. Once dressed, they join in the class' first activity: an exercise to see if they know their schedule for the day or can figure it out from the chart. Before they break into groups, many share desk space.
Special education funding is always a hot topic each year when Illinois delegates attend the Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference to discuss school funding with their congressmen and federal education officials.
Federal funding accounts for just 5 to 8 percent of most school districts' revenue. But federally mandated expenditures, including special education, comprise more than 30 percent of the total budget for those districts.
"Costs for implementing special education-mandated programs are rising," Binda Batchu, campaign manager for A+ Illinois, said in 2004, "forcing many districts to pull resources intended for non-special ed students."
Federal funding patterns are described as "disappointing" in a "Federal Action Alert" that was part of FRN lobbying materials used in 2007.
Funding for IDEA "is especially important to school boards," the alert said, because, just like Title I, it involves a federal mandate that Congress "promised to partially offset" when the law was enacted.
"In the case of IDEA, lawmakers promised to pay a share equal to 40 percent of the extra cost involved," the alert said. "But Congress never provided more than 20 percent, and its recent funding decisions have brought the federal share below 18 percent — leaving the other 82 percent to local school districts (and whatever funds they receive from their state)."
Part of the problem is the amount that Congress actually pays out each year fails to keep up with the amount that is authorized. Added together over the past five years (FY02-FY06), the National School Boards Association estimates a difference of $37.6 billion between what was authorized ($85.3 billion) and what was actually paid ($47.7 billion).
The result is a system that costs local districts more and more to meet federal mandates, not only for IDEA but for No Child Left Behind as well. And NCLB factors into the equation more and more because special education often is the subgroup where many districts struggle to make annual yearly progress, even if they show excellent progress everywhere else.
Meanwhile, state funding for special education, above the foundation level of $5,734 for 2007-08, comes in the form of reimbursements to districts for students who have IEPs and for those who teach them. But that extra money is difficult to get.
Sharon Gronemeyer, assistant superintendent for student services in Plainfield CCSD 202, said state restrictions work to increase the gap between what the state and federal government help pay and what the district must provide locally. The cost for a special education student must be two and a half times more than the district's per capita (or $18,972 for her district), in order to claim the maximum reimbursement of $2,000 for a student.
Because of increasing restrictions, she said, "fewer and fewer students can meet this standard," which leaves local taxpayers to make up the difference.
In addition to the student reimbursement, districts can apply for up to $8,000 in salary reimbursement for full-time certified special education personnel and $2,800 per non-certified staff. But those formulas also are complex.
And to compound the financial strain, the number of special education students is rising. In 2005-06, 15.3 percent of the 2,111,706 students in Illinois had IEPs, according to Illinois' School Report Card, or 323,091 students. That's up from 14.42 percent in 2001 and 14.7 percent in 2003, according to the "2003 Annual State Report on Special Education Performance."
Some districts, like Plainfield at 13.2 percent, fall just below the state average. Decatur Public Schools District 61 at 17 percent is slightly more. Other districts, like Peoria SD 150, Carbondale ESD 95 and Belleville SD 188 are at 23 percent. Mt. Vernon SD 80 is 27 percent.
"The higher your percentage of special education, the more costly it will be for the district," Plainfield's Gronemeyer said.
Costs to educate children in special education involve much more than regular classroom-related expenses. The FRN "action alert" cited "health-related services (which rise faster than inflation), the use of new expensive technologies, and ensuring that the programs provided will enable students to make AYP."
Illinois state board figures estimate that it costs, on average, $8,500 more a year for each child with a disability. In some cases, however, the actual cost can be more than $100,000 a year. According to a January 31, 2007, Chicago Tribune article, "Coming up short," school districts in the Chicago suburbs have diverted $275 to $425 per student in their district to cover the special education costs not being paid by state and federal funds.
Illinois FRN delegates find that their congressmen are often surprised when given the figures on what the shortfall costs district taxpayers annually. It's one thing to talk in terms of billions of dollars for special education; it's another when it's put in terms of a cost per child.
"Each child's education is important to us in Plainfield," said school board member Victoria Eggerstedt, "but we're being asked to rob Peter to pay Paul. If we are continually asked to funnel more and more money to cover spiraling special education costs because IDEA funding hasn't kept up with what was promised by the federal government, the reality is that it comes at the expense of other programs and our general ed students."
In the classroom
A slightly built boy with long brown hair finds any number of things to do besides his math worksheet. He sharpens a pencil. He straightens the papers on his desk. When the teacher steps out to confer about the boy in the "white room," work avoidance escalates. He quickly scribbles on the floor with a colored pencil and then very loudly proclaims that he's going to be in trouble because he wrote on the floor.
"I've got to get that cleaned up before I'm really in trouble." So it's off to the sink in the corner to wet a large portion of paper towels so he can begin scrubbing. Down on his hands and knees, he keeps muttering about how he shouldn't have done that … he's going to be in trouble.
The math paper sits on his desk …ignored.
Across the aisle, his classmate manages to spill a few drops of water on his desk. He moves his math paper into the water. He tries to wipe the water off. The paper is now wet, too. He moves the paper again, getting it wetter yet. Finally he wads up the math sheet and chucks it into a wastebasket near his desk.
The aide redirects the curly-haired boy to his math. Don't worry about the floor, do your math. She notices that the other boy is not doing much of anything either. "Is your math done?"
"I didn't get a paper," is his answer. The crumpled remains of the first math sheet are clearly visible in the wastebasket.
Multiple things are usually going on in any classroom filled with students. For special education students with behavioral problems, little things that wouldn't bother most students become major obstacles to learning.
They feel compelled to know everything that's going on … it could be more interesting than what's going on at their own desk. The teacher must constantly redirect these students back to their lessons.
Others would rather withdraw into their own world, shutting out everyone and everything, including the teacher and the lesson.
Still others are fragile emotionally because of situations and events outside of school. It doesn't take much to set them off inside the classroom.
Within this backdrop, special education teachers are expected to prepare children for spring tests that determine whether the school and the district will make AYP under No Child Left Behind and face the consequences if they don't.
The testing process itself often frustrates many of these students, according to Lynna Pack, special education teacher at Muffley Elementary in Decatur. Even with special accommodations of extra time and small groups, she's seen students rip up their tests in frustration or just begin to bubble in answers randomly.
School board members, too, are becoming increasingly frustrated with the demands being placed on students with special needs.
Board members in Danville CCSD 188 expressed their frustration publicly in October. "I think there's a fallacy in the way the law is written," board member Greg Hilleary told a reporter. "Some special education students are not able to perform at their age level and never will be able to."
Teachers, meanwhile, target learning to prepare special ed students to do well on state tests.
A young woman enters a high school special ed math class in tears. During the last passing period, someone teased her about her lounge pants. She sobs through most of the class, unable to concentrate on the practice problems. "We're talking about this today because you'll need to solve problems like this on the PSAE," says her teacher. The math concept is a simple algebraic equation, finding for X. The students struggle — some catching on after a few problems, others sitting with their heads down, not even trying. The girl in the lounge pants sobs.
The ideal situation for some students is to have them in a regular classroom for most of the day and in special education classes for areas where they need extra help.
Rachel Drews, who has taught special ed in Nebraska for the past 10 years, says her biggest daily challenge is making sure she covers the district-mandated curriculum well enough that her students understand it and are able to transfer the skills back to their classroom task or assignment.
"Often students demonstrate an understanding of a concept or idea in my room, or in my small group," she said, "but then have difficulty transferring it to classroom use without teacher assistance."
With a dual endorsement in special education and elementary education, she feels that she makes the most impact by teaching special education students. Her K-2 students are classified as learning disabled or developmentally delayed, although she currently has some students with medical issues as well.
Drews' current building departmentalizes special education students, not unlike District 61's where special ed teacher Lynna Pack has students with behavior problems, not overriding health issues. Drews sees departmentalizing as a more effective way of meeting the needs of special ed students. But new rules in Illinois, effective for the 2009-10 school year, will change the way students are assigned to classrooms. (See "How many teachers will it take to teach special ed in Illinois?," page 27.)
Like the frustrated board members in Danville, Drews also questions the fairness of holding her students to the same standards as those in the regular ed classroom.
"The passage of No Child Left Behind changed the way that special education programs function," Drews said. "For example, children in our school district are expected to learn the same curriculum and are graded on the same rubric. The only exception is given to students who have alternate assessment on their Individual Education Plans or students who are moderate, severe or profoundly handicapped or some students with autism if their IQ's are low enough.
"Otherwise they are compared and graded the same as their non-disabled peers. Quarterly progress reports that are taken directly from IEP goals are where parents can see true progress."
Growing numbers
The tall, very thin girl at the front of the room has a faraway look. She is so flexible that she sits most of the time on her haunches on her desk chair. She's very intelligent; she's also autistic. She's the first one done with any assignment. And then she's back to a Garfield book in her desk. Or she's watching other students. She writes two quick sentences on the journal topic of the day (If you had the chance to sit around all day, would you enjoy it? Explain) and then writes nearly a full page off-topic … an on-going story she shares with her teacher, Mrs. Pack.
The teacher asks her to take a note across the hall to another classroom: "Take Mrs. Dawson with you." I follow. The note delivered, my tall companion heads for the bookshelves in the K-2 classroom, hunching down and selecting a book.
I watch as an aide works with a little boy on word identification; he's ADHD, the teacher explains. Another boy with autism sits at a computer … sometimes working, sometimes staring. The teacher works with the third boy in the class as he pastes words into a worksheet.
I'm ready to return to the original class in about 20 minutes; my escort doesn't want to go back. She joins us again only when everyone in the three special education classrooms goes to music.
Before 1991, the U.S. Department of Education did not require states to supply numbers on autism. Now, with changes in criteria for diagnosing children with autism, these numbers are skyrocketing.
In the past 13 years, the number of autistic students ages 6 to 21 in Illinois grew by 187,860 percent, from five to 9,398, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Overall in the U.S. for the same age group, the number of autistic students grew from 12,222 to 224,415, or 1,736 percent.
Autism is a developmental disability that affects the way children interact in verbal as well as non-verbal communication. Doctors and scientists often are baffled by the causes, which have been attributed to brain abnormalities, genetics, viruses and environmental toxins, as well as by its symptoms. Because the disability has 12 different diagnostic criteria, it has become known as "autism spectrum disorder."
"Most autistic children have trouble with language, suffer from increased sensitivity and emotional volatility, and display obsessive or ritualistic behavior," wrote Carol Brydolf in the Summer 2004 issue of California Schools, a publication of the California School Boards Association. "Some autistic children act out with violent tantrums and aggression, and adolescents can be sexually inappropriate. Almost all autistic persons have difficulty connecting with people. Many autistic children also suffer from painful gastrointestinal problems, sleep disorders and other disabilities like cerebral palsy and epilepsy."
Probably the most memorable depiction of adult autism was Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 film "Rain Man."
"Autism varies widely in its severity and symptoms and may go unrecognized," according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Web site, "especially in mildly affected children or when more debilitating handicaps mask it."
Although behavioral therapies and intervention at a young age can help, there is no cure, according to the institute.
With growing numbers — one in 67 children in the U.S. have autism — schools face growing problems not only with how to reach these children, but how to teach them so that they can meet growing educational expectations for all students.
An additional problem comes with success: once a district is identified as one that makes significant progress with autistic children, families relocate in search of the best educational environment for their child.
"On the one hand, we are very proud to talk about our excellent programs," Jim Coulter, a director of special education services in Yolo County, California, told Brydolf for her article "Stuck Inside." "But no district can afford to attract too many of these students because these programs are so expensive to operate."
The cost of special education programs, as outlined earlier, is rising at an even faster pace than regular education. But districts also face increasing costs in another area: out-of-district placements. When the district cannot provide the level of service that the child needs and the parents demand, federal IDEA requires the district to pay for placement in a setting that will best meet those needs.
"Parents continue to request more services," said Plainfield's Gronemeyer, "and regulations and legal decisions require districts to provide more services."
In addition, she said, medical advances are helping some children to live a longer life, but with extraordinary educational needs that must be met. For special education students, those needs must be met by districts until a child is 21.
Plainfield currently has 124 students placed in private schools … all at district expense.
Gronemeyer said board members should advocate for their district in terms of funding as well as on the issue of increased reporting. With more students in special ed comes more paperwork. Teachers and secretaries spend an increasing amount of their time documenting and submitting data to the state regarding special education, she said.
This is in addition to the paperwork that's often demanded in special education just to keep up with daily assignments and behavior reports. Special ed teacher Lynna Pack in Decatur has a "pink note" that must be prepared for each of her students each day before they go home. The note is a report on their behavior for the day and must be signed by a parent or guardian and returned the next morning.
It all takes time.
Today's music lesson is a video about the history of The Star Spangled Banner. The students … ages ranging from 6 or 7 to 12 or 13 … find places on the floor to watch the video. Some distance themselves immediately from the others. One sits with her head in her hands. Another tries to lie down to watch the video but, with some encouragement from an aide, is quickly righted by the music teacher. About three-fourths of the way through the video, something is said on the right side of the group. "Be quiet! Stay away from me!" the tall, thin girl blurts out. A few moments later, she yells, "Don't! Stop it!" She jerks away from the aide nearest her and bolts for the doorway.
In the end
I'm looking at a book that explains animal idioms …sly as a fox, monkeyshines, killing two birds with one stone, don't bug me. Understanding idioms can be difficult for special education students. The K-2 boy with ADHD decides he wants to look, too. He gets closer and closer until he's sitting on my lap, squirming and pointing to pictures of pigs and birds and hairy apes. He wants to move from page to page quickly. "What's this?" "What's this?" That question and "Can you help me?" are the two most often-heard phrases during the day.
The demands of special education are many and varied. Even though children may be identified by the same classification of disability, no two children are exactly the same when it comes to their personality or their needs.
School districts must be committed to providing the best education with the money available, and that commitment must begin with the school board.
With input from staff and the community, school board members can develop a mission and vision for their district that serves the needs of all students while conveying the underlying belief that all children can achieve … even those with special needs.
That may appear to be in direct contrast with the feelings of frustration when special education students must be tested on the same grade-level materials as students in regular education classrooms. But articulating that belief sets a goal for the district to help all students achieve "to the best of their ability."
The burden then becomes one to determine exactly how to measure that ability. Alternative assessments, assessments based on IEPs or student portfolios may provide a way to demonstrate individual student improvement. Anecdotal evidence of how testing impacts students (Remember the ripped-up tests and random bubbling?) can put a face on special education for state and federal legislators.
Teachers and administrators each have stories they could tell. School board members can use their voices to relay those stories to advocate for changes, either on their own or through the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance of which IASB is a member.
Current data also can be used to help local communities understand the increasing crisis districts face in meeting under-funded mandates, especially in the area of special education. Talking in terms of what it takes to educate a specific special education child — putting a face to the problem — may have more impact than talking about thousands or millions of dollars in a local budget for special education.
References
2003 Annual State Report on Special Education Performance, Illinois State Board of Education, http://www.isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/pdfs/annual_perform_report.pdf
American Academy of Pediatrics, "Autism A.L.A.R.M," http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/health/Autism%20downloads/AutismAlarm.pdf
Susan Black, "A Silent Hurt," American School Board Journal, May 2000
Carol Brydolf, "Stuck Inside," California Schools, Summer 2004
"Coming up short," Chicago Tribune, January 31, 2007
IDEA 2004 (reauthorization bill), http://nichcy.org/reauth/PL108-446.pdf
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, http://www.ninds.nih.gov/
Tracy Moss, "Danville school officials get mixed report on performance," Champaign News-Gazette, October 11, 2007