The costs of special education are skyrocketing as are the number of students diagnosed as having special needs. In the last fiscal year Massachusetts spent more than 1.7 billion dollars on special education — that’s up half a billion dollars since 2002.
Much of that money is going for the record high number of students diagnosed as having an “autism spectrum” disorder. About 1,000 autistic children are enrolling in Massachusetts public schools each year. Some parents have hired attorneys to make sure school districts comply with the law that requires all students receive a “free and appropriate” education.
We look at how schools are funding special education programs and how parents are fighting for the education of their children.
Listen to the full show:
listen
Plus, in our web specials: Living with autism…
Radio Boston: Special Education in Massachusetts
Airdate: November 16, 2007
- Guests:Richard Robison, the Executive Director of the The Federation for Children with Special Needs. His experience includes six year as a senior policy analyst to the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation
Wayne Ogden, Superintendent of Franklin Schools
Web Specials…Here is a list of resources for parents interesting in learning more about Special Education in Massachusetts:
For an overview go to the Massachusetts Department of Education , you can also visit their resources link for more about specific disabilities.
To learn how you can help your special needs child or to find an advocate contact the Massachusetts Advocates for Children.
To learn more about autism visit the National Autism Center.
Living with Autism: “Love just costs something, sometimes.”
Meghna Chakrabarti writes: That’s what Ali Watt told me when I went to visit the North Shore Education Consortium. Ali’s daughter, Alexa, is a student there. Alexa is 15 and has severe autism. She doesn’t talk much. Mumbles and groans and sings, more than anything. She’s tall and beautiful, too.
Alexa is Ali’s only child. Though she loves her daughter without condition and with total conviction, Ali still struggles with the mystery of autism. When we talked, a bewildered look sometimes flashed across her eyes. Her daughter’s true soul is somewhere in there, she believes. It’s just fronted by the ferocity of the severe autism. So, there’s a lot of frustration, Ali told me, both hers and Alexa’s.
Faith, family, and words, have brought Ali a measure of serenity. In 2004 she wrote Hurricane Dancing: Glimpses of Life with an Autistic Child, a book of poems Ali had penned over the years.
She read one of the pieces for us:
poem.mp3
With the bewilderment comes also unanticipated moments of amusement and joy. Ali couldn’t stress this enough. I got a taste of what she meant when I went on a walk with Alexa. She sang the whole time… “walking in a winter wonderland… walking in a winter wonderland.” Autism, Ali says, means finding the balance between the wonder, and the wondering.
Hearing Things (2000)
by D. Alison Watt
“Alexa, this is Doug.
Do you remember our friend
Doug?
Say hello to Doug!”
She looked at him then looked at me
downright disbelieving.He walked away
and to his back
she said hello:
“Quack, quack, quack.”
Links to Massachusetts Autism Resources:Autism Society of America, Massachusetts chapter
Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
Massachusetts Advocates for Children: Autism Project
Massachusetts Department of Education: Autism Special Education
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON EMAIL IN BOX:
—
Hi,
Â
My experience is more with moderate special needs rather than severe special needs. I am a learning disabilities specialist currently in private practice although I have taught in the school setting also. I think a major issue with respect to the population I deal with, is that regular education teachers are very often not prepared by their training and supervision experiences to provide for the students who are included in their classes although many schools mandate inclusion. I think one thing we all need to think about is overhauling teacher preparation programs. As my professor at Northwestern University said, there is no such thing as specal education, only good teaching and not so good teaching.
Â
-Kalyani Krishnan
Language and Learning Specialist
Coordinator of Follow-up Evaluations
Institute for Learning and Development
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON EMAIL IN BOX:
Name: Sarah Commerford
Subject: special education
Message: As a parent of two children with special needs, and as
professional special education advocate, I can say with certainty that
while the costs of educating children with special needs is indeed
high, the long term strain on the state and federal prison, mental
health and welfare system would be far higher without continued early
intervention and intensive, direct instruction for school aged
children with disabilities.
There are no easy answers, but compromising special education
programming on the premise that it costs too much is short sighted and
can never be an option.
Sarah Commerford, M.Ed.
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON EMAIL INBOX:
—
Every society that values human beings intrinsically must make hard
decisions about how to accommodate the wide variance in human ability
and native circumstances. For an isolated tribe in the amazon a
seriously disabled or impaired child might be allowed to die as an
infant since the material wealth and resources of the society simply
can’t support the child’s needs.
Our society is rich beyond the imaginings of previous generations:
we absolutely have the material abundance to provide for the needs of
all the disabled — child and adult. That we choose not to — day after
day — as individuals voting down school budget overrides and
corporately on the part of the great wealth holders of our country — is
more than a shame, it is a crime.
–
—————————————–
David Pfarrer
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON EMAIL INBOX:
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I have yet to hear anyone talk about the fact that many of the
conditions that require “special education” have clinical diagnosis and,
therefore are more like having a disease that requires medical care than
simply an extention of the fundamental education model. This does not
mean that they shouldn’t have everything available, but it does suggest
that one way of funding this is to require “health insurance” to cover
these conditions as well. If they really things that can be diagnosed
then we whould a pooled sharing of the societal reponsibility to provide
for these conditions. It isn’t The Solutions but it might help to fund
things without putting all of the burden on the “property tax” as it is
now. There must be a better way to fund these costs in a way that
doesn’t put them in a competition with meeting the basic mission of our
eduction system. This is a false competition that serves noone in the end.
I four eduction system is less and less effective at delivering the core
eduction to the majority of students we will not be competitive in the
world and will have a decline in our quality of life. This will make
much more difficult to provide anything to anyone!
Just my 2 cents….
Thanks,
Scott Samenfeld
Arlington, MA
ANOTHER ONE FROM THE EMAIL INBOX:
Name: Peg Anderson
Subject: Special Ed
Message: I went through this with my son. In 1990 he had problems
adjusting to school. He was diagnosed with ADHD. In order to serve
my sons interests I was the mother from hell. I made sure that I knew
my rights and the law. My son had his own Aid from second through
sixth grade. He had many plans over the years. I had cooperation in
elementary and middle school however in High School the principal say
no need to obey the end plan. I found that they had broken the law and
used that as club to beat them into doing what they should have done.
I am from a very wealthy school system. If I had not been as
aggressive and downright rude my son would not have made it. When
school systems claim that they want to help special needs children my
experience is that they want to help them in a way that is cheap and
convient for them not the child. My son made it through to the othe
side. He is a senior at UMASS Dartmouth and doing very well.
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON EMAIL INBOX:
Name: Marcia
Subject: SPED violations
Message: Please check with the MA Department of Education. Newton’s
audit revealed all sorts of compliance violations, and I’m sure other
communities did as well. It’s not a questions–it’s a fact and it’s
published for public consumption.
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON INBOX:
Name: John Craig
Subject: special ed
Message: Hi
The moral tragedy here is that there is very little outrage that
there is an epidemic happening! Why are there so many kids on the
spectrum? We have to look at ALL possibilties. Not just gloss over
vaccines and vaccine additives and rely on three foreign studies
which are flawed. Environmental insults of all kinds are not being
taken seriously. In the history of humankind, there never has been a
“genetic epidemic”.
Thanks
John Craig
PS The 1 in 150 # from the CDC I think is for full blown autism.
FROM THE RADIO BOSTON EMAIL INBOX:
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There is no question that extensive investment should be made in high-functioning children who will eventually either contribute to the community or cause problems. This is sound economically and ethically.
However, we might do well to question our goals with regard to lower-functioning children. I recall hearing a story on NPR awhile back about a family (this story was presented by the father) who had reluctantly put their 13-year-old autistic son in a group home after years of struggle within the family. Sometimes their son was violent, and had to be restrained. Finally they accepted that this was not good for him, as well as not good for them. At first the transition was difficult. But when their son began to return for home visits, they found that he was not only happier, but that he was more sociable and had begun learning his alphabet. The option of a higher quality of life in an institutional setting might be a more enlightened goal than what we have now.
Sincerely,
Natalie Gillihan
Excellent show! As a special education administrator who is responsible for leading the meetings that determine eligibility, it’s difficult to see how many parents have been led to believe that special education is the only way that a student can get a quality education. Many academic weaknesses are not disabilities and there are many, many schools and teachers who are dedicated to improving academic skills for ALL students. In our district we see that having rid ourselves of substantially separate classrooms for students with more significant learning disabilities has been a phenomenal success in improving their academic abilities. This model is not necessarily less expensive, and in some ways it is more expensive; but it is the best way for teachers to work together to improve their practice. The further away a student is from their peers and the general education setting, the less opportunity they have to learn from a variety of experts in the curriculum.