In general, when arguing my positions, I like to refer to facts and research and reports and citations. I won’t be doing that here. Oh, there’s a lot of research on the benefits of inclusivity in classrooms, on best practices in disability accommodation, and other things that can be brought to bear in talking about special services. However, at its root, this is a moral and ethical issue. Whether or not providing special services takes resources that could putatively be used for other purposes, it is the right thing to do.
As such, I won’t attempt to make the case for providing or expanding services. If you, dear reader, do not agree with this, then I will not be attempting to convince you – please read a different post on my blog, and I hope you can find something that resonates with you there. This post will be starting from the point of view that accommodations in the classroom benefit everyone – not just the recipient child and their family, but their peers, teachers, other staff, and essentially the entire district and community.
Having said that – given that we’re starting from the position that special services are a critical function of any school system, how to provide them efficiently is still something that can be discussed. As I have said before and will say again – education is one of the most important places to spend public money, but when public money is being spent, the public is owed a responsibility to maximize the impact of every dollar. So the discussion is not “do we provide services”, but “can we do a better job of providing services”.
This is a personal issue for me, since I have a child who is mainstreamed and supported through a 504 plan. At the outset, I would like to make it clear that our experience dealing with their classroom teachers, and with the staff providing services, has been excellent. Every day they go to school, we have felt confident that they are in good hands, and are understood, considered, and cared for as the person they are.
However, our experience navigating the process of formalizing classroom accommodations wasn’t frustration-free. Moreover, I do not think our experience was unique in any way. In talking to other parents, I have consistently heard complaints about the general opacity of the process. In addition, while the plural of “anecdote” isn’t “data”, I know of multiple parents who have decided, or been advised to, transfer between elementary schools in the district – and those transfers aren’t necessarily aligned (e.g. one child being advised to transfer from school A to B, and a second one being advised to transfer from B to A). Again, based on my experience, everyone involved has excellent intentions and has the students’ best interests at heart. However, parents are understandably confused and frustrated, especially when there’s no easily accessible documentation of what might be driving these decisions.
So what can we do about it? As a board member, I will make it a priority to work with school administration to start by creating transparent documentation on the process and criteria that underlie classroom accommodations, and also to have public information on whether there are particular programs that are not offered in every elementary school. From that starting point, we can then continue to work out whether there are ways to change the way services are delivered, and whether there are opportunities to create some efficiency by, for example, consolidating specific services in specific schools (as a simplistic example, having OT available in school A and speech therapy available in school B, although of course some children need both – the details would need to be worked out carefully). By doing so, we can then more accurately assess the degree to which we are meeting student needs, and what level of resourcing might be required to reduce the gap and where it would be best directed.
Glen Rock schools need to work for all children and all families – and while the intent is there, we are not yet meeting that standard. Let’s fix that.
Leave a Reply