Dearing Supports Special Ed Course
By Sylvia Lim, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.
Dec. 11–BRADENTON — Parents upset at the Manatee County school district’s decision to discontinue a special education program were cautiously encouraged Monday.
They showed up to speak out against the decision at a school board meeting, and met with an unexpected and potential ally: the superintendent.
During public comments, 14 parents and grandparents handed out talking points and picked apart several key reasons the district offered for cutting the class designed for students who are speech impaired.
Superintendent Roger Dearing said one of his grandsons would have qualified for the program if he had lived in Manatee County, and that closing the program hits home.
“This is personal for me too,” he said. “I will go and visit the classrooms, and visit classrooms in other districts. I’ll schedule meetings with you and talk to the teachers . . . but the program cannot look like it does today.”
And he told them that the decision is not a policy issue, which the school board oversees, but an administrative one, which he does.
Because the classes — with about 65 students — are only offered at Kinnan, Stewart and Williams elementary schools, many have to be bused long distances for school.
By integrating the speech impaired students into a generalized special ed class, those students will be able to attend their neighborhood schools.
Many of the children have other siblings, who attend the same school as them, making transportation a problem, Dearing said.
Parents tore into that point by stating they are willing to drive their children.
The program, developed in the 1970s, was outdated, district officials say.
Show us the research that says it is outdated, parents Tara Gourlay and Shannon DeChelbor countered.
The idea that it is outdated is ludicrous, Gourlay said, or they wouldn’t have seen the development in their children.
Shawn Lutus’ child is a second-grader at Stewart Elementary, and has Asperger Disorder. He has difficulty learning how to speak and understand speech and was on the verge of failing kindergarten. Now, the boy is one of the top students in his class, and is doing school work at grade level, she says.
And, integrating their children into general special ed class is not the answer, they said. How would their children get the hundreds of minutes of language therapy offered by this class that is team taught by a special ed teacher and language pathologist?
“It cannot be satisfied in any other setting,” said Darlene Sharts, whose grandson is in the program.
Dearing extended a promise to investigate the facts behind the class’ discontinuation. But the solution may not be what the parents want, which is to keep the program, or what the district’s special ed administrators want to do, which is to cut the program next school year.
“We’ll solve this problem together,” he said. “It’s not going to be either, but somewhere in between.”
Sharts and Lutus were not bowled over by Dearing’s promise.
“Hopefully, he will hold up to the process,” Lutus said. “If he holds up, we will be encouraged.”
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