At-Risk Students Get Help Early Dist. 220 Program Isn’t Day Care, Officials Say

By Chad Brooks Daily Herald Staff Writer

For many children in the Barrington area, their classroom education starts long before they show up for the first day of kindergarten.

Many attend preschool. Others, however, need specialized instruction – the kind offered by Barrington Area Unit District 220′s early childhood program.

The early childhood program is state-mandated for identifiably “at-risk” 3- to 5-year-olds.

Voters will decide April 17 whether to give District 220 $15.9 million and the authority to buy a new building to house its early childhood center.

Meanwhile, District 220 officials close to the early childhood program say there is a misconception that it is, in essence, nothing more than publicly funded day care.

Connie Simon, District 220′s director of special services, said that is not the case. Children in early learning classes have diagnosed disabilities or otherwise meet criteria for being considered educationally at-risk. All the students go through extensive testing before they are admitted, she said.

“These are children who are developmentally delayed, have speech and language needs, autism, or are health-impaired,” to name some of the criteria, Simon said.

Once enrolled, children get academics to encourage early literacy, mathematical thinking, physical development, and personal and social development. They also get assistance based on their individual needs for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy.

Simon said each child’s program is individual.

Jennifer Bulandr knows firsthand the early childhood program isn’t just day care.

She enrolled her son, Joshua, the first day he was eligible – his third birthday.

Joshua, who Bulandr and her doctors believe suffered a stroke while still in the womb, could not speak. At 3, he was using only crude sign language to communicate.

Bulandr said with therapy and work, Joshua made almost immediate improvement.

“Within the first couple of months he started talking,” Bulandr said.

Now, she said, someone seeing Joshua happily work his way around the obstacle course might think he is just playing.

Not true.

“He is learning how to keep his balance,” Bulandr said.

Simon said there is a purpose for every activity, “a reason behind everything we do.”

About half the 243 students enrolled in the early childhood program come from around Carpentersville. The others come from the greater Barrington area.

Woodland Principal Barb Romano said of the Carpentersville students, most of whom are Hispanic, about half are there to learn English.

The 243 children are split into five different classroom settings, Simon said.

“Blended” classes combine students who are classed as at-risk with those having special needs. “Self-contained” classes are for students with special needs, while “extended day” classes have students with developmental delays.

In bilingual classes, 90 percent of the curriculum is taught in Spanish.

The fifth group are students who require speech services.

The teachers, Simon said, all hold bachelor’s degrees in early childhood or special education.

“Our (staff) are well prepared to meet the needs of our children,” Simon said.

For Bulandr, private therapy for Joshua was an option. But she said she believes without District 220′s program he would not have progressed as much as he has.

Being with other children, some of whom are further along than Joshua, is a big plus for him, she is convinced.

If he were not in the program, “he would not be benefiting from seeing children his age model proper behavior and proper speech,” Bulandr said. “It gives him motivation to say ‘I can do that, too.’ “

Simon said the program has proven to have numerous benefits. Children who go through the program have fewer referrals for remedial classes or special education, higher grades, better social and emotional maturity, higher graduation rates, more academic motivation, fewer absences, a better attitude toward school, and better self-esteem, she said.

“This is their first school experience and we want to make sure it is a positive one and one that is beneficial to them and also one that helps set them up down the road for a successful school career,” Simon said.

cbrooks@@dailyherald.com

GRAPHIC: District 220 Early Childhood program

Students

– Current enrollment: 243

– Self-contained classrooms for special needs children have maximum enrollment of 10. Blended classrooms have maximum of 20 per class

Faculty

– Teachers, therapists have degrees in early childhood or special education; 85% have advanced degrees.

– 50 percent of staff has taught 10 or more years.

(c) 2007 Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.