Integration of Special Education Students Urged : Thousand Oaks: Pilot effort would allow youths with learning disabilities to enroll at nearby campuses.

Special education students in Thousand Oaks who now attend mostly classes limited to other children with disabilities would be integrated into regular classes at schools near their homes under a proposal by local school officials.

The pilot project would allow about 15 elementary students--most of whom have multiple learning disabilities--to enroll at Park Oaks and Maple elementary schools instead of being bused to one of the district’s seven campuses that handle special education students.

Officials in the Conejo Unified School District described the experiment as a step toward “full inclusion,” a nationwide trend that aims to eliminate what some critics call the segregation of special education children. The proposal will be presented to the school board tonight.

“If you put it on a continuum, I think it slides in that direction,” Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson said. “But it’s not full inclusion or you would be dropping the services for special-ed kids.

“We’re not trying to drop services for kids, we’re just trying to locate the kids where (they) can be most comfortable,” he said. “That’s a little harder for them if they have to travel across town because the program they need is located there.”

Like most Ventura County school districts, Conejo Valley already integrates special education students with other students for at least part of the school day, even if only for lunch and recess. But many special-education children in Thousand Oaks do not attend their neighborhood schools, instead traveling by bus for 10 to 45 minutes to schools across town.

Thousand Oaks school officials say their pilot program, if approved, would be optional. The decision to place students in regular classes at schools near their homes would be made by parents and teachers together.

Students who do not function well would receive extra assistance from “learning centers” on the campuses of Park Oaks and Maple elementary schools. These centers would include at least a teaching specialist and aide.

If the Thousand Oaks plan receives support from the Conejo Valley school board, officials said they hope to expand the program to eventually include about 230 students with less serious developmental disabilities.

Nationwide, an estimated 1.6 million children with a range of disabilities now spend the entire school day in regular classes, and the number is growing by more than 100,000 students a year.

Full-inclusion, or mainstreaming, has sparked controversy throughout the country as parents fight for their children to be placed in mainstream classrooms or kept in self-contained programs with lower staff-to-pupil ratios.

Federal law requires special education students to be taught in “the least restrictive environment,” but some teachers and parents argue that least restrictive does not always mean a mainstream class.

In Orange County, the Ocean View Elementary School District filed a lawsuit contending that a developmentally disabled 6-year-old disrupted his kindergarten class by allegedly biting a teacher, throwing a desk and hitting other students. On Wednesday, a Superior Court judge ordered the child back into the classroom for the final week of school.

In other districts, full-inclusion programs have proved successful. In the Fullerton School District, more than 30 students now participate in a 3-year-old program that officials say benefits developmentally disabled children and teaches tolerance to their peers.

Officials in Ventura County say more than 70% of the area’s 13,000 special education students now spend a portion of their day in a regular classroom. Only about 1,000 severely disabled students spend all or nearly all of their time in special programs.

Last fall, the Moorpark Unified School District began a pilot full-inclusion program that places six moderately to severely disabled students in regular classes. Part-time aides assist teachers in those classrooms, but the aides do not work exclusively with the special education students.

“It’s not only been beneficial for the student with disabilities, but for the entire class,” said Dolores Allen, coordinator of Moorpark’s special education programs.

She added, however, that full-inclusion is not for every child and the decision to do so must be made jointly by parents, teachers and specialists.

In the Ventura Unified School District, as in Conejo Valley, students with moderate disabilities are bused to central campuses with special day classes.

“We just don’t have the luxury of providing a special day class at every one of our sites,” said Ricardo Nargie, director of Ventura’s special education programs.

Nargie questioned whether the closest schools are always the best for such students.

“You have to be very selective and take each case as it comes based on a child’s needs,” he said.

In the Conejo Valley, the pilot program would not require extra staff members because teachers would be transferred from other sites, said Connie Farkas, coordinator of elementary special education. And to prepare mainstream teachers at Park Oaks and Maple schools, special training sessions would be held.

Two Conejo Valley school board members said Wednesday they want to make sure the pilot program would not push special education youngsters or teachers too far.

Said board President Dolores Didio: “If you don’t even try it, you won’t know if it’s going to be good or not.”

FYI

The board of the Conejo Valley Unified School District meets tonight at 7:30 in the district offices at 1400 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.