IRVINE : School Takes Special View of Disability

To anyone watching the children working playfully together in class, it might come as a surprise that one-third of them are learning-disabled. It would come as a surprise to the students as well, as they are mostly oblivious to the disabilities of their classmates.

That is because special-education students at University Park Elementary School spend their entire school day integrated with other students. It may be the only program in the county that has eliminated barriers between special-education and regular students, according to Carol Arnesen, special-education administrator for the County Department of Education.

“I had not heard of that type of a program before,” Arnesen said. “Irvine is definitely the exception to the rule in implementing that. It is the desired objective.”

University Park Principal Craig Ritter said his school will use recently won federal funding to measure the success of the 3-year-old program, which could become a model for schools throughout the county.

Special-education students often feel inferior when they spend only a part of the day in a regular classroom, according to teacher Jean Fritzsche, who developed the program with teacher Kevin Moore.

“They were using that classroom, but they were never a part of that class,” Fritzsche said. “Now, the social stigma has really been removed.”

Grade levels and teachers are also mixed, with students in a combination second-, third- and fourth-grade class and a combination fifth- and sixth-grade class. Each class has a regular and a special-education teacher.

“We just tell them that they’re at many different development levels,” said teacher Charlotte Hollis. “It’s beautiful how they help one another.”