Special-Education Reforms Draw Praise and Concern

A plan to close some special-education centers in Thousand Oaks and integrate students into their neighborhood schools drew criticism from wary teachers this week, even as parents praised existing pilot programs.

Parents of special-education students said the pilot Learning Centers now at six schools have helped their children academically, corrected behavior problems and allowed them to make friends at schools close to home.

Hilde Oliver told the Conejo Valley Unified School District board that her 9-year-old son, Jonathan, now comes home from school happy and even asks to go back on the weekend, in stark contrast to his behavior before he was moved to the Learning Center at Park Oaks Elementary School four months ago.

Jonathan was born with Charge syndrome, which left him nearly blind, with limited hearing and emotional and learning difficulties. He has excelled in academics and social skills as well, she said.

“The teachers there have helped him to come out of his dream world, where he goes sometimes,” she told the board Thursday night. “He can have conversations with kids on the playground. And for the first time ever, he has a friend who is a regular-education student, and he is so proud of that.”

But teachers union representatives warned the board not to rush into a plan to expand the Learning Centers to 11 more schools next year.

They also expressed concern about the mix of students at the Learning Centers, which combine two classifications of special-education students in the same classroom.

“If you ask us to be all things to all students, we will end up being nothing to anyone,” said Susan Falk, president of the Unified Assn. of Conejo Teachers.

The school board will not vote on the issue until its May 9 meeting, but two members expressed strong support for the plan.

“I have been on this bandwagon for eight to 10 years,” said board member Elaine McKearn, who has a child with Down syndrome. “These centers are doing wonderful things.”

Board President Richard Newman dismissed concerns that the board was moving too fast on the issue.

“We’re in the third year of piloting this program,” he said. “By law we have to do what’s best for the child.” Learning Centers fulfill that mandate, he said.

With the exception of students attending the six pilot programs in neighborhood schools, Conejo Valley youngsters with learning disabilities now attend special day classes at three designated sites on elementary school campuses.

Students are bused to the campus with the class that most closely fulfills their educational needs.

Under the proposal, classes for students in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 at the special sites would be phased out and the students would be sent to classes at 17 home schools next year. A Learning Center would be added at the 18th district elementary school in the fall of 1998, when construction is completed on additional classrooms there.

Special day classes for students in preschool through second grade would remain at existing sites, as would classes for students with severe learning difficulties.

Forty-eight students in grades 3 to 6 with mild to moderate disabilities would be eligible to transfer to the new Learning Centers. The parents of half those students have expressed interest in moving, while the other half want to stay in present programs, said Jack Bannon, the district’s associate director for special education.

The Learning Centers combine students and staff from two programs: special day class students, who are in special education classes 80% to 90% of the day, and resource students, who are in regular-education classes most of the day but come to the Learning Centers for work in specific areas.

School principals and parents were confident in the Learning Centers and their results. Walnut Elementary School Principal Bradley Baker said his school once hosted several classes for special day students who were bused from as far as Westlake to the Newbury Park campus.

“Some of the kids were on the bus 45 minutes and they were first-graders,” Baker said.

Now his school has a Learning Center, he said. Where the special day students were once in three classrooms of 12, the Learning Center at Walnut now has 12 special day class students with 25 resource students. There are two teachers and two aides in the Learning Center there, he said.

“Now you might have a fifth-grade special day class kid with a third-grade resource kid doing reading,” he said. “Their world has been expanded.”

Park Oaks Principal Leean Nemeroff, a former special education teacher, told the board that the Learning Centers are not appropriate for all special-education children. Some will stay in the dedicated classes, she said. But for the children who are suited to the program, Learning Centers offer the opportunity to learn in an environment that exposes them to the rest of the students on the playground.

“Let those kids return to their neighborhood schools,” she urged. “The swings are out there waiting for them.”