About 1,000 special education students’ needs are at heart of
debate
Morgan Hill – Special education programs are suffering in the Morgan Hill Unified School District and critical student needs aren’t being properly met.
That’s according to Salli Welsh, the new director of the district’s beleaguered special education program.
On Nov. 28, Welsh told school board trustees there are 36 students with speech-language disorders at three school sites who are not receiving the services they need and 17 students with mental, physical, developmental or emotional disabilities that require assistance from occupational therapists who also are not receiving services.
“Those kids are going without,” she said.
A state and national shortage of speech and occupational therapists is to blame, Welsh told trustees. She said her department is doing its utmost to solve the problem.
Steve Spencer, a speech therapist at Jackson Elementary School, said that when he heard that the special education department is struggling to find speech therapists because of a shortage, he contacted the American Speech Language-Hearing Association, which certifies speech therapists and audiologists nationally.
“They said that all the graduate programs are running full and turning people away,” he said. “Most of them don’t have the money and the facilities to expand.”
Spencer also noted that when speech therapists come out of training, they have a variety of options, including clinics, hospitals and private practice, other than public schools.
“We’ve talked about this quite a lot, and our feeling is that public schools don’t offer a lot in terms of professional working conditions, plus conditions in the Bay Area are so expensive, it can be difficult,” he said. “This is not just Morgan Hill, but one speech therapist can have a caseload of 50 or more kids … When you consider the piles of paper work that have to be completed for each one, versus the direct time you spend working with the children, it’s frustrating.”
The district, as well as other districts, needs to be more competitive, Spencer said. He has told Assistant Superintendent Jay Totter, in charge of district human resources, that there is contract language already in place that allows the district to designate certain positions as special need, and authorizes offering a $2,000 bonus.
“At this point, the district hasn’t done that for any position in special ed,” he said.
Special education advocate Linda McNulty of LRC Consulting, a Morgan Hill-based advocacy agency for parents who have children with disabilities, said district special education parents have options.
“I would like parents to know, if they are still not receiving services such as speech, they can find an outside provider and ask the district to reimburse them for the cost,” McNulty said. “They must give the district a 10-day notification of their intentions to seek an outside service and give the district a chance to implement that service by putting their intentions in writing.”
Welsh said the district is working to find ways to serve the students who are not receiving services mandated by their Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs, which are legally binding documents created by school officials and the student’s parents or guardians and sometimes outside specialists to help children with disabilities improve their learning and teaching and meet the children’s unique needs.
Approximately 1,000 students out of the more than 8,000 district students receive special education services, Welsh told trustees, which is roughly 12 percent of the district’s total enrollment, slightly above the 10
percent national average. Some students receive more than one service; 450 students receive speech services, while 71 students receive occupational therapy and 54 receive adaptive physical education services, which are physical education activities modified to address the individualized needs of children with gross motor developmental delays.
McNulty is concerned that the district may be urging some parents with students on IEPs to move them from an IEP to a 504 plan, which she describes as “less protective.”
A 504 plan is an agreement worked out between parents and the district which can provide for special circumstances or conditions for students – a quiet room for testing, for example, or extra time to complete homework – but doesn’t have the same legally binding language as an IEP.
“The current rate of 12 percent (of special education students in the district) seems to have motivated MHUSD to move students out of special education,” she said. “I would like to mention that this rate has remained unchanged for many years, indicating to me that these are children with real needs. Many proposals are being made to move students from IEPs to 504 plans.”
Welsh told trustees that ultimately, the department’s goal is to have students functioning as mainstream students, but she did not specifically mention moving them off the IEPs.
“I would caution parents when considering a district-proposed move to a 504 plan,” she said. “Unless that student has progressed to a level that only modifications in the classroom are necessary, an IEP might be more appropriate for him. An example of a modification would be ‘student will be allowed to do only half of homework.’ If your child is in need of more support, needs-related services such as speech and OT (occupational therapy), or has behavior issues, I would caution against moving them to a 504.”
Welsh did not return calls for comment before presstime Monday.Â
There are other differences between the two kinds of plans which parents may not be aware of, McNulty added.
“The district will tell you that they can still provide service on a 504, which they can, but you should realize you will be giving up the protections of IDEA – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,” she said.
Some of the protections parents would be forfeiting are access to assessments, access to outside evaluations, current levels of progress updates and goals and objectives, according to McNulty. Parental consent and yearly IEPs are not required on 504s. The district does consider parental input, but the district makes the decisions on 504 plans.
Also, with a 504 plan, the district is not required to update the parents on a regular basis as it is with an IEP. Parents no longer have the right to a free and appropriate education, or FAPE, for their child under a 504 or the legal safeguards that accompany FAPE.
Heidi Curiel, who is the parent of a Sobrato High freshman, said she is “very frustrated” after trying to get the kinds of services her son needs. She said he was diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in kindergarten, and was later diagnosed as mild oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). She said his needs are simple and were taken care of at Britton Middle School, but because he doesn’t, according to the district, qualify for an IEP, he is not getting what he needs at Sobrato.
“That’s what this is all about, whether it is an IEP or a 504, shouldn’t the main thing be getting these kids what they need,” she said. “All the rest is just not that important. If we can give these kids what they need, they have a chance to be successful.”
Curiel said that the teachers at Sobrato have been “very cooperative” about getting in contact with her about her son’s progress, but she said in the meetings she has with the school psychologist, an assistant principal and special ed teachers, she feels her concerns are brushed aside and that the group is not hearing what she is asking.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
