Special education cuts won’t affect district’s good standing

Feb. 25, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – The school district does not anticipate any civil rights violations coming forward this year with the reductions in special education staff proposed in the fiscal year 2017 (FY17) budget.

A part-time special education teacher at Blueberry Hill Elementary School and three district special education assistants would be cut according to the budget approved by the School Committee on Feb. 11.

The district faced a civil rights complaint at Blueberry Hill last year due to staff crowding, which was resolved without action by the state. Four teachers were working in one room designed for students with hearing impairments.

“It really wasn’t a violation,” Assistant Superintendent for Learning Susan Bertrand told Reminder Publications. “We had a student who had significant needs and had to be in a location that was acoustically appropriate for that student and we built that room specially.”

The district has had to address other civil rights violation allegations in the past. In 2007, the district faced an allegation due to special education classrooms not being integrated throughout Longmeadow High School and in 2013 an allegation was brought forward due to Glenbrook Middle School’s life skills program, which separated special education students from the main body of middle schoolers.

Susan Bertrand said the Blueberry Hill special education teaching position is “strictly due to redistricting.”

She added the three district-wide special education paraprofessionals positions were cut “due to students graduating from needing that kind of service.”

Bertrand said the number of special education students in the district is consistently in flux.

“We could have three new students moving into the district who require a paraprofessional come July or August or September or November of next year,” she noted. “We’d have to reconsider reinstating some of those positions.”

Superintendent of Schools Marie Doyle said some of the challenges for special education in the district are unanticipated numbers of students with special needs and the costs related to serving those needs.

“Special education is always changing,” she explained. “We have students who move in and out of the district on a regular basis. We also have students that may suddenly enter a crisis phase that we didn’t know about and couldn’t predict. We have known students that are on [individualized education programs] that we now we have to provide [for].”

She continued, “We’re fortunate in having a supportive community and administrators that have managed the budget very well. We’ve been able to absorb those costs as they arrive.”

Doyle said special education costs account for 33 percent of the district’s budget. There are 3,000 students in the district and 17 percent of students are enrolled in special education programs.

She added transportation for special education students increased this year by $200,000.

 “We do transportation through the [Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative] and due to the way students needed to be transported, we saw a substantial increase in that area. We have more students that are on vans that seem to drive up the cost.”

Bertrand said the district continues to score “well above” state levels for mandated testing in its special education programs.

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