You know I've been looking over some of these laws and I started reflecting on IDEA the big piece of legislation that seems to me to be the cornerstone of SPED. It has been used to MANDATE a fair and appropriate education for every student.
Because of deficits in some of our educational programming we end up sending a small portion of our student population out of district to get them what they need, educationally. What isn't small is the cost, somewhere around ten percent of the LPS budget goes to pay for these placements.
Some people feel that is not fair to the 99% of the students that make up the rest. Let's see, isn't that the ratio that started OCCUPY WALL STREET.
Before my PAC friends boil me in oil (and my BFF will light the first match) let me remind everyone that by having these out of district placements, we are placing, sometimes severe, social restrictions on our kids. No man is an island and when these kids graduate from school they are going to have to live in the real world. It is doing a serious disservice to them not to allow them the opportunity to develop the social bonds everyone needs to grow and mature.
We are the fifth largest public school district. It just boggles my mind that we have to export our kids to a smaller district just to get the needed services. People should be coming to us. Rumour has it some of these placements are politically motivated. I don't know, I'm just a poor, disabled poet. I don't have the answers but then again I'm not being evaluated on them either. The sad thing is our superintendent isn't either.
It is too bad Stanley. I have a son that is placed out of district, and I fought very hard NOT to have him placed there. I've talked to a lot of parents that would kill to get their kids out of the Lynn schools. Hindsight being 20/20 means that I can say it was the right thing to have him moved. In the (almost) year that he's been out-of-district he has not had one suspension, detention or restraint. He's had very few incidents or "time outs". He's happy, he feels like he fits in, and he's learning. He also stopped trying to commit suicide. We traded all of that for no after school activities, sports, clubs, dances, band, music, electives - well just about everything that makes middle school, middle school. Would I go back? Would I move him to a Lynn middle school? Not on your life. If I can help it he'll never be in another Lynn school. Why? Because they'll never admit that they did anything wrong. They wont admit that they just threw him away. Threw us all away, really. We must be broken, we must not care, there must be something wrong with us because by God it's not the school's fault.
ReplyDeleteExcept he's flourishing where he is now and the only thing that changed was the school. Hmm.
And Stan, It's Free and Appropriate Public Education. Fair's got nothin' to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI am argueing it is not FAIR to the kids who GET the out of district placements. I think whenever possible we should bite the bullet and spend the money necessary to develop our own programs so we can keep them with their friends.
ReplyDeleteHonest question - if so many parents want out of the Lynn public schools, why not move to a district with schools that better suit their needs? Or, more importantly, demand more from the administration and SC?
ReplyDeleteAlso I wish more people would stand in front of the LSC and say these things that way certain SC members couldn't play dumb when it comes to people's dissatisfaction w/ the Lynn schools.
Stan - I think the climate of our schools would need to change before "in-district" placements would work here. We have many of the same programs that other townships have, theirs are just run better equaling children who then make progress. Lynn's are run poorly equaling children who don't make progress and then need to be moved "out-of-district". And it seems to go beyond "run poorly" - here in Lynn there really seems to be a prejudice against disabled kids along the lines of, "those kids aren't disabled; they're just bad and have bad parents." Remember Spirito's quote in the Item? Let me see if I can find it. Got it! I just Googled "Spirito Washington drug" and it was the first result:
ReplyDelete"...Spirito said the boy, who’s a first-grader at Washington Elementary School, is part of a growing number of special-needs students in Lynn schools that need to be instructed in behavioral classrooms, where there’s both a teacher and a teacher’s aid.
“The numbers are getting larger and larger every year,” Spirito said. “You get kids who come from alcohol-syndrome mothers and drug-addicted mothers. These poor kids don’t even have a chance. We deal with them every single day.”..." I love how he specifically blames the moms and says "behavioral classrooms". Priceless.
I'm not saying all of our programs are run SO poorly or that a prejudice runs rampant (but when you've got a long time principal and school committee member saying things like that, you've got to wonder). Like you, I agree that the Ford School is an amazing school, and should be allowed to revert back to a K-8. Dr. Crane was sending kids to top notch private high schools from Ford when it was a K-8. We also have a really good program for kids on the Autism spectrum (the COACH program); from what I've seen it's for kids on the higher level to mid-range Autism spectrum. But we only have two schools with COACH programs, Shoemaker and Drewicz. I've heard great things about our Tech program. I'm also excited about Starbard's proposals for a STEM middle and elementary school. And you know I love KIPP. What I really love about KIPP is that they'll do just about anything to get your kid to learn, including work with you as a parent.
I think that people can't move out of Lynn. If they own a home, how could they sell in this economy? And honestly more affluent communities have more money to hire bigger and better attorneys to fight against parents. Some people may need to reside in Lynn to keep their jobs i.e. police, fire, city workers. That's at least my best guess. What's yours Stan?
I would agree that some people can't move out of Lynn for whatever reason (likely financial reasons). Still, this doesn't seem to get at what ANON mentioned in regard to people speaking up to the administration/SC members in greater numbers (or taking the typical Lynn route - calling the Item). Why aren't more people filling the audience at SC meetings? Is it apathy? Hopelessness? Pessimism? Are they unaware of meeting times/dates/locations? Are they working or lacking in childcare or transportation to get these meetings?
ReplyDeleteMy big point is that we are spending all of this money on out of district placements, we should bite the bullet and invest that money and develop our own program. We have more resources than some of those smaller places, we just need to spend less of it in the CENTRAL OFFICE. Remember in the evaluation JUDY said Latham approved consultants at $8000 a day. As far as parental involovement, for all their talk I think LPS actually discourages it. Parents WANT to get involved if you WELCOME them, look at FORD SCHOOL.
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