Budget shortfall impacts Trenton's special education needs children | Editorial

Trenton's special-needs kids were impacted twice last week, with the news that budget cuts and scheduling conflicts will have an unwelcome impact on two venues that play an important role in their lives.

The Stokes Early Learning Center, a preschool serving regular and special-education students in the school district, will close its doors. Call it collateral damage from a $5.9 million shortfall in the school district's budget as dozens of teachers, paraprofessionals and secretaries receive lay-off notices.

Interim Superintendent Lucy Feria called the closure "very painful," citing struggling attendance as a reason and adding that the officials will reconsider the programs in the future.
Meanwhile, the Special Needs Community Resource Center, operating originally out of Monument Elementary School and then relocated to P.J. Hill Elementary School, has once again been displaced and forced to scramble for a new home.

The center's founder, Nicole Whitfield, received an e-mail from administration last Wednesday, notifying her that the district now needs the space the youngsters and their teachers have been occupying.

Whitfield created the program last year to address the individual needs of youngsters age 3 to 13 who had been classified with special needs.
Future unknown for after-school program
"We want to give them the stability, the environmental, physical and emotional stability that they need," said Sharlene Downing, a paraprofessional who signed on to teach at the program when it was launched last year.

"Stability" is hardly the word that comes to mind when the center is desperately seeking its third home in 18 months.

It's difficult not to find a grain of truth in Whitfield's complaint that "It seems like our special-needs kids are always hit when comes to budget cuts."
Parents, teachers and advocates say the greatest impact will be felt by the most vulnerable youngsters: the more than 2,000 students with individualized education plans (IEPs) which entitle them to services such as speech, occupational and physical therapy.

Certainly, any progress these vulnerable children have made is likely to come to a halt – or even be reversed – if these important services are withheld.
Trenton to layoff staff, close school
What makes the situation taste even more bitter is that Whitfield and her crew are offering their services free of charge.

"We haven't asked them for one penny," the activist told NJ Advance Media after hearing the disheartening news. "All we asked for was space so we could provide after-school programming."
Slashing education funding harms students across the board, but it invariably hits special-needs kids and their families the hardest, creating yet another obstacle to overcome.
Let's hope the district's financial folks keep that in mind as they go about tweaking the numbers.

source:http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/03/budget_shortfall_impacts_trentons_special_needs_ch.html