Outside contracts for special education students costing MUSD $440,000 this year

The increasing cost of providing special education services to nearly 1,000 of its 6,500-member student body has been ascribed as a reason for Moorpark Unified School District’s recently publicized financial difficulties.

So what are the reasons for the rising cost and why didn’t MUSD financial staff see them coming?

Across the state, more and more students are being referred for special needs assessments and qualifying for such services, Superintendent Kelli Hays said in an interview.

In MUSD, about 918 students are designated as “special needs,” a group that includes those who may have learning or psychological disabilities, emotional issues, or speech, hearing, visual or other health impairments.

These students are served by roughly 180 special education teachers, paraeducators, psychologists, therapists and office workers, Hays said.

The superintendent said the district holds Individualized Education Program meetings for special-needs students at least once a year to determine what help these students may need to meet their academic goals. The district’s special education department is responsible for determining whether or not a student is eligible for an IEP.

But Hays said the total cost of providing these special education services to students throughout the year cannot be “wholly predicted” until the IEPs take place.

“We have taken this very seriously,” Hays said of the budget problem publicized in February.

Over the year, Hays said, the school district has had to contract with outside agencies—including the Simi Valley and Conejo Valley school districts—to provide what MUSD cannot, such as programs for students who are autistic or emotionally troubled.

Those contracts have accounted for about $440,000 of the $1.2 million in additional expenses that forced MUSD to dip into its reserves, the superintendent said.

“We have a legal and moral obligation to educate these students just as we do with all our students,” Hays said, adding that she does not want special education youths and their parents to feel “targeted” by the district’s financial challenges.

Going forward, Hays said she wants the district to provide more training for the special education staff to help reduce the reliance on outside agencies. She also wants MUSD to join other districts throughout the state in calling for more funding for special ed.

Replenishing reserves

As of this week, the school district had just $750,000 in its emergency fund, leaving MUSD out of compliance with a state law that requires districts to keep at least 3 percent of their overall budget in their reserves. Moorpark’s reserves total about 1.2 percent.

In response, the Ventura County Office of Education has labeled Moorpark Unified’s budget as having “qualified certification,” meaning that based on current projections, the district may not meet its financial obligations over the next two fiscal years. It is the only school district in Ventura County currently labeled as such.

“Having a qualified budget is obviously something that’s disappointing for me and for the district,” Hays said. “However, it is a process. I think it’s important for people to know that this process really served its purpose in alerting us to areas where we need improved processes and procedures.”

In the short term, the district will replenish its reserves as part of its 2016-17 budget plan, taking money that would have otherwise gone to the general fund. Speaking long-term, Hays said, some staffing changes will need to be made.

Hays told the Acorn in March that the posts of about 10 teachers expected to leave the district next year will not be filled due to a decline in enrollment.

While the superintendent told MUSD staff and parents the district has no plans to hand out more pink slips to teachers, she expects 10 teachers to leave their posts next year, which won’t be filled. Although that could lead to larger class sizes next year, Hays said any increases would be small, as the district expects enrollment to drop by 140 students.

“We really have some lower class sizes that need to be addressed, and we are addressing those through (teacher) attrition,” Hays said.

With the district’s enrollment numbers continuing to slide, Hays said she will attempt to attract more students from neighboring districts by advertising in other cities about the schools and educational programs Moorpark has to offer.

By marketing Moorpark schools’ achievements—including students’ recent Common Core state standards test scores and the district’s plans to expand the college and career programs at the middle and high schools—Hays said, she hopes more families will be encouraged to enroll their children at MUSD.

*Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said MUSD meets with special-needs students "two to three times a year" regarding their Individualized Education Programs. While some students require that amount of frequency, the district, by law, only must hold one IEP meeting.

An earlier version also omitted the word "lower" from Superintendent Hays' comment regarding class sizes.

source : http://www.mpacorn.com/news/2016-04-01/Front_Page/Outside_contracts_for_special_ed_students_costing_.html

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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

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Parents Claim Special Education Teacher Hit 6-Year-Old Student

A Moore elementary teacher is under investigation for an incident involving an elementary school student, and the 6-year-old's parents said they're scared to take their son back to school.

Since it is an open investigation, the district has not released much, but the student's parents said the teacher hit their child and needs to be permanently removed from the classroom.

Nathan is a 6-year-old who quickly makes any cellphone he finds play his favorite songs. Music is a key form of communication for Nathan who is unable to speak due to developmental delays from his epilepsy.

“He's non-verbal. He doesn't speak at all,” his mother Stacey Felix said.

His parents believe that limitation is what kept Nathan from telling them what happened earlier this month in his special education class at Fisher Elementary. Instead, they learned of the alleged incident from the school's principal.

“One of the teachers in the room reported that the primary teacher struck him on the head with a baking pan or cookie sheet. Nathan reached for something that didn't belong to him and she just popped him on the head with it,” she said.

Both Nathan and the teacher in question are no longer at school.

The district released the following statement: "The teacher is currently on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation regarding an incident that happened in the classroom."

“You just kind of  entrust your child with somebody that you don't know and you hope for the best. Once that trust is broken it's over with. You cannot go back,” said Alex Smith, Nathan’s father.

Nathan's parents are now scrambling to find their son another special education program, but building their trust for a new teacher will take some time.

“This is like the worst nightmare we've talked about this before. We just never thought that it would be this way with a teacher that gets so much training,” Felix said.

Pending the outcome of the investigation, the parents said they would consider pressing charges against the teacher.

source:  http://www.news9.com/story/31542156/parents-claim-special-education-teacher-hit-6-year-old-student

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Students, special education children mix in Peer to Peer program

TRAVERSE CITY — Four middle school students stand around a Ping-Pong table at the East Middle School cafeteria, paddles at the ready.

The students — some with autism spectrum disorder, some without — get together every Thursday afternoon. Then one student lies down on the table. Later, one of the players reminds him to take a paddle out of his mouth.

The weekly, half-hour experience is part of the school's Peer to Peer program, which pairs special education students with children their own age. The program is in several Traverse City Area Public Schools buildings and is growing in other school districts within the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District.

The teachers who run the program say special education students benefit from the social interaction, while general education students learn about disabilities and how to interact with different types of students.

Austin Hanson, 14, is a student with autism spectrum disorder who affirmed his support of the program before he went back to Wii bowling against his assigned peer, Kyle Taylor, who is also 14.
"It's nice to help them and teach them new stuff," Taylor said.

Teachers and experts who work with special education students also extol the virtues of the program.
"Students with autism spectrum disorder or other development disabilities are more responsive to taking direction or suggestion or watching the model of the peer over an adult," said Deb Drayton Nelson, the TBAISD supervisor of programs and services for students with ASD.

She said student peers can tell special needs students to stop bad behavior easier than an adult.
"Typical kids on a playground might say, 'hey, knock that off' and it's not a big deal, but when an adult says it to them it's more of a reprimand," she said.

Nelson said TBAISD started peer-to-peer training about eight years ago, but the program didn't really take off. She said about five years ago the program got buy-in from teachers and administrators at Traverse City West Senior High, and the school lead the region ever since.

Other schools and school districts followed suit, and now it's in Kalkaska Public Schools, Buckley Community Schools and Kingsley Area Schools. Area charter schools also started implementing the program, which can be applied to all ages and vary from a formal class — like one at West Senior High School — or simply as assigned lunch buddies or a game-playing session.

She hopes the experience sticks with mentors who will one day become employers, neighbors and leaders in the community, Nelson said.

"They at a very young age have learned how to accept and support and capitalize on what every body has to offer," she said. "It gives us an opportunity to have an even richer community than we have now in our region."

Laurene Kallioinen's son Jack, 14, is a special education student in the peer to peer program at East Middle School. She said her son gets a role model out of the program and sees examples of social interactions that don't come naturally to him.

"Just seeing the compassion and patience in (the peers) is amazing," she said.
At East Middle School, general education students take a few minutes to debrief with teachers after a half-hour session with the special education teachers.

They're encouraged to ask questions about what they've seen. Scott Jongekrijg, a TBAISD teacher who works at East Middle School, said students often ask how they can get their special education counterparts to respond to them.

"One of the things of autism is they have a hard time communicating. If you ask one of my students a question, A. they may not respond at all or B. you're going to get a really simple, one-word answer," he said. "I'm trying to set up things where kids have to interact."
He said he encourages general education students to correct special education students and keep them focused on the task at hand.

East Middle School student Zacharee Parker, 13, said he used to see special education students walk down the halls.

"They're not really talking to anyone," he said. "I thought I'd be a friend to them."
Andrew Bruce, 12, said initially the special education students wouldn't talk to their general education peers. But now they recognize them, talk to them, and high-five in the halls.
"I thought it was pretty cool," he said.

Jame McCall, TCAPS Associate Superintendent of Student Services, said special education students benefit from the socialization.

"We have children who have not been included much in their life and this is their opportunity," she said. "We're seeing such great growth socially."
Billi Hoeppner, a TBAISD teacher at East Middle School, said her students look forward to Peer to Peer.

"They say, 'my friends are coming, where are my friends,'" she said.
Dan Rice is a teacher at Traverse City West who runs an ASD-mentoring class. His students take the one-semester course in which they work with students three times a week. Some of the special education students don't talk.

Rice said his students learn acceptance, patience and understanding. He said for some students the experience affirms that they'd like to go into the special education field or some other practice helping people with disabilities. A psychologist and autism specialist also comes to class and trains the students.


"They learn these kids are part of our society, they're part of our school and they help to bring them to the community of the school," he said. "It's really cool to see them interacting in the halls together and the library together and being friends."

article source: http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/students-special-education-children-mix-in-peer-to-peer-program/article_00eb5223-944d-5317-95f2-8ab65d65628f.html

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