Administrators in the Hollister School District are making plans
to reduce the percentage of students designated for special
education to better address individual students’ needs and reduce
costs.
Hollister – Administrators in the Hollister School District are making plans to reduce the percentage of students designated for special education to better address individual students’ needs and reduce costs.
The elementary and middle school district – with an enrollment of just less than 6,000 students – hopes to reduce the number of children evaluated as needing special education classes to 10 percent of the student population. This would make the district more comparable to the statewide average, district Superintendent Ron Crates said.
While the district is “legally and morally required” to offer services to children who need them, Crates said, he believes efforts must be made not to place children in special education programs who would be better served in other programs.
“Our feeling is that we want to do more upfront to prevent kids from qualifying for special education programs,” Crates said.
According the California Department of Education, the district in December 2006 had 720 children enrolled in the special education program – slightly more than 12 percent of the student population.
In the Gilroy Unified School District at the same time, 8.6 percent of the student population was designated as special education.
Jack Bachofer, director of business and operations, said the percentage is currently close to 13.5 percent in Hollister.
“The question is, why are we higher than the neighboring city average or state average?” Bachofer said. “One reason might be that you have over-identification of special (education) children.”
While a higher concentration of children with special education needs in the area may be one explanation, Crates said it was a possibility – but “not probable” – that this was the case.
Erin Jones, who teaches a special education class for kindergarten through third-graders at Sunnyslope, said she doesn’t think over-identification is the sole reason for the higher percent. But it does contribute, she said.
“I have a couple of kids that I’m questioning: What are they doing in my class? Because academically, they’re fine,” Jones said.
Jones said some of these students simply have behavioral problems and are placed into special education classes rather than these issues being addressed in their regular education classes.
This potential over-identification will have negative repercussions in the district, Crates said.
“With those extra kids – one, you’re not doing the kids service, and two, the cost is incredible,” Crates said.
To curb the number of students placed unnecessarily in special education, Crates said the district is developing intervention programs.
Under these programs, children who might need extra help and attention will be given those services rather than getting placed automatically into special education, Crates said.
“I think the solution is to identify children upfront who need intervention services and provide them with those services and school programs,” Crates said. “The idea is to intervene so that the deficiencies are addressed before they would be put into special (education).”
An intervention program like this already is under way at Calaveras School, Crates said.
Under the Calaveras program, for a portion of the day students are taught in homogenized groups with kids at similar levels to their own, said Stephen McKeown, district director of special education.
McKeown said an effort is made within the special education program to serve as many students in a regular education classroom as possible. This means placing students in special education who only absolutely need it, McKeown said.
This is the idea behind the intervention programs, Crates said, to address the children’s needs in the regular education classroom so costs are not as high doing so in a special education classroom.
“When a child gets placed into special (education), the tendency, the probability, is that they don’t get out,” Crates said.
