Legislators want to restore money cut from schools for the deaf and blind after parents complained that the reductions hurt their children's education.
Parents of children who attend the state's schools for the blind and deaf - the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson, the North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton, and the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh - met with legislators Thursday to ask that full-time jobs cut from the schools be restored so students don't waste hours they should be in class.
Gov. Bev Perdue's budget recommended cutting $620,000 from the schools' residential services funds, which would make a shorter school week permanent. But Sen. Martin Nesbitt, the majority leader from Asheville, said legislators might not go along with Perdue's plan.
"We're going to try to restore those schools and fix the problem," he said.
Looming over the discussion about the length of the residential week is the bigger issue of the special schools' role and whether they should be consolidated. The state's special schools have residential and day students. The residential schools employ 465 and enroll 244 students.
Debates have raged for years about the necessity of the schools in an era when most students with disabilities attend traditional schools. A report to the legislature examines different options for future management.
For now, the legislature plans no changes and wants to give the schools back their familiar schedule.
Noting that the schools have strong backers in former students, parents and teachers, Lanier Cansler, head of the state Department of Health and Human Services that oversees the schools, said there's no rush toward merger. But the department is looking for ways to improve education for students, many of whom are lagging academically.
"We don't want to make any quick moves in consolidating until we make certain that kids will get the best education that is available to them," Cansler said. "The outcomes aren't what we need them to be."
A money-saving move earlier this year raised suspicions that the department was trying to drive students from the schools.
In January, the state health agency's Office of Education Services told residential staff they would have to go part-time to save money. That resulted in job losses and a schedule that has residential students arriving at school Monday mornings rather than Sundays.
The school day now starts late on Monday and ends early on Friday, parents said, so their children's classroom time is disrupted.
Some students wait for buses to arrive at 6 a.m. for rides to school that last several hours. Cansler said students are getting the same amount of class time, but parents said the schedule eats into students' abilities to concentrate.
"There's a lot of wasted time now that wasn't there before," said Dee Counter-Griffis, who has two children at the Morganton school.
Mary Miller, whose 16-year-old foster son is a day student at the school in Wilson, said classes don't start until 10 - two hours later than usual - because teachers must wait for buses with residential students to arrive.
"The day has been rearranged," she said. "That throws him for a loop."
At meetings with Health and Human Services administrators, advocates were told to come up with their own money-saving plan. And they did. They're asking legislators to get rid of the Office of Educational Services, claiming that it adds a layer of bureaucracy but does a poor job of overseeing the schools.
Annette Armstrong, whose 8-year-old son attends the Wilson school, said his classroom performance and behavior improved after he transferred out of a traditional public school.
Armstrong said her son lagged behind academically at his old school, and he was separated from other students.
"They had him playing by himself on the playground," Armstrong said. "He was in the cafeteria eating by himself."
The state needs to acknowledge that local school districts cannot serve all students with disabilities, she said.
"I hate the fact that the hours have been cut and the staff has been cut, but I won't see him anywhere else," she said.
