Parents want more from special education plan

CHAPEL HILL -- Parents and school board members asked for more accountability Thursday in a proposed plan to improve exceptional education in Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.

Both groups wanted to see more dates attached to goals as the school district lays out a map for improving services to all children with exceptional needs.

"It's very bland, generic, we're going to be doing this, we're hoping to do that," said Pam Hemminger, the board's vice chairwoman. "I want to see some real time-lined goals. It would be helpful to have some checkpoints to see if we're meeting these goals."

The proposed changes are the district's response to ongoing parent concerns that the district could be doing more to instruct children with a range of disabilities.

The plan was designed to address recommendations that came from a newly formed committee of parents, the Special Needs Advisory Council, and those of John Thomas, an educational consultant who conducted an independent review during the last school year.

A couple of school board members asked that additional training be mandatory for teachers with special-needs students in their classrooms.

The training this year will focus on teachers and assistants in self-contained rooms, said Margaret Blackwell, the district's executive director of exceptional children/student services, who presented the 80-page improvement plan.

Board member Jean Hamilton asked that something be written into principals' evaluations to hold them accountable for providing special needs-related training for their teachers.

"I think for me it's much like parents of minority students -- that we've made progress, but the acceleration of the speed of the progress hasn't happened and needs to," said Jamezetta Bedford, the school board's chairwoman.

The presentation was treated as a work session item, and the board did not vote to adopt the plan. It did, however, invite comments from parents.

Gwen Collman said she has a 14-year-old son who is deaf and blind and has multiple disabilities, who has been in self-contained classrooms since pre-school.

She and other parents whose children are separated from the mainstream classrooms have been concerned that the curriculum isn't up to par.

"Many of them didn't feel like their children were really learning the basics -- reading, writing and math," she said.

Faith Nager said no schoolwork was coming home, and when the teacher finally honored a request to see corrected papers, she got "six months of work sent home in paper bags."

Rafael Rodriguez, the father of a 7-year-old boy with autism, reminded the board that the improvement plan was created because of the "outcry in the community."

"I trust this is the last report of this nature and this administration finally takes this topic seriously," he said.

To access the Exceptional Children Report and Improvement Work Plan online, go to www.chccs.k12.nc.us/, click on "School Board" and then the Board Meeting Agenda for Aug. 9.