Addition to Meet Increasing Needs of Special Education (NM)
July 15, 2010
A significant increase in enrollment for special education for preschool-age children prompted school officials to double the size of the Farmington Municipal Schools’ Special Preschool on Fortuna Drive.
Approximately 7,000 square feet of new space connected to the existing building, including six additional classrooms, a kitchen, career center and office space, will comprise the $2 million project, Assistant Superintendent of Operations James Barfoot said.
The addition also will allow space for speech therapy and fine and gross motor therapy rooms.
"We will have space to fill as time goes on," Farmington Special Preschool Principal Bill Knight said.
While a second, but smaller, special education preschool attached to Esperanza Elementary School also exists, school officials recognized the need for more space based on the increase in enrollment.
Rather than an increase in children born with disabilities, officials believe the increasing number of children with special needs is based on a combination of recognizing issues earlier and better identifying potential problems, Knight said.
"It’s probably a little bit of both," Knight said. "We are doing a better job at identifying (existing) disabilities and there are probably new (emerging) disabilities. There are always new criteria coming out all the time."
Autism is one example of a disability that nearly a decade ago went unnoticed, Knight said.
The special education preschool
Advertisement
program targets kids with speech delays or impairment and other cognitive delays, helping to "catch them up," and integrate them into regular classrooms, Knight said.
"If we had kids already delayed in language or not pronouncing words correctly, obviously those concerns are going to get worse and worse," Knight said. Early intervention "lessens the impact the disability has on that child’s life. Without early intervention, disabilities get worse."
The ultimate goal is to remedy concerns at an early age and reduce the number of services that otherwise may be needed later on.
Children come to the program several different ways: referrals, early intervention programs and Child Find, a program that conducts several screenings each year to identify children who are appropriate for the program, Knight said.
School officials identified 30 children appropriate for the program this summer after conducting a special screening using stimulus funding, Knight said.
He expects a full house, nearly 144 children enrolled in six morning and afternoon classrooms, once construction is complete this fall.
The district did not hire any new teachers for the program, however.
School officials initially proposed building a separate facility, but decided on the addition instead, Barfoot said.
Officials built the addition with funds garnered from a 2006 bond. No state money was used, Barfoot said.
<br /> ;
"It's really, really amazing with these kids when they have the exposure to school they haven't had and they are around peers," Knight said. "It's amazing the progress they make and the amount of time they make it in."