Big Plans for Special Ed Hinge on Funding (IL)
August 30, 2010
Ambitious plans are being set for the future of special education in Oak Park Elementary District 97 schools, but funding and an upcoming tax increase request remain key.
Special education officials are looking to the future of the program, including ideas for a therapeutic day and early childhood care center. But additions and expansions to the program remain an open question, as they will be determined by the outcome of the upcoming April referendum and other funding issues.
“That’s the trick bag that all special education people are facing right now, using what he have and being more resourceful and more flexible,” said Director of Special Education Michael Padavic.
Padavic presented a report to the board of education Aug. 25 outlining the current program and plans for the future. Almost 970 students were served by the special education program in some way last year — a roughly 9 percent increase from the previous year — and the district spends about $10 million on the services, not including state and federal funds.
“We spend more and more every year,” he said “It was $10 million and $9 million the year before, and who knows what it’s going to be in the future with cuts in state funding?”
Some immediate plans include development and expansion of the autism programs, as well as looking into housing all special education services under one roof instead of the current situation where it is spread across three schools.
According to Superintendent Al Roberts, about 16 percent of District 97 students are served by special education, which is higher than the state average of 14 percent.
Over-identification is an area of interest, Padavic said, because of both the financial impact on the district — special education costs more than a traditional classroom per pupil — as well as the emotional impact on students wrongly placed in special education when their needs can be addressed early on in a standard classroom.
“You have to think ‘is this the best for them?’” Padavic said. “It’s a balancing act. … If those kids can get those needs met in general education classes without the special education label, wonderful.”
While Padavic said he doesn’t think the district over-identifies now, he said there were concerns in the past that students in at least one demographic group — African-American boys, specifically — were being targeted for special education when they didn’t need it. Officials will be using “response to intervention,” which is an educational strategy to identify students at an early age to help them avoid special education.< ;br />
While those are more immediate goals, long-term objectives are a bit murkier. Padavic’s suggestion of adding therapeutic day and early childhood care center — which would serve some of the roughly 60 students who go to private facilities — were received well by the board, but both can be expensive. He does not have cost estimates just yet, and those plans would be three to five years down the road anyway.
Board members meeting said a cost analysis of future special education plans should be figured out so it can be included when sizing the upcoming tax increase request. Furthermore, Roberts told the board that it is important to present future goals when asking the public for a tax hike instead of implying that they will keep everything as-is.
“Let’s not just fund what we are doing now, but we should fund what we should be doing as well,” he said.
Any future special education plans would clearly be influenced by the outcome of the referendum vote, but Padavic said it is hard to paint a precise picture of what the district would need to do with special education if the referendum fails. He said the simple answer is to “do more with less.”
“I don’t want to panic people and say the sky is falling when, in fact, it may not be as bleak,” he said. “Or it may be bleaker.”