Oldham County Parents Join Forces to Create a Special Education PTA

January 13, 2010

Donna and Rich Allen said they struggled for years to get the right diagnoses and services for their three sons with special needs.

Learning what Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism and developmental delays meant for their children was overwhelming enough, but then came the confusing meetings with Oldham County school district administrators, teachers and therapists, Donna Allen said.

Then last year, the school board voted to redistrict about 1,000 students, including those with special needs, setting off an angry protest from some parents.

"You have no idea how much it just wreaks havoc for these kids," Allen said. "Consistency is so important and it was like no one was thinking about that. Yes, being redistricted can be hard for any family, but for children with special needs, it’s devastating."

The ordeal led Allen and other Oldham parents to create a Special Education PTA – the first of its kind in Kentucky. The group offers support and resources to parents and works to improve communication with the school district.

Parents and school district officials say the group, which formed in March, is already making a difference in Oldham County, and state and national PTA officials hold it up as a model for other districts to follow.

A Special Education PTA can offer parents a wealth of information and support that regular PTA groups can’t because most parents don’t really understand the challenges of special-needs children, said Sandy Rutledge, president of Kentucky’s PTA: "When you have a child with special needs, you have to look at everything altogether differently, and it means a lot to know you’re not the first to go through it."

There are as many as 170 Special Education PTA groups across the nation.

"What it comes down to is that it’s the right thing to do for children," said Chuck Saylors, National PTA president. "I know there’s not as many (groups) as we need out there."

It’s about information – not emotions

Oldham’s special-education PTA has about 150 members – some of whom are teachers – representing more than 100 families.

The group holds monthly meetings on topics like communicating with teachers and explaining the process for writing Individualized Education Programs, which are required by law and outline services and goals for special-needs students. The group also sends newsletters and maintains a Web site.

Working on the education programs can be difficult for parents who don’t understand the law, Allen said. There are meetings with seven to 10 people and it’s intimidating when you’re not prepared, she said.

Denise Rowling-George, whose children receive special services at Oldham County High, Crestwood Elementary and Oldham County Preschool, said meetings about their education programs have improved since she got involved with Oldham’s special-education group this year.

"I had the best meeting I’ve ever had this fall because I went into it with clear goals and no emotion," she s aid. "When you aren’t prepared, it’s easy to feel like they’re out to get you or your child, but that’s not really the situation. It just feels like that because you’re upset."

Karen Riggs, a special-education consultant for the district, is a liaison between the school board and the group and attends all of their meetings.

"A lot of times, parents are just asking for information, but it can be really uncomfortable when everyone’s emotions get involved," she said. "I think SEPTA has alleviated a lot of frustration because it has given us a means of communication on big issues like how the laws work, how assessment works, how meetings work. We’ve been doing this so long that we sometimes make assumptions about what people know and then we’re shocked when they get upset because they don’t understand."

Superintendent Paul Upchurch said the group may help the district avoid situations like the controversy over redistricting that surfaced in May 2008.

About 10 parents, some in tears, expressed anger and fear to board members over the district’s proposal to shift special-needs students to other schools.

"Some of us were surprised at that board meeting," Upchurch said, adding that he had no idea that redistricting the students was an issue.

It was a "complete breakdown in interdistrict communication," he said. School officials immediately put transfers for special-needs students on hold; ultimately, they left most of those students at their original schools, he said.

Allen, who is president of Oldham’s Special Education PTA, said she was happy her children got to stay put but was still frustrated by the process. "I just thought, ‘This was way too hard.’" she said. "It shouldn’t have h ad to be like this."

Just one month earlier, an Oldham County mother filed a complaint with the state Department of Education alleging Crestwood Elementary officials violated her then-8-year-old autistic son’s rights by repeatedly putting him in a 32-square-foot empty room because of his behavior.

Jeanie Montgomery said she reached a mediation agreement with the Oldham school district in August 2008 that restricts her from speaking about the case. Her son Matthew, now 10, is a fifth-grader at Pitt Academy in Louisville.

Montgomery said her family could have benefited from a special-education PTA.

"I wish it had been in place when we were going through all that because I would definitely have gone to them for advice and information," she said. "I think it’s a great idea."

More SEPTA groups are needed, parents say

The National PTA knows of at least 135 special-education PTA groups, but Allen said she found 170 of them in 11 states during her research.

Whatever the number, there should be more of them, said Saylors and Rutledge, who lives in Independence, Ky.

Saylors recently formed a special-education committee that will study ways to encourage school districts to form the groups, and the national and state PTA conventions next summer will have breakout sessions and information about starting them.

Saylors’ son, who is in middle school in Greenville, S.C., has special needs, and Rutledge’s son, now 23, has a learning disability.

"It’s a priority for us," Saylors said.

In Connecticut, where special-education PTA groups began forming before 2000, there are 20 groups that provide updates on legislation that could affe ct their children as well as other information and resources.

Other newer groups, like one that formed in Los Altos, Calif., in 2007, also raise money to support special-education teachers and their classrooms.

Allen said she hopes the Oldham group will continue to grow.

"It would be impossible to count how many times I’ve thought to myself, ‘Oh, if I had only known that five years ago,’" she said.

"That’s part of what a group like SEPTA can provide – collective experience and knowledge. I just think it was really the right time for us to start this."