How much money does a school district have to save to in order make it worth risking the future of a few kids with special needs?
That is the question that the North Shore School District 112 Board of Education will be faced with at its next board meeting Tuesday night.
112’s Rationale For Withdrawal From NSSED
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I recently was forwarded a letter from Matt Barbini, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services for District 112. The letter stated that district administrators will recommend to the Board of Education that the district withdraw from NSSED.
Mr. Barbini’s rationale for the move is that D112 has the internal capacity to serve the vast majority of students eligible for special education without being a member of NSSED, and that the dollars currently spent on NSSED membership and administrative costs would be more effectively used to support direct programming and services for their own students.
At a recent informational meeting for parents, he described cost savings of approximately $378,000 annually. Among the services that D112 would assume from NSSED are adaptive physical education, assistive technology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.
As a Highland Park property owner, I understand the financial pressures on municipalities and local school districts. Making fiscally responsible decisions is important. If the same services could be provided as lower costs, it is certainly worth considering.
But what about programs for which there are no viable alternatives?
The most important question I had going into the meeting was to know the fate of the Highland Park kids who attend North Shore Academy (NSA).
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North Shore Academy is NSSED’s K-12 therapeutic school for students who struggle with the social, emotional, and behavioral demands of school.
My son is one of those kids.Our Experience at NSA
For five months of his kindergarten year, our son attended our neighborhood school. Those few months proved to the school district, and to us, that Kai was not capable of learning in a mainstream classroom environment. He had incidents nearly every day. He was constantly being pulled out of his classroom. He made no academic progress.
At that point, it was hard for my wife and I to be optimistic about Kai’s future. What would happen to this boy who could not learn anything? What becomes of a child who cannot learn to keep his emotions and actions under control?
Kai began attending North Shore Academy in the middle of his kindergarten year. And in the months and years since, a remarkable transformation has begun to take place.
NSA is a wonderful school, where students are nurtured, differences accepted, and the staff is highly qualified to meet the challenging needs of the kids they teach.
Now in fourth grade, Kai is making academic progress, performing well above grade level in math, and showing improvement in his weaker subjects of reading and writing. Even more importantly, he has made great strides in controlling his emotions and behaviors.
My wife and I now have hope that maybe, just maybe, our son might be able to go to college and hold a job, and that he just might be capable of living independently one day.
But the job is far from complete. He still has a long ways to go.
The Risk of Withdrawing from NSSED
At the information meeting I attended the other day, Mr. Barbini stated that there is a “remote possibility” that D112’s withdrawal from NSSED would mean that kids like my son will no longer be able to attend North Shore Academy. He explained that while the District would like to keep sending its students there when appropriate, there is a “remote” chance that NSSED might decide to refuse to accept them if D112 withdrew from the co-op.
I am not convinced that the possibility is “remote.” Don’t you think that NSSED would do something to try to discourage its other member districts from withdrawing? What would be a better way to send a message than to refuse to give Highland Park access to North Shore Academy, the one program that D112 cannot truly replicate?
I asked Mr. Barbini what would happen if my son could no longer attend NSA. He said that the District would look for an alternative placement.
Well, let me tell you; there are no good alternatives. I know, because before we agreed to place our son at NSA, we looked around. There are schools for kids with learning disabilities, and for kids on the autism spectrum with more severe disabilities than my son. But none of those schools were right for Kai. D112 has since introduced a program that has some similarities to NSA, but my understanding is that it is not appropriate for my son either.
And so, for someone with the type of challenges that Kai has, North Shore Academy stands out. Our experience since he started attending there has shown that it is a special place.
I fear that our hopes for our son’s future will be dashed if it is no longer made available to us.
Administrators can roll the dice on the “remote” possibility that the future of kids like my son might be irreparably harmed. After all, it is not their own son or daughter’s ability to function in life that is at stake.
But before the Board goes along, can we at least have a decent discussion about it first?
When the Park District proposed to redesign Rosewood Beach, there was a lot of opportunity to provide feedback. Now I recognize that the fate of a few special ed kids might not have the broad impact on the community as a beach does, but surely the future of these kids is worth taking just as much time for discussion and community input.
I know that I am not the only special needs parent in the District who did not receive the email notifying parents of the decision. I only learned of it by chance through word of mouth. I wonder how many parents are even aware that their kids’ futures may be threatened. And with minimal publicity about D112’s impending withdrawal from NSSED, there has been almost no opportunity to voice opposing views directly to the Board.
The Board of Education is scheduled to act upon the administration’s recommendation at its next meeting on Tuesday, November 19th.
Is it too much to ask that they postpone their decision until they can hear all views?
Update: The Board voted unanimously to withdraw from NSSED. Read my thoughts here: http://highlandpark.patch.com/groups/yujis-slice-of-autism/p/thoughts-on-district-112s-withdrawal-fr...
