schoolsearch: Administrators analyze special education locations, needs

Administrators analyze special education locations, needs

Parents will be able to continue with the same school or can pick another for their child, depending on needs.

By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 15, 2002

Special education administrators want parents of special-needs children to remember two things as choice approaches: One, they will have more choices. And, two, if their children are currently enrolled in a special education program, they will be able to continue their education at that school.

In the past, special education students were assigned to schools based on where they lived, the same way general education students were assigned. A child identified with a special need who lived in a particular neighborhood was assigned to a school in his or her zone.

Under choice, parents of special-needs students can choose to send their children to one of several schools in their attendance area. They will indicate their choices on a declaration of intent form, the same way parents of general education students will choose schools for their children.

"In the great majority of cases, we're not saying, "You must go to this school,' " said director of exceptional student education Pam Harshbarger. "We're saying, "Here are four schools,' or, "Here are six schools.' "

Special education students will be assigned to a school based on their parents' choices until the special education seats in that school are full. When all the seats in a particular school are full, the school will be pulled as a choice, Harshbarger said.

The only thing still to be decided is where special education units will be located. Administrators are looking at where special-needs students are this year to determine where programs will be in 2003-04.

Special education administrators have been working for more than a year with the district to come up with a plan that will distribute programs equitably throughout the attendance areas. They looked at where special-needs children lived, where they were attending school, and the class sizes they wanted to maintain to determine how many units would be needed.

In some cases, they found they had to add units, Harshbarger said. For example, in attendance area A, rather than having just one school with an autistic unit, there will be two. Three schools in the area will offer supported varying exceptionalities programs for moderately mentally handicapped students and two will offer programs for severely emotionally disturbed children.

But in some cases, there will be what Harshbarger calls an "equalization of programs." For example, if one school has 20 emotionally handicapped units and a nearby school has only two, the programs at the second school would be cut.

Many parents were concerned that if units were adjusted, their children would have to change schools, Harshbarger said. Administrators are working on a plan to phase some programs out gradually by reducing the number of younger children placed at those schools rather than ending the programs abruptly. Every effort will be made to wait until all the children who started in an elementary program, for example, have moved on to middle school before the program is removed.

Final decisions on where programs will be located will be made soon, Harshbarger said. The information will be available at the two Family Education and Information Centers, or parents can call the office of exceptional student education from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at 588-6032.

5 centers serve special-needs students

The majority of the district's 21,000 special-needs students are served through programs at general education schools, but about 1,100 of them have needs that cannot be met in regular education settings. These students are eligible to attend one of the district's five special education centers.

Calvin Huntsinger School, 1863 Betty Lane, Clearwater, serves severely emotionally disturbed children, those with special speech and language needs, and those with occupational and physical therapy needs. The school offers job training in food production, vocational woodworking and horticulture.

Hamilton Disston School, 5125 11th Ave. S, Gulfport, serves severely emotionally disturbed and educable mentally handicapped children, those with specific learning disabilities or special needs in speech/language, vision, hearing, occupational or physical therapy.

Nina Harris Exceptional Student Education Center, 6000 70th Ave. N, Pinellas Park, serves the trainable mentally handicapped, profoundly mentally handicapped, autistic, visually impaired, the deaf and hard of hearing, and children with special needs in speech/language, dual sensory impairment and those who need occupational and physical therapy.

Paul B. Stephens Exceptional Center, 2929 County Road 193, Clearwater, serves children who are trainable mentally handicapped, profoundly mentally handicapped and autistic, and those with speech/language, dual sensory, vision or hearing impairments.

Richard L. Sanders School, 5025 76th Ave. N, Pinellas Park, serves children who are severely emotionally disturbed and those with speech/language impairments.