Special Education Qustions And Answers

Caustic budget debate at Catholic school board

LONDON - Passing the Catholic school board's budget is proving an arduous affair, one that leaves several special education positions as question marks until the budget is passed.

London District Catholic School Board trustees spent an evening Monday trying to resolve some of their questions in a session that was at times caustic and often confrontational as trustees argued amongst themselves and with the information presented by staff members.

At the heart of the debate are 4.5 educational assistant (EA) jobs that administrators proposed be cut from the budget and trustees have asked be reinstated. The meeting started with a raucous series of exchanges between chair Bill Hall, vice-chair Philip Squire, London trustee Linda Steel and Oxford trustee Cliff Roach on the issue.

Squire and Steel set a bitter tone in the exchanges, upset that treasurer Jacquie Davison was permitted to speak to a report on the potential cut of 4.5 EAs. Squire was incensed that despite trustees' request the positions be reinstated, the board was receiving Davison's report.

"This report from administration is contrary to the direction from the board of trustees," Squire said. "It suggests we do drop the EA complement and that they remain at the complement originally suggested.

"I have difficulty with such a response that goes against the importance of this body and its right to provide direction."

Hall responded noting Davison was only doing her job, bringing information to trustees on the potential ramifications of any decision they make as part of the budget.

"It's clear you wanted to keep the EAs, but there are ramifications to keeping those EAs," Hall said. "We are entitled to hear what those ramifications must be and superintendent Davison has obligation to provide us with that information."

Trustees had asked for the 4.5 EAs be reinstated, though doing so will only cause a larger budget deficit in the special education department. The board is projecting a deficit for the 2011-12 year that will grow again in the 2012-13 year if the number of EAs is not pared down to match declining student enrolments.

The issue is confused by a decision of the last board of trustees to dip into special education reserve funds and add EA positions in the middle of school year. It's some of those positions that current trustees now want to preserve even as the board is losing funding as its enrolment drops.

Education Secretary Answers Teachers' Special Ed. Questions - On ...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently answered some tough questions from special education teachers all over the country who wanted to know about performance pay, funding, and testing. The questions were collected by the Council for Exceptional Children in Arlington, Va., which is gearing up for its annual convention starting today.

Some of the answers may sound familiar. Secretary Duncan said the President's proposed 2012 budget includes more money for special education. In his answers to CEC, he said the budget includes an increase of $50 million in IDEA Part C for grants to states for early intervention services for young children with disabilities and their families. Something I hadn't remembered from my look at the proposed budget , is $40 million set aside for PROMISE: Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (Supplemental Security Income). He described it as "a pilot program that would be jointly administered with the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor. The program will create new models that improve health, education, and post-school outcomes for children who receive SSI."

He also listed money that would be available to special education programs and teachers in the context of regular education, including $14.8 billion for the College- and Career-Ready Students Program that would continue requiring disaggregated reporting of achievement data for students with disabilities, among other things; $350 million for the new Early Learning Challenge Fund, to make competitive grants to challenge states to establish model systems of early learning for children including children with disabilities or developmental delays; and $185 million for the Presidential Teaching Fellows program, which provides scholarships for teaching candidates who will attend top-tier teacher preparation programs and teach in high-need schools, high-need subjects, and high-need fields, including special education.

When evaluating special education teachers and staff, who often work in teams or with students for only part of a day, teachers wanted to know how their effectiveness could be measured, which is especially important as more states contemplate linking pay and performance.

The secretary said that the President's budget proposes setting aside $50 million states could invest in better support and training for principals in implementing evaluation systems, since principals are the most likely evaluators of teachers' performance. The rest of what he said seems to leave it to states to figure out a complex issue.

Special Education in Contemporary Society, An Introduction to Exceptionality

How to find answers to your special education questions

Special Educational Needs and Inclusive Education: Systems and contexts

Teaching kids with learning difficulties in the regular classroom, ways to challenge & motivate struggling students to achieve proficiency with required standards

Research and evaluation methods in special education