Special education revamp could bring students into classrooms

Children with disabilities would be in traditional learning spaces

Proposed reforms to Denver Public Schools’ special education program would bring more students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms, change how kids learn to read and try to close disparities based on race and language.

Both the state and parents have found fault with how the district treats special education students. In August, the Colorado Department of Education released findings that the district delayed access to services some special education students needed because of the way it assigned support staff, Chalkbeat Colorado reported. Parents also have expressed fears that their children could lose support as the district reorganizes its central office following last month’s teachers strike.

As of October, DPS reported 10,642 students with disabilities were enrolled in the district’s schools.

Five members of a task force made up of parents, teachers and advocates spoke about their proposed special education plan at a DPS Board of Education work session on Monday. They asked the board to approve a policy on inclusion in all school activities and that it order the district to start tracking how well schools integrate students with disabilities.

The board took no action, and asked to hear more about the proposal in April because of time constraints Monday.

Robert Frantum-Allen, the district’s special education director, said research has shown that students with disabilities learn faster when they are in class with their typically developing peers than if they are segregated in special education classrooms. It’s important to have the right supports for the students and their teachers, however, so they can succeed in traditional classrooms, he said.

“We know that inclusion is the right thing to do,” he said. “The barrier is how do we do it.”

All Denver schools currently serve students with mild disabilities, while some students with moderate disabilities go to separate centers, Frantum-Allen said. About 150 students with “profound” disabilities — typically serious emotional disorders — attend school at a private facility through a contract, he said.

Pam Bisceglia, executive director of AdvocacyDenver, was part of the task force that put together the recommendations, but said she has concerns they still leave too many kids separated from their peers. Putting children with serious emotional disorders in a classroom together doesn’t make for a good learning environment, because kids feed off each other’s behaviors, she said.

Multiple task force members pointed to specific ways the district failed to identify students’ needs and meet them quickly.

Tayo McGuirk, a parent and member of the task force, choked up when describing how her sons lost confidence in their abilities while struggling in school. Both were diagnosed with attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, a learning disability that makes it harder to learn to read. Certain teaching strategies can help, and the plan recommends integrating those techniques into mainstream classrooms so kids with dyslexia never have to fall behind, she said.

Abbe Montoya, a social worker who previously worked as a paraprofessional at DPS, said some students wait far longer than McGuirk’s sons despite a pattern of behavior suggesting they need help. She said she knows one student who wasn’t identified as having a disability until 10th grade, when he’d already largely given up on school and turned to the streets.

“One of my kiddos is in jail, and he did not get the support he needed,” she said.

The problem is particularly acute for students of color, who are at a higher risk of being labeled troublemakers if they act out because of frustration, said Tywanna Jones, a teacher and parent of two sons with disabilities.

She said she would like to see the district screen children multiple times in a school career, because a student who was able to get by with help from a particularly supportive teacher one year may quickly fall behind in the next grade.

The task force also identified a problem with misdiagnosing children of color. Frantum-Allen said he personally knows of two black boys with autism, but were misdiagnosed as having an emotional disorder. Numbers showing that black students are disproportionately likely to be identified as having an emotional disorder suggests they may not be isolated cases, and a wrong diagnosis means that kids get the wrong services, he said.

“Talk therapy doesn’t work for children with autism,” he said.

School board member Angela Cobián said the district also needs to improve its services for families dealing with both a disability and a language barrier. She recalled one case where she had to tell a Spanish-speaking father that his son had autism, after waiting nearly a year for someone to evaluate the boy, then try to reassure him that he hadn’t done anything to cause the disorder.

“I’m not an expert, but I’m the person who had to explain it as an (English language) teacher. And that still pisses me off,” she said.