Educators Hear Report on Special Education Issues in Suffield Schools

The Suffield Board of Education heard state education representatives from the Capitol Region Educational Council (CREC) deliver a report Wednesday noting the town has significant progress to make in the teaching of special education students.

The presentation of the special education review by representatives of the CREC focused on problems in communication between the teachers, administration and parents as well as the transition of students between grade levels and preparation for life after high school.

The report, which is the result of an exhaustive, six-month study by CREC representatives, is a direct response to a packet of letters and complaints issued by a group of special education student parents earlier this year. Superintendent of Schools Karen Baldwin characterized the problems as system-wide. She said the issues with special education are just as much a symptom of the problems as they are the source of the problems themselves.

The CREC crew was led by Dr. Peg MacDonald, who commended Suffield for its overall commitment to integration of special education students into the general classroom environment.

She said, “The staff is very caring… all students are valued and these are the kind of things that [can't] be measured [nor] ignored.”

Yet, when asked how Suffield stacks up to other communities in Connecticut, MacDonald didn't offer an assessment.

“I’m not going to give any grades,” she said.

Baldwin also noted that the problems here in Suffield are not uncommon with other districts in the state, but also added that she couldn’t grade out Suffield’s performance when it comes to special education.

“Our problems are in many ways system-wide and we have a plan to address these issues and the reports fits perfectly with our goals,” she added.

The report noted several problems: There is a significant gap in communication between parents, administrators and teachers; special education students are not meeting CMT and CAPT test standards in writing and reading; a significant amount of the parents of pre-school and high school students are dissatisfied with the programs; a large number of autistic students are opting out of district; finally, there is a great deal of confusion in transition between schools and grades.

“There is confusion among the parents because they don’t know from one year to the next what they are going to get and what is going on," MacDonald commented on transition issues. "We heard in lot in our surveys that its depends on what teacher you get.”

When asked if that was a common problem statewide, she added: “It is more prevalent here.”

The special education review analyzed data not only from state and local documents but also from 33 individualized education plan (IEP) reviews, 11 in-depth students reviews spanning pre-school through high school, 171 parent surveys and 132 focus group interviews including parents and staff members.

Overall, the program received a satisfactory grade from 80 percent of elementary and middle school respondents, while pre-school and high school parents gave a 76 pecent satisfactory rating.

The report offered numerous recommendation,s including changes in administrative processes, hiring practices, supervisory roles and responsibilities and a greater focusing on teaching and learning. The addition of parent groups, improved communication opportunities as well as ways to ease the special education student transition from grade to grade and school to school were among other recommendations.

“It is a question of more time spent helping learn about each student,” MacDonald said. “Teachers need to know from day one what each student is all about and that’s just not being done well enough.”

The other CREC representatives present Tuesday, Lucy Krause, Anthony Malavenda and Deborah Richards, offered detailed insights into the issues affecting each school. The common thread among the educators was that each school offered a caring and positive environment welcoming students of all abilities. Professional development opportunities, the creation of transition teams and greater instructional leadership were among their recommendations.

Overall, the report offered six action plan goals: an increased focus on teaching and learning; meeting state targets for CMP and CPAT testing; increasing the opportunities for students with significant disabilities to be served; consistency among standards in all areas; and improvement of transition and communication.

Superintendent Baldwin will review the report in greater details and work hand in hand with the CREC representatives to develop a strategy to meet these goals.