Spelling out special education changes in U-46

You're a parent of one of Elgin Area School District U-46's 5,000-plus special education students.

As part of next year's efforts to reduce expenses by $17 million, you're bound to have heard Superintendent Jose Torres say the district will be "right-sizing" special education by staffing to state standards.

But what exactly do those buzz words mean? And, bottom line, what's this going to do for your child's education?

The changes - which include different class size standards and an overall reduction in special education teachers and teachers' aides - will not affect the quality of services, officials stressed last week.

Staff members feeling the pinch of the "right-sizing" aren't so sure.

"All things considered, I just can't see how it's going to work," said Julie Radcliffe, a special education teacher at Century Oaks Elementary in Elgin. "The number of special education students isn't going down, and yet staffing is being cut. I just don't see how we're going to meet every student's (needs)."

What's happening:

In past years, U-46 followed a basic formula to staff special education classes.

"We automatically staffed those classrooms with one teacher and one aide regardless of the size of the class," Torres told a group of parents at South Elgin High School Thursday.

As class numbers grew, additional teachers and aides were added.

"That's over the state standards," he said. "It wasn't that those teachers weren't gainfully employed, but by moving to staff those classrooms by state standards, we'll be able to lower class sizes for all students."

The district in January announced that next year general education classes will feature a 25-1 student-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grades and a 28-1 student-teacher ratio in fourth through sixth grades.

Special education classroom staffing will follow the Illinois Administrative Code.

"We're going to follow the law," Torres said. "There are procedural safeguards along the way."

The Illinois Administrative Code breaks down special education class size and caseload by the amount of time a student needs special education services.

For the 2009-10 school year, classes where all students receive special education services for 20 percent of the school day or less must feature a 15-1 student-teacher ratio. That class size may grow to 17 if a teacher's aide is assigned to the class. In classes where students receive special education services between 21 and 60 percent of the school day, the student teacher ratio should be 10-1 or less; or 15-1 if an aide is present. For students receiving special education services for more than 60 percent of the school day, classes must have an 8-1 ratio; or 13-1 with an aide.

The cuts:

Of the 348 jobs that will be eliminated next year in U-46, 48 belong to special education teachers and 68 belong to teachers' aides.

The majority of special education jobs that are being cut are those of "cross categorical resource teachers" - teachers who, as opposed to spending their entire day with one special education class, work with different groups of students with different needs throughout the day.

According to a student's Individualized Education Plan, the document that outlines the services he or she must, by law, receive, students are promised a certain number of special education minutes.

Depending on their needs, some special education students spend their entire school days in contained classes with peers of similar ages and disabilities. Other students spend their days in general education classes and are pulled out by resource teachers for special education services for a portion of the day. Others have resource teachers coming into the classroom to help them with their specific needs.

A district list of cross categorical resource projections next year shows that 32 of 40 elementary schools will see a reduction in resource teacher numbers.

Instead of spending their entire day at one school, a majority of teachers, special education director Pam Harris said, will split their time between several schools.

Rhonda Joustra, a resource teacher at Creekside Elementary in Elgin, said her school will lose one of two resource teachers and both teachers' aides next school year.

"It's like breaking up a team," she said.

Along with providing services to special education students with IEPs, Joustra said she provides early interventions for students who have not yet been diagnosed as having special needs. With next year's changes, she says she worries about her students losing out. "Who's going to be doing the testing? Who's going to be keeping up with all the paperwork?" she asked.

In changing staffing, Harris said, district officials "did a total calculation of students' IEP minutes across the district and determined how many teachers we would need."

Teachers' caseload numbers, she said, won't get thrown out of whack or affect IEP minutes, but "this will make things more efficient."

The Daily Herald was unable to obtain information on how the reduction of teachers aides would affect specific schools.

However, Torres stressed, students that need aides as part of their education plan will have them.

"I will emphasize again that we will ensure that the needs of our special education students are met, and that we comply with all Individual Education Plans (IEPs) of students," he said last week.

Teachers say they'll wait and see.

"Most of us can barely keep up with the numbers this year," Radcliffe said. "I do understand the economy. But I'm worried the kids who need the support the most won't be able to get those services."

Joustra added, "I feel like we're being set up to fail to meet their needs."