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Schools: Study: Special Education Program Needs Revamping

Dr. Kathryn Gerbino presented her report
Dr. Kathryn Gerbino presented her report
March 27, 2007

The Cornwall school district’s special education program is spending too much and not getting the kind of results it needs, according to a study presented Monday night to the Cornwall Board of Education by Dr. Kathryn Gerbino. Gerbino, a special education consultant, conducted the study along with Dr. Inge Jacobs.

Dr. Gerbino had few good words for how the district’s special education program had been run until recently. In her presentation, she cited, “a lack of consistency in focus, planning, strategies, poor record keeping, and a general failure to support students experiencing academic and social-emotional challenges.”

Gerbino did credit the current district administration with having “addressed the most pressing issues” and with having “successfully implemented several changes.”

The top item on her list of observations was the large number of students that the Cornwall school district sends out of district to get their instruction, while the school system picks up the tab.

According to her report, Cornwall spends $7,377 per general education student, a number that is significantly lower than the state average. When it comes to special education students, however, the spending skyrockets to $29,397 per pupil, well above the state average of $18,266.

Not only is Cornwall paying more per pupil, Gerbino said, but the number of students classified as needing special education has grown much faster than in other school districts. From the 2003-04 school year to the current year, the number of Cornwall students classified as special education has risen 33%, to a total of 381.

“Early intervention was not up and running,” Gerbino told the board, “and the need kept building and then students weren’t de-classified” and brought back into the general education classrooms.

The report notes that the test scores at the middle school in English Language Arts were “dismal” compared to scores achieved generally in the district, and put the school at risk of being deemed a School Requiring Academic Progress.

The good news, Gerbino noted, was that if these students can come back into the district and have their needs meet by properly trained teachers, then “significant savings” can be realized. She acknowledged that the district had already put in plans to meet this goal.

In addition to returning special education students to the district, Gerbino and her colleague also recommend an expansion of services in-district to meet their needs, including training instructors to teach to students with a variety of skill levels in one classroom, called an inclusion style of classroom. In the proposed budget, the district has included $225,000 to hire three full time inclusion teachers. It was one of the item that the board voted to retain, even if it is forced to go on a contingency budget. (Read more about the contingency budget here.)

Cornwall schools superintendent Timothy Rehm said that he thinks Gerbino's assessment is very fair. "We've got some work to do," he commented after the presentation. "We've had struggles and transitions but we are more solid in our leadership now and can move forward with a united vision", Rehm noted.

That vision, as he described it, is to give every child the best opportunity to perform as well as they can, in this case by moving special education students back into the inclusion classroom with speciaiized teachers working with the children to achieve their best. In the 2007-08 school year, four special education students are expected to return to the district.


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