THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509160377
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: SPECIAL EDUCATION
The challenge
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
Regina Robertson says that getting her son the education he needs has been a running battle.
Bryon, 13, has learning disabilities. Since he was first diagnosed in kindergarten, he has attended special education classes in three of South Hampton Roads' school districts - Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
Only one placed him in an appropriate class without a struggle, Robertson said.
``It's like I have had to fight the people who should be helping me,'' she said.
At the heart of Robertson's dilemma - and of many other parents' - is a provision in federal special ed law that guarantees a free and appropriate education for disabled children.
The problem is that ``appropriate'' is not easy to define, and it varies from child to child. Often parents disagree with school administrators over the appropriate placement of their child.
Bryon began school in Portsmouth and didn't pass kindergarten. A school psychologist who evaluated him for special ed near the end of his second year in kindergarten concluded that Bryon, then 6, had low-average to average intelligence.
The psychologist recommended that Bryon be ``mainstreamed'' in a kindergarten-to-first-grade transition class his next year.
Robertson, though, said she knew her son's abilities better than the psychologist and feared that he would be unable to keep up in a mainstream class, which included non-disabled kids. She took him to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters for additional testing.
The hospital's findings stood in stark contrast to the school's conclusion, revealing a communication disorder of ``major proportions,'' including a problem speaking clearly and difficulty reading and writing.
``This examiner is quite surprised that the school psychologist who did the screening was able to obtain results which were within normal limits,'' the CHKD evaluator wrote. ``This examiner sees this child having special needs which will not be adequately addressed by the mainstream.''
Armed with the hospital testing, Robertson eventually convinced Portsmouth officials to place Bryon in a communicative disorder class, where he received speech therapy and help with communication skills.
But Robertson said it became apparent to her that the class was not addressing other learning difficulties. The next year he was placed in a self-contained Learning Disabled, or LD, class.
In 1992, when Bryon was 9, the family moved to Virginia Beach - the only system in which she said she didn't encounter obstacles. Bryon attended a self-contained LD class that combined students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Even though the children varied in age, their abilities were similar, Robertson said.
His teacher had worked with educable mentally retarded kids and knew how to help him learn, she said.
After separating from her husband, Robertson moved in April 1994 to Chesapeake - and her problems with Bryon's placement began again.
In Chesapeake, Bryon, then 11, was placed in a fifth- and sixth-grade LD class at Camelot Elementary, his zoned school. The kids were the same age, but most were more advanced academically than Bryon, she said.
``Kids were making fun of the books he was using and kids were calling him stupid,'' Robertson said. ``He lost every bit of his self-esteem. He'd come home very frustrated and not wanting to go to school, and this from somebody who loved school.''
A month after moving to Chesapeake, Robertson began what she said was a long, frustrating fight to move him to a class with kids at his ability level.
In Chesapeake, students are grouped in LD classes based on their age rather than academic ability. There were two self-contained LD classes at Camelot - one for grades K-3 and another for grades 4-6. School officials classified Bryon as a fifth-grader.
Bryon's teacher at Camelot, Robertson said, ``worked with him the best she could.'' But in a May 20, 1994, assessment, the teacher wrote: ``He is so delayed in all academics he can not participate with the class . . . He is easily frustrated and has low motivation.''
After Robertson voiced concern, Karen R. Niedermeier, a special ed coordinator in Chesapeake, wrote in a May 24, 1994, letter that the district was ``providing Bryon an education with age appropriate students and individualizing his program.''
The school also referred Bryon to the guidance program to try to help him adjust to the new school.
Even though he had made no headway by year's end, he was assigned to the same class for the 1994-95 school year.
Frustrated, Robertson again turned to the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. The hospital evaluation highlighted medical problems associated with his learning disabilities.
Robertson showed the report to school officials; but administrators still wouldn't move him.
Bryon's mother got another disheartening report from his teacher on Jan. 11, 1995. It read in part: ``Bryon is well-below average in all academic areas. He has severe speech deficits. He reads on a primer level.''
She went back to administrators, finally convincing them after a months-long effort to move her son.
Based in part on the new CHKD evaluation, a special ed committee in February reclassified Bryon as ``Other Health Impaired'' and placed him in EMR - Educable Mentally Retarded. He was moved to Deep Creek Intermediate, because Camelot didn't have an EMR class.
``It's sad that we've been over here since April 1994 and now that he's in the right place he's got to be moved again,'' Robertson said. ``There's no reason it should have taken this long.''
Her old fears returned as she prepared Bryon for a new teacher and school, as he moved to Deep Creek Middle this year. But now that he has been classified for an EMR class, Robertson thinks Bryon has a better chance for success.
``So far he's working very well with his new teacher,'' Robertson said last week after his first days in class. ``I like her. She seems very thorough.
``He's doing very good. He loves to draw and he can build things. He's beautiful with his hands, and I'd like to see those abilities brought out more.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
STEVE EARLEY/Staff
Bryon takes a break from class at Deep Creek Middle School to get a
drink of water. He's attended special ed classes in three districts
in South Hampton Roads as his family moved. His mother said she's
had to struggle to get him placed in the appropriate classes.
Bryon now attends Patricia Coker-Bell's class for Educable Mentally
Retarded students in Chesapeake, and he is happy there. His mother
wishes it hadn't taken so much time to get him there.
by CNB