Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403120109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Once they arrive at school, the students have no extracurricular activities such as athletics and nonacademic organizations.
Sometimes, teachers make cruel and insensitive remarks about them.
And there are no programs for them during the summer, when they may regress and lose some of their academic skills.
Those are complaints by the county's Special Education Advisory Committee about the facilities and services for disabled students.
County school officials say they have one of the best special-education programs in the state.
But the committee told the School Board this week that there are unmet needs, including some that have been identified in the past. The members urged the board to include funds in the upcoming budget to provide better services for special-education students.
Chairman Frank Thomas said the board will investigate the complaints, calling them legitimate. But the county is complying with the law, he said.
"We will look further into it to see what we can do," Thomas said.
The county has closed its occupational school for special-education students and mainstreamed them into other schools.
But Denise Swanson, chairwoman of the committee, said the county had not done enough to ensure that special-education students can attend their home school with their brothers, sisters and neighborhood children.
"Often the regional placement of these programs do not even allow for these students to attend the same school district when transferring from elementary to secondary schools," Swanson said.
She said this creates a pattern of lost friendships and causes the students to feel more isolated.
If the county's special-education programs were more centrally located or more disabled students were placed in their neighborhood schools, Swanson said, the long bus rides would be eliminated.
She said state regulations require appropriate extracurricular activities for special-education students. Horseback riding and swimming would be good activities for the students, she said.
Swanson said the county needs to require sensitivity training for all teachers on dealing with special-education students. With the mainstreaming of disabled students, she said, all teachers need to know how to relate to them.
The committee also wants the county to offer extended school-year services to disabled students who need more than 180 days of school a year. Research has shown that these students can regress during the summer, she said.
by CNB