THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508250190
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 25 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Back to School
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Some Chesapeake children will not have to travel as far for preschool this fall.
The school system has changed the way it offers preschool to the small number of 2- to 5-year-olds who need special education - kids with disabilities ranging from physical handicaps to learning difficulties.
Those children will go to their neighborhood elementary schools beginning in September, instead of going to central locations around the city.
``By being in the home school, this allows them to be with the other neighborhood children,'' said Jan T. Garner, the school system's director of special education. ``Just like any other child, they deserve to be in their home school.''
All the state's school systems are required to offer some type of preschool services to special education children.
Garner said she and her staff have studied for the past year and a half the idea of locating Chesapeake's preschool classes in the neighborhood schools. They wanted to make sure they had the proper space and equipment before making the change, she said.
The only exceptions to the new program are children in the Southwestern and Norfolk Highlands elementary neighborhoods.
Norfolk Highlands, Garner said, did not have the proper facilities. Southwestern did not have enough children to make up a class.
``Part of it (the preschool program) is socialization, so you wouldn't want a class with just two students in it,'' she said.
Those children will be placed in preschool classes in other schools. by CNB