THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250355
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 129 lines
The Norfolk School Board will cut five special education positions, including a school psychologist, social workers and specialists who assess children's educational needs. The cuts will save an estimated $230,000. THE EXPLANATION
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. says the cuts are to unneeded administrative positions, not classroom teachers, and that services will not be affected. Three employees whose positions were eliminated have been offered special ed teaching jobs. THE CRITICISM
A Norfolk special education advisory committee says special ed enrollment has been increasing by about 100 children each year. Committee members had requested that the School Board add three positions for the 1996-97 school year.
While demand for special education services is escalating, Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. has drawn criticism for cutting jobs in the school district's special education department.
Special education advocates say the loss of five positions, including a school psychologist, social workers and specialists who assess children's educational needs, will increase workloads and ultimately hurt kids.
``They're already overworked, and this is just going to make it that much harder for special-needs students,'' parent Kitty Mann, chairwoman of a Norfolk special education advisory committee, said this week.
Committee members had requested that the School Board hire two additional psychologists as well as a social worker for the 1996-97 school year.
As proof of the need, they cited an increase in special-ed enrollment of about 100 children each year during the past five years - a rate that's about three times higher than growth in the school district's overall student membership.
``The feeling you get is that we should just take all of the special-needs children and move to Vermont,'' Mann said.
Nichols defended the cost-cutting move, saying the department had become ``over-staffed'' with administrative employees who weren't in the classroom - where the greatest need is. He said the cuts will save an estimated $230,000 and will not affect services; the savings nearly equal the amount of money in the School Board's budget request this year that was not funded by City Council.
Three employees whose positions were eliminated have been offered special-ed teaching jobs, Nichols said.
The cutbacks are an attempt to throttle a steady rise in both the cost and the number of students being placed into special-education programs, and the action may be just the first step to streamline the department.
Nichols said he considered but rejected - at least for now - the idea of hiring a private contractor to evaluate children, a move that could have eliminated some 40 positions in the special-ed department.
In the 1994-95 school year, the latest year with figures available, the school district conducted 1,317 evaluations on children who had been referred for screening by parents, teachers or other adults. That's a 45 percent increase over the 907 evaluations during the 1991-92 year, based on school district data.
At $1,800 to $2,000 per child, the evaluations add up to significant costs. Nichols said he located a New Jersey firm that would do them for $1,000 to $1,300 - and meet the strict state and federal regulations that have driven up the price of special education nationwide.
Driving the debate in part is Nichols' view that too many children in Norfolk are in special ed who don't belong there. He said he suspects many children who are slow learners or have behavior problems get shuffled into the line-up by frustrated regular education teachers who feel the kids can get extra help in special ed.
Also, more children are being diagnosed with hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorders, which now qualifies them for special education under a category called ``other health-impairment.'' Several other categories, including educable mentally retarded, learning disabled and emotionally disturbed, allow for professional judgment in placing children.
``By nature, educators are sympathetic and want to help,'' Nichols said, ``but I believe we need to begin a process to monitor more closely to make sure the children belong there.''
Nichols said the increase in staff had resulted in duplication. That's a conclusion reached by a consultant Nichols hired last spring to review the department. The consultant, who was paid $600 a day plus expenses, said she spent about three days in Norfolk.
``I saw a lot of overlapping responsibility and also job descriptions that were overlapping,'' said the consultant, Yvonne B. Brooks, who just retired as head of special and gifted education in Jackson, Miss.
Brooks said that, for example, most special education teachers could do the type of testing and evaluations performed by specialists called educational diagnosticians; Nichols cut two diagnostician positions. Brooks also said the special-education department could not provide information to document the amount of work its central office employees were doing.
School Board members have questioned the growth in special ed, worrying that the program was siphoning funds from children in regular ed. The special education budget for 1996-97 is $23.5 million, about 15 percent of the overall instructional budget. By comparison, the district will spend $8.6 million on vocational and $1.5 million on gifted education.
About 13 percent of Norfolk's students are in special ed - 4,512 out of 34,249 in the 1995-96 year. That percentage is about the same as the statewide average but twice as high as some districts, local administrators said.
``All we're trying to do is to balance the equities and spread our resources across the board for all of our children,'' said board member Joseph T. Waldo. ``The average student out there is represented by the silent majority.''
Even with the cuts, administrators said, the system still will have 22 school psychologists and 13 educational diagnosticians. They work with children in about 50 schools.
Shirley Underwood, Norfolk's senior director of special education, said she wouldn't know how the cuts will affect her department until school begins this fall but that ``we're afraid greatly.'' Underwood said she resisted the cuts, and had offered other ways to save money.
Parents and other special-ed advocates called the cutbacks unwise because the social workers, psychologists and diagnosticians whose positions were eliminated did more than test and evaluate children. They also worked with parents and children in the home, helped teachers customize instruction plans and served as a link between the courts and the school system.
C. Rick Ellis, a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice who worked six years for Norfolk schools, said claims that the cuts will not reduce services were ``ludicrous.''
Ellis said children in regular ed also will be short-changed because psychologists and diagnosticians were also available to assist them.
``It's either spend now or we spend 10 times to 50 times more on these kids later,'' Ellis said. ``Morally we should address these needs, and society will be better off in the long run.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Roy D. Nichols Jr.
KEYWORDS: SPECIAL EDUCATION NORFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB