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Don't let new rules endanger inclusive classes

Re: Co-teaching plans are on hold, Sept. 25 Times:

For several years, students with and without disabilities have been learning side by side in Hernando County schools. These "inclusion" classrooms are staffed by two teachers: one a generalist and the other a special education teacher. The practice is known as co-teaching. It's a win-win strategy, with multiple benefits for all kids - not the least of which is higher test scores.

But in a world teeming with rules, success is sometimes beside the point. Such well-intentioned requirements have wedged the Hernando County School Board between a rock and a hard place.

The rock is a 2002 amendment to the Florida Constitution requiring smaller class sizes to be phased in by 2010. If county educators don't comply? They get hammered by the state with mandatory double sessions, rezoning or other penalties. And Department of Education guidelines state that putting two teachers in one classroom does not count toward reducing class size.

The hard place is the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which calls for kids with disabilities to improve test scores. If school officials don't comply? They get hammered by federal sanctions, and might even lose their jobs.

School officials fear that, with limited resources, they can't continue to staff classes with two teachers and reduce class size. At a workshop today, the School Board will try to sort this out. As the mother of two sons with autism, and having devoted many years to working with people with disabilities, I have some advice.

Co-teaching, a highly effective means of inclusion, should not be on the chopping block any more than inclusion itself. Research soundly supports the academic and social benefits for students with disabilities. Their typical peers also gain socially, and sometimes academically as well. This leads to better jobs: Studies show that the more time disabled students spend in regular classrooms, the more successful - and employed - they will be as adults.

Considering that a 2004 Harris Poll showed that only 35 percent of people with disabilities were employed full or part time (compared with 78 percent of people without disabilities), that is extremely important.

Inclusion works. Co-teaching works. As the Hernando County School Board tries to extricate itself from this regulatory riddle, I hope they don't jettison a proven approach. I hope they don't forget the kids .

University of South Florida Center for Autism and Related Disabilities

Quality Drive plans need to be realigned to be less disruptive

I am writing concerning the rezoning of 33 acres on County Line Road in Spring Hill, south of the Wellington subdivision. The rezoning was passed by the Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 12 and will come before the County Commission on Oct. 12. The petition for the rezoning is file number H-05-84.

The biggest issue with this development would be the extension of Quality Drive as a reverse frontage road. If Quality Drive is extended, as planned on this proposal, it will bring the road within less than 25 feet of dozens of properties in the Wellington subdivision, which, by the way, is not shown in detail on Coastal Engineering Associates' map submitted with this proposal. It is an omission that would have a very negative effect on the residents of Wellington.

Quality Drive eventually will become a very active county road since it already feeds Spring Hill Regional Hospital and Suncoast Elementary School, and would continue to extend eastward. I think it would be unconscionable for the county to extend the road so close to so many homes when it would be possible to make it a legitimate frontage road and move it farther south toward County Line Road. Since the road is far from complete, the time would be now to redesign it to eliminate all the disturbances it would create. It also would create a serious traffic safety problem where it intersects Farnsworth Boulevard in the existing plan since it would be in such close proximity to the Wellington gate.

The decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission seemed to leave as many questions as before its vote, and was very inconsistent with the studies presented in the report. The planning commissioners agreed the commercial development of this property would put additional stress on County Line Road and the school system. County Line Road already is severely overcrowded and relief could be as much as six years away. The school system would be forced into more temporary classrooms.

Adding more multifamily housing units in such close proximity to those that already exist on Mariner Boulevard also would put more stress on Mariner.

We could not understand their affirmative vote when they recognized all the deficiencies, along with all the previous approvals they have passed and on which building has not started.

We all realize that progress cannot be stopped, but there are always alternatives that serve both parties. Rerouting the Quality Drive extension would be one of them and would still allow the petitioner to develop his property.

The county commissioners could help in getting a realignment of Quality Drive.

[Last modified October 4, 2005, 02:15:30]