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Making headway in the mainstream
By ROBERT KING © St. Petersburg Times, published May 21, 2001 "Inclusion" lets special education students stay in class with their peers. It is gaining in popularity. James Jenkins didn't like leaving his friends. Every time he left to spend time with the special education teacher, he kept wondering what he might be missing. "I didn't like going back and forth," he said. James, now a fifth-grader at Deltona Elementary School, has a learning disability. He's bright, as evidenced by the writing samples that his teachers rave about, but he takes longer to process information than some students. Over the past two years, James has had to leave his friends behind less and less. That's because he has been making a transition that mirrors a larger shift in special education going in Hernando County and across Florida. Increasingly, schools are trying to allow special education students to remain in the classroom alongside their non-disabled peers. As a consequence, children are being pulled out of their regular classrooms far less often. For years, learning-disabled children such as James who have average to above average IQs have had a place in "mainstream" classrooms. But frequently they have been yanked out for an hour, two hours or more to work on their weak areas in closet-sized rooms with special education teachers. Aside from taking kids away from their friends, most educators concede that children lose something academically when they are pulled out of the main classroom. In Hernando County, schools looking to keep kids with mild handicaps in class with their pals are turning to team teaching more and more. Instead of children leaving class to go see their special education teachers, special education teachers are coming to them, working side by side with regular classroom teachers. Two teachers, one classroom. For James, life in this "inclusive" environment has led to an "amazing transformation," his teachers say. The boy who began last year disorganized and unable to finish his assignments now is well-organized and skillful at prioritizing his time. "He's doing wonderfully now," said his mother, Rosellen Jenkins. "He's got high grades. He's working on grade-level material. It really helps to have his (special education) teacher there with him. That way, if he isn't clear on something they are teaching, she's there to help." Five years ago, there were only a couple of schools in Hernando County taking a team-teaching approach to special education. Today, it's practiced to some extent in all four middle schools and about half of the elementary schools. Liz Weber, the school district's director of exceptional education, expects team teaching in special education, also known as "inclusion," to spread to all of the elementary schools within the next few years. Eventually, she expects it to spread to math and English classes in the high schools. It is no accident that Hernando County's schools are trying so hard not to isolate special education students. For one thing, federal law mandates that all schools serve children in the "least restrictive environment" possible. For another, the state Department of Education is promoting inclusion across the state. For once, Hernando County's relatively small size is an asset, helping it make the transition sooner than some bigger districts, said Vicki Barnitt, a facilitator with the Florida Inclusion Network, an arm of the Education Department. At Deltona Elementary, special education teacher Karen Tubbs and fifth-grade teacher Michelle Billingsly are finishing up their third year as tag-team partners. Together, they teach math and language arts to a class that usually is no bigger than 26 students. It's a smaller teacher-to-student ratio than one finds in many private schools. The catch: Half the students have learning disabilities. In some ways, their working relationship is like a marriage -- with lots of children. They must cooperate and listen, avoid talking over each other and frequently check to make sure their partner really did grant permission for that child to get a drink of water. It also takes a pair of teachers -- who typically enjoy being Lone Rangers -- willing to share authority. "If you don't like each other, it can be a battle for control," Billingsly said. "We are equal." That's evident as you watch them work together. For the most part, Billingsly leads the class while Tubbs crouches to talk to students one on one. But, when the spirit moves her, Tubbs isn't afraid to speak up to the entire class. Traditionally, the knock against having students with disabilities in general education classrooms is that teachers cannot possibly meet every child's needs. It's the idea that children who pick things up quickly must wait for others to come along, and the kids they're waiting on aren't getting all the attention they need. The result is that teachers "water down" the curriculum by teaching to the middle. Having two teachers in the same room neutralizes that problem quickly. Tubbs may be a special education teacher, but she offers help to any child who needs it. In that sense, students without disabilities see an added benefit. It's also important to students who do not qualify for special education but still struggle at times. Inclusion also addresses the major drawback of pulling special students out of the classroom. Keeping James Jenkins in class with his pals ensures that he is learning the same stuff as everyone else. "In some situations I've been in," Tubbs said of her career in special education before Deltona, "I've felt so isolated from a regular school. And these kids lose sight of what a real school is." Although the learning disabled -- who number nearly 1,300 and make up about 7.5 percent of Hernando County's student population -- are too numerous to leave behind, the biggest drawback of inclusion is the cost. It isn't difficult to see that two teachers in one classroom costs more than one. Tubbs splits time with a fourth-grade teacher while Billingsly's students are in science and social studies. And she feels like she's still able to serve the same number of kids as she would normally. But Weber, the ESE director, says it's inevitable that special education teachers who team teach cannot serve as many children with disabilities as they would otherwise. That forces the district to add teacher's aides or additional special education teachers to the payroll. Already, exceptional education -- which includes special education and programs for the gifted -- costs the Hernando County schools about $21-million a year, about one-fourth of the district's $80-million-plus budget. Though spending on special education has gone up in recent years, the growth is not nearly enough to put two teachers in every classroom where there's a child with a learning disability. As ideal as that might seem, educators say two teachers in every room where there's a learning-disabled child is not necessary if the teacher has the training and support he or she needs. In any case, look for special education kids to become more common in mainstream classrooms. And look for them to stay there for a bigger chunk of the school day. For parents such as Rosellen Jenkins, seeing her son, James, thrive in an inclusive environment has given her hope that the hours of isolation are behind him. "I think that's the way of the past," she said. "By working with kids there in the classroom, it really helps." * * * Special report: The challenge of special education No easy answers (May 20, 2001) Teacher mothers her handicapped students (May 20, 2001)
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