interesting article

[Guest guest]

Sorry about the crosspostI read this via an online education newsletter (CEC

Newsbrief) Sounds like an IEP team meeting between the Chapel Hill, NC school

board and the school personnel. I have highlighted the parts that sound like an

IEP team meeting and my comments are in italics. Remember, the bold print,

italicized and underlined comments are mine. Tks, R.

Parents want more from special education plan

Cheryl ston Sadgrove, Staff Writer (The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC)

CHAPEL HILL - Parents and school board members asked for more accountability

Thursday in a proposed plan to improve exceptional education in Chapel

Hill-Carrboro schools.

Both groups wanted to see more dates attached to goals as the school district

lays out a map for improving services to all children with exceptional needs.

(Let's have an IEP meeting.)

" It's very bland, generic, we're going to be doing this, we're hoping to do

that, " said Pam Hemminger, the board's vice chairwoman. " I want to see some real

time-lined goals. It would be helpful to have some checkpoints to see if we're

meeting these goals. " (IEP annual goal sheet with short term objectives?)

The proposed changes are the district's response to ongoing parent concerns that

the district could be doing more to instruct children with a range of

disabilities.

The plan was designed to address recommendations that came from a newly formed

committee of parents, the Special Needs Advisory Council, and those of

, an educational consultant who conducted an independent review during the

last school year. (Goals suggested pursuant to an IEE?)

A couple of school board members asked that additional training be mandatory for

teachers with special-needs students in their classrooms. (Highly qualified

teachers that may need to implement inclusion/behavioral plans?)

The training this year will focus on teachers and assistants in self-contained

rooms, said Margaret Blackwell, the district's executive director of exceptional

children/student services, who presented the 80-page improvement plan. (Uh,

when are we going to have time to read this thing, much less implement it?)

Board member Hamilton asked that something be written into principals'

evaluations to hold them accountable for providing special needs-related

training for their teachers. (A mini due process for principals!)

" I think for me it's much like parents of minority students -- that we've made

progress, but the acceleration of the speed of the progress hasn't happened and

needs to, " said Jamezetta Bedford, the school board's chairwoman. (That ole

Brown vs. Board of Ed thing again!)

The presentation was treated as a work session item, and the board did not vote

to adopt the plan. It did, however, invite comments from parents. (Shucks, ran

out of time...we' ll have to reschedule and get the rest of the team here.)

Gwen Collman said she has a 14-year-old son who is deaf and blind and has

multiple disabilities, who has been in self-contained classrooms since

pre-school.

She and other parents whose children are separated from the mainstream

classrooms have been concerned that the curriculum isn't up to par.

" Many of them didn't feel like their children were really learning the basics --

reading, writing and math, " she said. (The child needs to focus on

FUNCTIONAL/VOCATIONAL life skills. After all, we decided in the second grade

that he wasn't going to be on diploma track.)

Faith Nager said no schoolwork was coming home, and when the teacher finally

honored a request to see corrected papers, she got " six months of work sent home

in paper bags. " (What, you want something like data in a timely manner? We

don't have time to take data; we're doing all we can to teach your child and

he's no angel!)

, the father of a 7-year-old boy with autism, reminded the board

that the improvement plan was created because of the " outcry in the community. "

" I trust this is the last report of this nature and this administration finally

takes this topic seriously, " he said. (We will definitely execute our

obligation and consider it.)

To access the Exceptional Children Report and Improvement Work Plan online, go

to www.chccs.k12.nc.us/, click on " School Board " and then the Board Meeting

Agenda for Aug. 9.

Staff writer Cheryl ston Sadgrove can be reached at 932-2005 or

cheryl.sadgrove@....