The American Federation of Teachers’ West Virginia branch is opposing a proposed statewide limitation that no more than half of individual general education classrooms in core subjects could consist of students receiving specially designed instruction for disabilities.
Christine Campbell, president of the school employees union, said she wants 30 percent to be the maximum allowed proportion of those students before county public school systems would be required to provide support staff.
When contacted Tuesday, West Virginia Education Association Communications Director Kym Randolph said her union feels that — if any changes are made — the proposed 50 percent maximum allowance should probably be lowered.
The proposed new 50 percent limit is part of numerous proposed changes to state Board of Education Policy 2419. The 60-day public comment period for the changes ends 4 p.m. Monday.
Board members likely will vote on the currently proposed changes — and possible additional proposed changes — in July, said Susan Beck, assistant director of the state Department of Education’s Office of Special Education.
The current policy says the percentage “should approximate natural proportions that are no more than 30 percent of the total class enrollment when integrated classrooms are established in” English language arts, math, science and social studies. The change would add to that line that the percentage “must not exceed 50 percent of the total class enrollment.”
The new enrollment cap for students receiving special education services wouldn’t apply to classrooms not in the core subjects. And even with the proposed change, the policy wouldn’t count students with “speech/language impairments” as part of the percentage.
Campbell said “we’ve tried for several years to encourage” the state to make the no-more-than-30-percent recommendation a requirement. She said the union believes 50 percent “is too high to meet the needs of all the students.”
“When you have a variety of abilities in your classroom, we need to make sure the classroom teacher and the aide, one, that we have those resources for those students in the classroom, and, two, that those teachers are able to meet the needs of all those students,” Campbell said.
Beck said that when monitors observed classrooms, they sometimes saw much more than the recommended 30 percent. She said monitors had seen up to a 75 percent proportion in “co-taught” classrooms, which have two teachers.
Pat Homberg, executive director of the Office of Special Education, said at a public hearing on the policy Tuesday that she plans to suggest altering the proposed change regarding the 50 percent maximum threshold by setting different requirement for co-taught and integrated classrooms. Co-taught classrooms, which she said include both a regular education teacher and a special education teacher, would have a mandated 50 percent limit for students receiving services for disabilities and a 30 percent recommended limit. Integrated classrooms, which she said don’t have a special education teacher assisting the regular education teacher, would have a new mandated 30 percent limit for students receiving services for disabilities.
Beck said the department, through the public comment process and sitting down with an AFT representative, has learned that people have been interchangeably using the phrase “integrated classroom” and “co-taught classroom,” something that may have to be clarified.
When asked whether an integrated classroom could include more than one teacher, Beck herself said she didn’t know if there was a consistent definition. She noted the integrated classroom part of the policy was written before she took her position.
“That may even be taken out completely,” Beck said of the 50-percent-maximum mandate. “We’ve gotten a lot of comments on that, so a committee of people will sit down and decide if that will stay, go, be changed, and then the board will have to approve.”
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Right before the board put the proposed changes out for public comment in April, state Schools Superintendent Steve Paine told Beck he’d still like to see some research behind the recommended 50 percent figure.
Beck said “we looked into some other states, some surrounding states as to what they were doing.” She said Kentucky says the proportion shouldn’t exceed 30 percent, while New York says you can’t exceed 40 percent or more than 12 special education students per class.
The proposed policy changes would also increase from six to eight the number of “Level I needs” students allowed per special education teacher per small-group instructional period in kindergarten- through fifth-grade special-education-only classrooms. Level I students are considered to have lower needs than Level II and III students.
Instructional periods for Level I students could have from nine to no more than 12 students, but that would require providing “another qualified adult” to assist the public education teacher.
Tom Campbell, president of the state school board, said back even before the board put the proposed changes out for official public comment that he had “heard some concerns about that.”
The AFT also highlighted that proposed change on its website as something that could “significantly impact” classrooms. Randolph said the WVEA opposes that change.
Homberg said she couldn’t recall immediately Tuesday where that recommended change came from, but said it came from individuals in the county public school systems.
Among other things, the proposed changes would create an “alternate” diploma that students with disabilities could earn that, unlike the state’s current “modified” diploma, would allow their graduation to be counted toward the official graduation rate.
The proposed changes would also add home-schooled special education students to the list of special-education-eligible students that county public school systems don’t have to provide a “free appropriate public education.”
When asked whether this change would newly allow public school systems to not provide home-schoolers special education services, Homberg said school systems currently aren’t required by state of federal rules to do so, though some do anyway.
She said the descriptor “public” in the phrase “free appropriate public education” allows school systems to not serve home-schoolers currently, even without the proposed stated exemption. She said some special education directors wanted the exemption spelled out regardless.
To comment on the proposed changes, visit wvde.state.wv.us/policies.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn,
304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.
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