Advocates worry diploma elimination will edge out special-ed students

Uncertain future

Chuck Hathcock has been thinking about his son Zach's future for a long time.

And with Zach set to start high school this week, Hathcock’s thoughts of what comes next have ramped into overdrive.

Because uncertainty doesn’t have an answer.

Zach has autism, a developmental disorder that affects his ability to communicate with the world around him.

Zach’s therapist described the condition to the family, “He’s there; it’s just getting it out of him.”

Federal law allows Zach to receive accommodations at school outlined in an individual education program, or IEP, which also sets benchmarks for Zach to reach along the way.

This spring, Zach’s IEP team at the Grenada School District discussed with his family the best pathway for him to reach the most important milestone in his school career — graduation.

Hathcock recalled it as a frustrating endeavor.

That's because a new Mississippi law has left the majority of students with disabilities in the state with two options: a standard diploma, which allows no course substitutions or modifications for students with disabilities, or a certificate of completion.

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Hathcock seems resigned that his son will receive — or in his words, “settle for”— the latter, a document that state education officials have noted is not equivalent to a high school diploma.

Neither is the occupational diploma.

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But Hathcock believes the requirements for the diploma, including completing 540 hours of paid work and taking courses geared toward interview preparation, would make his son more attractive to employers than a certificate.

If he’s unable to earn a standard diploma, he’ll receive a certificate of completion, provided he stays in school until he reaches the age of service, after which students are no longer permitted to receive special education services. In Mississippi, that age is 20.

Zach’s schedule for the fall includes general education classes, meaning he will learn subjects like math alongside his peers who do not have disabilities. The goal is for him to work toward a standard diploma since the occupational diploma is no longer an option.

“We’re just trying to make sure he can learn some type of trade,” Hathcock said. “We want him to be able to function for himself and just not be put in a home.”

Hathcock is not the only one expressing concern about the occupational diploma’s elimination.

Disability Rights Mississippi wrote a letter opposing the move. The letter said in part, “this represents a large chunk of our public education population who will be thrown away.”

How we got here

Post-graduation outcomes are why Hathcock wants to keep the occupational diploma. They're the same reasons the Mississippi Department of Education wants the option to go away.

It’s not uncommon in education policy debates to see this: two sides wanting to reach the same objective through opposing routes.

But there was a time when advocates for the diploma and the MDE were on the same side.

In a filing to the federal government detailing Mississippi’s goals for special education for fiscal years 2005 to 2012, officials predicted success for the then new graduation option.

“Districts reported that 41% of students that received a certificate or modified diploma, including Mississippi’s Occupational Diploma, were most likely to be competitively employed. This demonstrates the ability of the Occupational Diploma program to effectively prepare students for gainful employment upon exit from school,” the report states.

By 2016, the picture was less rosy. Officials told the U.S. Department of Education that the number of students with disabilities enrolled in community colleges had dropped in fiscal year 2014. The reason: Community colleges in the state no longer accepted occupational diplomas.

And by the 2017 legislative session, state Superintendent of Education Carey Wright was speaking publicly of the limitations the occupational diploma posed for students. She told members of the House Education Committee that students were essentially receiving a piece of paper that was accepted by neither the military nor the state’s universities.

A Senate bill authored by Senate Education Chairman Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, removing the diploma option saw easy passage in both chambers.

Good intentions gone awry

When Tollison co-authored a 2001 law establishing the state’s occupational diploma, a special note was included: Nothing provided in this section, however, shall be construed to limit or restrict the right of an exceptional student solely to a special diploma.

The language was meant to show that the occupational diploma was an option, rather than a mandate for students with disabilities.

“Once there was a lesser option, kids got moved into that (pathway) who were really capable of working toward that traditional diploma,” said Gretchen Cagle, the state director of special education.

“For any multitude of reasons, the IEP team decided to take them down a level because there was a level to go.”

Cagle, who became state director in 2014, was not with the department during the occupational diploma’s inception.

Before joining the department, she remembered special education directors at the district level questioning whether the state Personnel Board would recognize an occupational diploma as the equivalent of a high school diploma.

That was a move that never happened, leaving the possibility that students with occupational diplomas could be edged out of state jobs when competing against graduates with standard diplomas.

Unique conflict

In some ways, the phasing out of the occupational diploma is a story about trade-offs.

And there are no clear winners.

A 2013 report by The National Center on Educational Outcomes based at the University of Minnesota notes that “about 85 to 95% of students with disabilities can meet the graduation standards targeted for all other students, as long as they receive specially designed instruction and appropriate access, supports and accommodations.”

Groups like Disability Rights Mississippi contest that’s one of the problems: Too often, for whatever reason, appropriate services aren’t happening.

“On a daily basis, we see students who have been warehoused in programs that are inadequate to prepare them for life after school,” the advocacy group wrote in a letter to the MDE protesting the changes.

“These are often students (whose) IQ’s (are) in the average range but who have reading or math disabilities, serious emotional disabilities, attention deficit disorder; or, are just slow learners who don’t qualify for any kind of special education services. These students often will NEVER be able to earn a traditional diploma. The Mississippi Occupational Diploma was an appropriate solution for those students had it been regulated and carried out correctly,” the group wrote.

Not having an alternative option is a very real concern for parents like Hathcock, who said his son works well with computers but struggles with reading comprehension, a skill that lays the foundation for earning a standard diploma.

Hathcock’s worries are running parallel to efforts by the MDE to ensure that special education students aren’t left on the sidelines or in self-contained classrooms when they have the opportunity to do more.

“One of our big concerns are people who really are not having heavy expectations for our students,” said Cagle. “(They say), ‘Well, they’re not capable of it (earning a standard diploma) or, if they could do it, they wouldn’t have an IEP.’”

The chance to reach a middle ground seems unlikely.

The state Board of Education put new diploma options out for comment in July. The procedure is required by state law before making certain changes in education policy. But in some ways, the elimination of the occupational diploma is already a done deal.

A law signed by Gov. Phil Bryant this spring prevents incoming ninth-graders from being placed on the occupational diploma track. Their upperclassmen counterparts can still earn the degree, provided the school has the parents' consent.

That leaves students like Zach edged out.

“The timing was for the birds,” Hathcock said.

Contact Bracey Harris at 601-961-7248 or bharris2@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter.