Fightin' the System

Rumours... Rumours....

Matt and I have heard that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System has a proposal on the Superintendent Pughley's desk to eliminate the early intervention low student-to-teacher ratio classrooms for 4 year olds. Alec will be four next year.

Instead, the school is considering sending these kids to classrooms designed for socioeconomically disadvantaged kids. Currently, there are 19 students in these classrooms. Alec is in a classroom now with 7.

Needless to say, we aren't happy. We have written a letter to the Charlotte Observer asking them to investigate this, because the school system is keeping all of this under wraps. There has been no announcement that such a proposal even exists.

Here is a copy of the letter we sent to the Observer:

Last spring, our son was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). PDD-NOS, in particular (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified). Although his IQ testing revealed a superior score of 127, his language and verbal skills fall substantially behind his peers. In addition to this, he has a few traits that are characteristic of autistic children, such as difficulty engaging in activities with groups of children, echolalia (repeating what others say, over and over). Essentially, he is a very highly-functioning ASD child, with, we feel, a very optimistic future for recovery and a normal life.

He is currently attending a "self-contained" CMS classroom 3 days per week that is geared towards autistic children. This class has 7 children in it, ranging from ages 3-5. In addition, he receives a small amount of speech therapy from CMS. In addition to this, we are currently paying out of pocket for 2 therapists to come work with Alec on the other 2 days of the week. They are using ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) - a therapy that has shown promise with ASD children. Last fall, we stopped his private speech therapy, due to cost.

Earlier this year, we heard some rumblings among some educators we know (inside and outside of CMS), that some negative changes were coming from CMS. I called Valerie Todd, director of CMS's Exceptional Children's Program for preschoolers, to find out what changes they had in store for our children.

She said that a proposal, currently under review by Dr. Pughsley, and expected to be approved by March, plans to restructure the special needs program and combine it with Bright Beginnings. Essentially, 3-year olds will remain in self-contained classes, while 4-year olds will get placed into the Bright Beginnings classes. These Bright Beginnings classes currently contain 19 children, and Ms. Todd mentioned that there was a proposal to reduce the class sizes down to 15-19 students. She said that out of the 15-19 children, there would be 3-4 kids with disabilities. She also said that there would be 2 teachers and one assistant per class.

The problem with this proposal is, these kids desperately need one-on-one instruction in order to help them maintain focus and absorb as much of the instruction as they can. According to the Autism Research Institiute, these first years are especially critical, as the child's brain is still developing and has the opportunity to "re-wire" around areas that aren't functioning properly. By tossing these kids into a program clearly designed for "disadvantaged" children, not "disabled" children, we fear that CMS's program is going to waste this time.

Moreover, the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) (NCGS 115C-106 to 115C-150) defines special education as "specially designed instruction at no cost to the parents to meet the UNIQUE NEEDS of the exceptional child, ..." and requires that the public school systems provide this type of education to students age 3-20. The act clearly defines children with disabilities as including autism, among many other disabilities.

Here's a link to the CMS Bright Beginnings page: http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/programs/brightbeginnings/brightbeginnings.asp

Here are our concerns:

1. We as parents of a child already in CMS's program, have received absolutely no mention, indication, or anything of this proposed drastic change to our child's program.
   
2. Bright Beginnings is a great idea, and it is clearly designed to help bridge the socioeconomic gap and help disadvantaged children catch up to their peers before kindergarten. This is fine, but their needs are completely different from those of children with ASD's and other disabilities.
   
3. We believe that making the proposed changes, CMS will be violating the 1997 IDEA Act, by not providing for the child's UNIQUE needs, by piling them into a program designed to patch socioeconomic deficiencies.
   
4. We're terribly concerned specifically for autistic children and others with ASD's, whose critical years of potential improvement and recovery are at risk of being spent in a diluted environment not tailored for their unique needs. Especially distressing is the proposed ratio of children to instructors, given that ASD children respond best with a low student to teacher ratio.

These children have no voice in this matter. We parents do, but it's frustrating to find out about these dramatic changes so very late in the process. We would like for someone from the Observer to please look into this further and let the public know about these proposed changes.

I know that the majority of children in Mecklenburg County do not have disabilities, but we believe that the proposed changes will waste valuable time parents desperately need to help rescue their children from these types of disabilities. Our son Alec is an intelligent, loving, child with tremendous potential for improvement from his ASD and beyond. We don't know if CMS is trying to drive parents who care completely out of the system or not, but with these changes, some parents will have no choice but to completely privatize their children's treatment and education. Every parent wants to provide the best therapy, treatment, and education for their child that they can afford. For many families, CMS is the only viable option, and we want to make sure that our children are going to receive the "specially-designed instruction" that they are required to provide them, as protected in IDEA.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance. Thanks.