January 11, 2009

The Stimulus Plan for Special Education

President-elect Obama has something in the pipeline for special education. The problem is that only David Brooks seem to know it (The New York Times, The Confidence Surplus, David Brooks, 1/9/09). I’ve looked and listened and have heard nothing in the proposed stimulus plans about special education. So imagine my surprise when columnist, David Brooks, wrote, “…the Obama presidency is going to be defined by his audacious self-confidence…he proposes broadband projects, special education programs, a new power grid…What a minute. Back up. SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS? Did I miss it? Brooks goes on to say, “Now Obama wants to rush through instant special-ed programs and pre-ks.” So I went looking. I can’t find out anything specific about this. If I had the home phone of David Brooks, I’d call him right now because things like this don’t usually get by me. But if Brooks said it, there must be some truth there somewhere. You can check the Gloves Election 08 archives for the Obama position on special education. But I’ll be darned if I can find out about those “instant special-ed programs” in his stimulus proposals.

I think we all agree- we are in a Depression. More and more people are out of work. Our world and our country are in a catastrophic state. So what would a stimulus plan look like for us and our kids? I’ve said this for 30 years and say it again now. To dramatically improve special education delivery, cut costs, improve teaching, and support parents and families, this is what would work:

1. Combine the Health, Education, and Welfare agencies and merge their budgets. Return the governmental structure to one federal agency, HEW, that existed before Reagan was elected. Special education is not really about education. It is about a fusion of needs for children 3-21, who enter special education under one of 13 categories that give them entitlement to special education. Educators have bemoaned the unfairness of giving what are considered “medical” services within the laundry list of related services. And they are right about that- not legally, but practically. Health services should be provided in every school building or district- dental, mental health, pediatric, the works. Artificial, political barriers have always separated the funding buckets of money to the detriment of children, parents and schools. Integrated services to the whole child would, for the first time, bring sense to the table, encourage individualized services, and welcome parents into the system in a way that carries over nutrition, parenting skills, and life-long learning into the home. Welfare programs should be instructional and supportive, particularly during a time of crisis. The one common place in every community where parents meet and greet is the local school. Properly designed, a comprehensive “wrap-around” program for parents and families would be the best behavior modification device ever invented. You want to look good and be good and sound good when you’re outside and in the community. You want a safe place to go when you’re in trouble. The concept of education is to instruct the body, the mind, and the spirit. The stimulus plan for special education would dissolve the current agencies that divide these services. It would allocate those funds to redesign our concept of education generally, and special education in particular.
2. Comprehensively evaluate every child by age 5 with any form of suspected disability or at-risk behavior. The current state of evaluating children is an embarrassment. Schools put this off as long as possible, refusing to look for problems because of costs and staffing shortages. Combine a quality pediatric work-up with thorough speech and language evaluations, motor assessments, and educational testing. The last decade has seen an emphasis on functional assessments (the “look and guess” method of testing) in schools because we don’t really want to find a child with another disability we have to pay for. We know more about the brain and risk factors and child development than every before. But none of it is applied in education as we know it. We must use that science in order to figure out the problem as soon as possible with the intent of fixing it or improving it.
3. Teacher training. Across the boards, it is awful- simply unbelievably terrible. Intelligent and eager young people with the best of intentions want to go into teaching. When they leave with a Master’s degree, or their Ph. D., one assumes they have the skills to match the inference of a graduate degree. Not so. The creativity has been squeezed out of most of them. They are filled with pedagogical vomit that sounds good only to other educators at a conference. Most can’t navigate a classroom, and it is not their fault. There is a complete disconnect between that is taught to prepare teachers versus the reality of teaching, managing a classroom, and navigating the administrative bureaucracy in each building. In large part, we have fabulous potential in those who want to teach. The problem is in creating a new vision of teacher preparation that is exciting, intellectually stimulating, and addresses 21st century problems and 21st century kids without fear. Proper tools and skills allow both student and teacher to grow and blossom. I’ve been in teacher training programs once a decade for 40 years. What I learned in the 60s and 70s in graduate programs is now only an option in doctoral programs or not taught at all. One such example is child development. Many teachers now in classrooms have little to no concept as to the ages and stages of human development, and what to expect in children as they pass through these stages. The implications for special education are evident. If you don’t know what normal development is, how do you grasp what a disability is?

If Obama is actually going to rush through some new special education programs, I hope he starts by terminating every contract that every school district has with software companies that sell IEPs. The best new special education program I know of would start with an IEP that was written for the child rather than the predetermined placement the school has chosen. IDEA is “shovel-ready” and, unbelievably, won’t cost a penny. You want infrastructure? You want to rebuild our roads and bridges? Do I have an IDEA for you!