August 22, 2009

The Special Education Limbo, 2009

My son, Jonathan, is a fabulous entertainer. In all that he does, dancing still gets the most attention and applause. Since he was a little guy he was fascinated with the limbo. He loved the movement, the physical challenge and the music. For those of you who don’t know about limbo dancing, it’s when the dancer, moving to a Caribbean rhythm, leans backward and dances under a horizontal pole without touching it. As the music continues, the pole keeps lowering for dancers to go under it, their back, shoulders and head almost on the floor while the feet keep moving the body under the pole. The first time I saw him do it, when he was still a kid, he gave me no warning as he danced and wiggled under a pole twelve inches from the floor. I was flabbergasted- and certain he had broken something! But he loved it and still does. There are those of us who limbo and those who watch. Most of us watch and let the tiny few take all the risks.

We’re all dancing now, big and small, agile and awkward, doing the special education limbo. That bar for kids and parents who need services keeps lowering, making movement more and more difficult. Only a few can hunker down to the floor to get under the pole to grasp services their child actually needs, as opposed to the cookie cutter accommodations that are the same for everybody. And everybody’s dancing…Look Ma. I’m dancing as fast as I can. For example, The National Council on Disability sought out public input on 7/27/09 for their next annual report to the President and to Congress about current issues in education (NAEP Panels Propose More ELL. Spec. Ed. Inclusion, Sean Cavanagh, Education Week, 8/12/09). The public was encouraged to send comments about a variety of issues to ncd@ncd.gov). Their actions put them as far down on the floor as they can go in their limbo dance with the federal government. They’re just shimmying to the beat because we certainly don’t need another study. How many times can you say that! For example, a simple read of Letters to the Editor in Education Week (8/12/09) summarizes some of the most pressing problems. Early intervention for infants and toddlers is a complete disaster. Pamela Winter, from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at Chapel Hill worried about the stimulus funding and what will happen to early childhood programs when the stimulus money runs out. For me, that is just a spit in the wind. If New Jersey is any example, that stimulus money is in some bureaucratic pot that nobody will explain or talk about, some shady hands in Obama’s cookie jar. I asked about this specific allocation and wrote letters but got no specific response. A response yes, a specific one, no. It looks as though it is going to the very same folks who abused their funding in the first place. We’ll see how it plays out.

Another Education Week Letter to the Editor came from a Michigan parent:

What I have discovered over the past 10 years is that our own special education system is deeply flawed. From resistance to accommodations, to disconnects between general education teachers and special education teachers, to flat-out ignorance about the nature of learning disabilities, there is much to improve.

Wiggle yourself silly, NCD. We do not need your energies to do another study. We need your help and support in creating an enforceable plan to make the dream of IDEA a reality. You face the problem of getting the schools under the limbo pole and presenting a sellable product to the President. Lots of luck. Those damned special education laws that nobody enforces just make you fall on your- shall we say it- ass. You know, that floor of basic opportunity? Gyrate and move your feet like crazy, but that limbo pole is not getting any higher.

And what about Arne Duncan, the current U.S. Secretary of Education? He is sponsoring a National Town Hall meeting: “America Goes Back to School: A National Town Hall meeting with Arne Duncan” on 9/15/09 from 8-9 P.M. Eastern Standard time. He is soliciting “open and honest conversation” about federal education policy on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which, for us, means No Child Left Behind, NCLB. Since that statute circumscribes IDEA within its framework, Duncan offers us a preview of what to expect when IDEA is reauthorized. Duncan will not learn anything new from these town hall meetings and will certainly not hear from people who can’t afford the costs of participation. He already knows the problems because anybody with half an ear and a lobatomy knows them. The same truths have been with us for decades. But I understand. He must go through this exercise as a political experience to justify what may already be a done deal and to achieve some kind of national credibility. It is hard to know. But the timing is interesting. It occurs during the health care debate and is surely part of the economic debate at some level. Special education is bankrupt- financially, philosophically, and has no leadership. Can it be fixed or do we have to start over? America goes back to school without an answer, parents doing the best they can, and nobody knowing what happens to special education in 09-10. At present, it is a nightmare for most.

The Obama administration appears to analyze special education through the prism of Inclusion. Not a comforting thought as that term is now used. The present discussions about inclusion involve national testing. The National Assessment of Educational Progress task force on students with disabilities recommended that at least 95% of special education students should take the NAEP test, in contrast with the lower participation and more varied accommodations used now. They also suggest more limited testing modifications be used in order to foster more inclusion. That is a gigantic leap from where we are now, where participation in testing is controlled by a mix of state and local decisions as well as IEP contents. I largely agree with the NAEP recommendations because of the abuse of using modifications and accommodations. They absolve schools from teaching the necessary skills to children who are able to learn them with properly individualized programs. But to characterize these testing recommendations as “Inclusive” is ridiculous and caters to those who are already brain washed with the notions of inclusion as presently implemented. Testing is the end measurement of what is learned. If it needs changing, it should be for everyone and not just the disabled. Our special ed kids have the right to know they can achieve the same as those in general education if their individualized education improves their deficits- rather than letting them age out in the oblivion of a general ed curriculum.

So here we are. School opens and the limbo dance begins. New babies are born, new families made, and a parent’s hand clutches that of their Kindergartner on that magical and scary first day of school. None of them have the slightest idea about the steps they’ll have to learn or how far backward they’ll have to bend when getting down under the limbo pole. There is a rhythm to it all. President Obama, when you have a minute, put your groove on and Get Down. Let’s finally do this thing right. Enough talking already. Whadaya say…?