This is the first article in a planned series about Special Education. This article tackles one relatively narrow question: in general, what is Special Education?

In future articles we plan to look at other important, specific questions like: How and why do we budget for and pay for Special Education in Andover? How do we manage and deliver Special Education in Andover? Does Special Education benefit the Andover community?

If you’ve had any experience with the Special Education system in any way and would like to share your experience (with your name withheld from publication, if you prefer), please contact the Beacon. We especially need your help with answering the question: Does Special Education benefit the Andover community?

What is Special Education?

Each student has his or her own individual personality and learning style. Some children’s differences are significant enough that the regular school environment (often referred to as General Education) can’t adequately address their educational needs. These differences can be physical, emotional, intellectual or cognitive, social, behavioral, or a combination of any of these.

In passing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the nation’s Special Education law enacted in 1975 and revised many times since, Congress recognized that students’ differences “in no way [diminish] the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society. Improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy of ensuring equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities.”

The IDEA mandates that the special educational needs of students with differences be addressed beginning at age three, and that those needs continue to be addressed until the child is 21 years of age. The goal of the IDEA is to prepare children with special needs to lead independent and productive lives.

Involving Parents

Parents are deeply involved with their child’s Special Education. They meet with local school district Special Education professionals to develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in order to provide the student with an education that both meets the student’s special needs and does so in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) that is suitable to their development.

Of course, a student’s special education needs often change over time, so a big part of what Andover School District’s Special Education Coordinator Judy Turk does every day is to work with parents and teachers to continually re-evaluate each Special Education student’s IEP in order to always provide appropriate levels, types, and settings of services as a child’s needs change.

While each student’s IEP is monitored at least quarterly and is revisited annually, the IEP is about more than just setting annual goals and services for a Special Education student. For students who can reasonably be expected to someday no longer need Special Education services, the IEP also helps chart the way forward to that outcome.

For students who will probably need Special Education services throughout their remaining school years and beyond, their IEPs by around age 14 begin to lay out a transition plan to guide them from school days into the adult world. The transition plan contains goals for high school coursework; goals for post-secondary education or training, if appropropriate; and expectations for future employment, for an appropriate adult living situation, and for participation in the broader community.

The Special Education Spectrum

In many cases, Special Education addresses a relatively small difference in a student, a difference that can be resolved in a relatively short time frame with relatively little expense and inconvenience. For instance, a three-year-old may be provided with an hour a week of occupational therapy for a few weeks simply to learn how to grasp a pencil. Fixing even small differences like this early in life can have a big impact on the rest of the child’s experience at AE/MS and on the rest of their life.

Further along the spectrum of Special Education cases would be students who need a few hours of Special Education services at AE/MS or MVHS for a year or two, or perhaps throughout their entire school career. Students receive most of their Special Education services in the  typical classroom setting, with the services integrated into the student’s regular classroom programs.

Even further along the spectrum would be students whose LRE is not a General Education setting. These students have to be transported every day to alternative learning environments and programs for some or all of their school years, in settings such as the Merrimack Valley Learning Center.

At the far end of the spectrum (and extremely rare in Andover) would be a student for whom the Least Restrictive Environment for their Special Education is a residential facility like Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield or Spaulding Youth Center in Northfield. Such a placement can cost in the neighborhood of $100,000 per year.

Paying for Special Education

The local school district is financially responsible for educating each child with special educational needs. In Andover, on average about 55 students from age three to age 21 (less than 15% of the population of those ages) receive some form of Special Education each year. (See the table below.) Most of these students receive much less than a full-time schedule of Special Education, spending the rest of their time in school in General Education.

In round numbers, Special Education in the Andover School District’s 2013-2014 budget accounted for about $700,000 (or almost 16%) of the $4.45 million total budget. That’s about $525 of the $3,700 tax bill on a $200,000 Andover home, or about 14%.

One of the things that concerns many people about the Special Education budget is the fear that one or more students will need a long course of very expensive services – a residential placement at $100,000 per year being the most obvious and most extreme case.

The state’s Catastrophic Aid reimbursement attempts to address that concern. Any time a Special Education student’s annual costs exceed about $46,000 (technically, three-and-a-half times the state average expenditure per pupil), Catastrophic Aid kicks in and reimburses the school district for a percentage of its costs above that threshold.

A future article, probably next month, will look at the financial implications of Special Education in Andover in much greater detail. In the meantime, if you can help the Beacon answer the question Does Special Education Benefit the Andover Community?, please contact the Beacon.