Special Education equals Paperwork
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Lynze Wardle
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lwardle@standard.net
School districts are hoping lawmakers will lighten the load and let them teach
For special education teachers like Crescent Miles, dealing with stacks of paperwork is an additional strain on an already demanding job.
The Municipal Elementary School educator supervises 25 children with special needs. In addition to teaching her class, Miles must track their progress, meet the requirements of each student's Individual Education Plan and ensure that the classroom is following a list of state and federal requirements.
"All of that adds up," she said.
Teachers and administrators are hoping this year their workload will lighten.
The Utah State Office of Education is in the process of approving the 2004 version of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The federal law governs how states and public agencies provide special education and related services to 6.5 million children. It is put through a series of federal and state reauthorizations every seven years.
In the past, Utah has added extra regulations to the federal law, said Nan Gray, State Director of Special Education. At the request of teachers and administrators, Gray said, the USOE's department of Special Education Services hopes to simplify the law this year.
For example, a regulation that forced teachers to document what was tried in a child's regular education classroom before they were moved to special ed has been discarded.
The change was made to lighten teachers' paperwork load, she said, and allow practices to be brought in line with new research.
The state published a first draft of the changed special education rules, and opened it up for a 60-day public comment period.
Many teachers and administrators, however, want still more regulations lifted.
"We consider all of those opinions, and we're sensitive to the paperwork (special education teachers deal with) and their other responsibilities," Gray said.
Many hope language that specifies how students with behavioral problems are treated will be removed. Having that language in a state rule makes it hard for educators to adjust their teaching methods, said Dr. Ann Miller, Weber School District's Special Education Director.
"Once it is in the rule, they can be tied to it for 10 years," she said.
Miller said she hopes to see methods of teaching students with behavioral problems put into a guideline format, rather than a rule. It would give teachers more freedom, she said, to change their techniques as research on treating behavioral disorders improves.
Morgan School District has sent a letter to the state expressing its concerns on state special education regulations.
District Superintendent Ron Wolff said he was alerted to the issue in a recent meeting with other Utah superintendents. Special education is already one of the most highly regulated aspects of public education, he said.
"When an individual state elects to pose even more regulations, it becomes a concern," he said. "In some cases, it may actually detract from a district's effort to provide (an education for a student.)"
Davis School District special education director Ellen Stantus said that while officials there have given feedback to the state, the district is not overly concerned about this IDEA reauthorization.
"We're giving feedback, just like we do as part of any new rule-making process," Stantus said.
Gray said her office is in the process of sorting through all the comments they've received, and are "reading and documenting each and every piece."
The recommendations will then be revised and presented to the state Board of Education this summer for approval. The public will have another chance to give input at that time, she said.
Gray said she welcomes public input on the issue because it means that people care about special education.
"It's extensive, and we feel that is a very good thing," she said of the e-mails and letters that have flooded her office. "It is passionate, and we feel that is also a very good thing."
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