Do San Diego schools underestimate children with disabilities?

From the Voice of San Diego, a non-profit, independent online newspaper. In the photo, Alex McRee, who has autism, is on a non-diploma education track. Here's the intro to the story:

Just after starting high school, Lance Rogers was told he wouldn't earn an ordinary diploma. He struggled with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other disabilities, and had trouble focusing in big classes at Point Loma High School.

Instead he took special education classes that were smaller and easier, but wouldn't help him earn a degree. His mother Ruth Rogers hoped he would flourish there, even if he was "non-diploma bound." It is a label given to thousands of San Diego Unified students with disabilities who focus on skills that will help them live independently instead of prepping for college or beyond, studying shopping lists and sales tax instead of calculus or Cervantes.

But Lance Rogers grew depressed and bored in those classes. He can't remember what he learned -- only that he was often asked to draw pictures or maps -- and ultimately ditched school.

"I was downhearted," said Lance Rogers, now 16 years old. "I didn't do my work, because what was the point of doing it? I didn't get any credit. So I didn't go to school."Yet when the Rogers family moved to Texas, their son thrived in a school with a mixture of small classes and counseling. His grades rose from Ds to Bs. And when the family returned to San Diego, teachers at another school said Lance Rogers was perfectly capable of earning a diploma."I was blown away," Ruth Rogers said. "I was shocked that he was in the classroom, doing what he's supposed to be doing."

Stories like his raise questions about whether San Diego Unified has wrongly tagged some students with disabilities, deeming them unlikely to earn an ordinary diploma. Newly released data show that roughly 13 percent of disabled children in San Diego Unified have been marked as "non-diploma bound," some as early as first grade. Some have mental retardation or severe autism; others live with learning disabilities or orthopedic impairments.

Many families have no problem with the label, saying that a diploma is a distant dream for their children. Focusing on basic routines makes more sense to them than coaching their children to pass the high school exit exam.

Others complain about premature or sloppy labeling that denies their children the opportunity to achieve by tracking them into non-academic classes. Harvard University researcher Thomas Hehir called the frequency of the practice in San Diego Unified "disconcerting" and "very questionable," and linked the phenomenon to stagnating test scores among students with disabilities.

"You decide early on that kids are not capable," said Hehir, who consults San Diego Unified on its special education programs and wrote an extensive report on its problems last year. "... If you don't assume they can read, you don't teach them to read."

Special education has been an Achilles heel for San Diego Unified when it comes to standardized testing. It has missed targets under No Child Left Behind due in part to underachievement among students with disabilities. Their scores have scarcely budged while their peers without disabilities surged higher and higher, widening the gap between the able and the less able in classrooms.

No educator means to shortchange children with disabilities, but an overburdened and underfunded system causes mistakes when diagnosing and placing children in classes, said parent Joyce Clark, chairwoman of a San Diego Unified committee on special education. Clark said some children are funneled into easier classes instead of making ordinary classes accessible through technology or other aids.