Plan to shift profoundly disabled special education students into regular classes upsets parents in Chicago

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

In the north suburbs, a plan to shift all special education students into regular elementary school classes and no longer have a school dedicated solely to profoundly disabled kids has angered the parents of some of those kids.

A key aim of Evanston-Skokie District 65's "inclusion plan," according to Supt. Hardy Murphy, is to begin "a process that removes labels and assumptions about a student because of the classroom or building in which they are placed. It reflects District 65's belief that special education is a service, rather than a place."

But parents of special ed students are dubious, turning out en masse for a District 65 meeting Tuesday to oppose the plan. In particular, they rejected the idea of having the district's Park School no longer dedicated solely to profoundly disabled kids.

"Every one of us wanted, and many tried to have, their child 'included' with their regular peers in a typical setting," said Barry Minerof, a Park School parent. "It was usually painful and heartbreaking when we realized that it wasn't going to work in our cases.

"We are not a group that needs the district to wake up one day and decide that the time is right for inclusion, with experts guiding the process down a path of destruction of the one place we have found where our kids are receiving what they need."

Megan Lassman, whose daughter Penelope attends Park, said: "My Penelope is nonverbal, non-ambulatory, has cerebral palsy and eats everything she touches. If you put her in a general classroom without Park's staff and resources, no typical education will occur."

Since the "inclusion" movement began in the early 1990s, similar efforts nationwide have met with great success -- and dismal failure. In Chicago, the school system closed Spaulding School -- its only school exclusively serving disabled kids -- in 2004.

What followed was a raft of complaints -- and lawsuits -- over parents' concerns that alternatives were failing to meet children's needs. Generally, those have been resolved with the schools providing additional services for those kids.

In the Evanston-Skokie district, the changes start with all incoming pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students this school year, as well as special ed students at two elementaries, and will expand to additional grades and schools starting next year.

After hearing from angry parents, District 65 officials offered no changes.

"We're sensitive to their fears and concerns," said the district's outside expert, Cassandra Cole of Indiana University's Center on Education and Lifelong Learning. "This can be done poorly, or it can be done extremely well. My role is to ensure it's done well."