Special education changes worry local educators
By Neil Zolot/ Correspondent
Thursday, February 3, 2005

Special Education activists are expressing concern over proposed changes in regulations being made by the state Department of Education.

"The Massachusetts Department of Education (MDOE) is moving quickly to make significant changes to the (Chapter 766) regulations which will seriously harm children with special education needs," reads a statement by South Shore SPED advocate Ellen Chambers. "These proposed changes undermine the very fabric of civil rights for children with disabilities. They seriously erode a parent's right to participate in their child's educational programming and place the future of these children at enormous risk."

Matthew Engel of the Disability Law Center said the proposals "represent a further attempt to down grade parental rights. SPED is seen as a being very expensive. This is part of a backlash."

Proposed changes would allow administrators more power in determining a child's placement, allow schools to create separate wings or buildings for SPED students, allow districts to refuse to perform addition evaluations, and eliminate short-term objectives as a benchmark.

"If these changes are enacted, school administrators who are not part of a child's Independent Education Plan Team will determine the student's classroom placement each year," Chambers said. "School districts will be able to change a student's IEP and placement without parental consent (unless the parent files for a hearing or mediation.) School districts will be allowed to refuse requests that a student be evaluated or re-evaluated. It will become legal to segregate special education programs in one part of a school building (i.e., separate wing, basement,) and short-term objectives would be removed from IEPs."

Engel thinks the proposals will give administrators "all the power when push comes to shove" over placements. He also said the having short-term goals, in addition to long-term ones, provides greater accountability and measurement of progress. He called creation of separate facilities for SPED students "a form of segregation, separate and unequal."

"I can't fathom what this is in response to," said state Rep. Doug Petersen. "I'm not sure what constituency is pushing this, if any. It's not related to anything I've heard. Any backlash should be aimed at the federal laws. Our law mirrors federal law." He called any move to segregate SPED students "counter to the entire purpose of the law, which is to integrate those students."

"I don't look at proposed changes as actual changes," said Swampscott SPED director Maureen Szymczak. "It's important for the public to comment on whether they think an idea is in the child's best interest. The DOE will take into consideration what they've heard to determine if they need to change their proposal."

Among other professional associations, the Massachusetts Administrators of Special Education (ASE) is looking at the proposals. "We're working with the DOE to look at potential regulations and changes," said Szymczak, a member of ASE's executive board. "We'll continue to meet to offer our opinion to the state. Right now, however, we want to give the public the opportunity to offer comment." (Comments can be submitted by e-mail at spedrescommnet@doe.mass.edu or be made at a hearing from 3 to 6 p.m. Feb. 14, at DOE headquarters, 350 Main St., Malden.)

Szymczak said she'd be surprised if SPED students were going to be segregated. "Some of these things may be guidelines, not regulations," she said. "It wouldn't mean a district would have to."

Marblehead SPED director Robert Bellucci doesn't think parental input will be diminished. "In Massachusetts it's always been felt parental input is important, a key component of the SPED team," he said. "I feel parents are very important. We need to propose what we think is best; a parent can accept or reject it, requiring mediation. It tends to be legal sounding. The process for mediation sounds like court, but we go through it a lot. It's not looked on negatively."