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Los Angeles Times - Inland Valley Edition
January 31, 2002
L.A.
to Integrate Disabled Pupils
Reform: The change will end special education schools, mainstream
35,000 students. Critics, backers agree that huge financial and emotional challenges
are ahead.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is starting a dramatic overhaul of
its special education programs, aiming to place into regular classes 35,000
disabled students who now are segregated. The reforms will end separate schools
for disabled children over the next four years.
Virtually all 660 campuses in the district will be affected as many physically
and psychologically handicapped youngsters currently in separate classes join
mainstream students, officials say. Sixteen special education centers will be
at the forefront of the integration.
Many parents of disabled children welcome the shift, which comes as a result
of a 1996 settlement of a federal lawsuit and a recent implementation plan.
Some families worry whether the children, whose disabilities can include cerebral
palsy, blindness, retardation and severe learning problems, will be traumatized
in regular classrooms. Some mainstream teachers fear that disruptions in already
difficult classroom situations could hinder other children's learning.
Though many details remain to be worked out, everyone agrees that there are
huge financial costs and emotional challenges ahead.
"We're talking about a real cultural change in the embracing of all children
and meeting the needs of all children," said Donnalyn Jacque-Anton, assistant
superintendent for special education.
Critics say the changes are long overdue, and that the Los Angeles district
lags behind other big cities.
For example, San Francisco began integrating its disabled students five years
ago and New York City started four years ago, although those and other large
systems report that making the changes was difficult, especially in recruiting
teachers and adapting buildings.
"LAUSD operates the biggest segregated system in the U.S.," said Robert
Myers, attorney for parents in the federal lawsuit which alleged that handicapped
children were getting an inadequate education. "Our system is inferior,
and it is getting in the way of students' development."
Studies show that most physically and psychologically disabled students progress
faster when they are placed in at least some classes with non-disabled peers.
In Los Angeles only 18% of all disabled children attended regular classes last
year; that is less than half the national average.
Under the integration plan, most Los Angeles district schools, including 16
current special education centers, would have a disabled student population
of no less than 7% and no more than 17% of their enrollments.
Most special education youngsters would attend mainstream schools, and many
would spend at least part of the day in special classes as more than 45,000
already do. Exceptions would be made for some who are deaf or severely disabled.
District officials say tens of thousands of teachers and principals will need
extra training and buildings will require renovation at a cost of millions,
but details haven't been worked out.
"We're at the planning and implementation stage," said Supt. Roy Romer.
"But we don't have all the answers."
He said he is uncertain whether the goals are reachable by the federally mandated
deadline of 2006. Other educators point out that Los Angeles schools also will
have to contend with budget shortfalls and a lack of qualified teachers.
Alejandro Hernandez looks forward to mainstreaming. His 4-year-old daughter,
Marijose, has a genetic disorder that has left her unable to speak, walk or
feed herself. Though he is pleased with her classes at Willenberg Special Education
Center in San Pedro, he would rather his daughter attend school with non-disabled
peers.
"My daughter is so happy when she hears other kids singing, laughing, talking,"
he said. None of Marijose's current classmates can talk. An integrated class
will be "better for her development."
L.A. Unified plans to build on the successes at Alfonso B. Perez School in East
Los Angeles. Perez has 430 special education students, ages 3 to 22. Some are
in wheelchairs, others wear braces to hold their heads up; some teenagers wear
diapers.
About 100 non-disabled children also attend Perez, mostly taught separately
but integrated during recess and lunch.
Wendy Matsutani, the school's Title I coordinator, said parents of non-disabled
students were attracted to the teachers' expertise and the tolerant atmosphere.
Principal Beverly Feinstein is not certain that classroom integration will work
districtwide. Mainstream teachers "have their plate full with . . . reading
and math," she said.
Some parents and educators worry that regular classrooms won't offer disabled
children the attention they need and that the youngsters may be stigmatized
by non-disabled students.
"They're not going to accept these children," said Lisa Delgado, whose
16-year-old severely disabled daughter, Jennifer, attends Perez. Jennifer was
mainstreamed in kindergarten, but moved to Perez when she started having daily
seizures. She is mute and immobile.
"Can the district really say they can provide for my daughter in a general
education setting?" she asked.
Maria Mendoza tried to place her 17-year-old disabled son, who cannot speak,
in a regular school but he was badly teased there. "I saw my son suffer,"
she said. "When the bus arrived here to pick him up, he didn't want to
go." He is now at Frank D. Lanterman High School, a special education campus.
Cal State Los Angeles education professor Mary Falvey, who co-wrote the integration
plan, said the goal is an inclusive environment where such traumas are rare.
"The more kids go to school together," she said, "the more likely
they are to accept each other. And, yes, this will be tough."
Los Angeles district officials said special education teachers will still concentrate
on children with disabilities. But in some cases, they will be in a regular
classroom, helping its teacher. Some special education teachers fear that will
mean double duties for them.
Tonya Hollis-Theus, PTA president at Clover Avenue Elementary School in West
Los Angeles, has doubts about the plan.
"I'm all for putting special needs students in a regular class, but the
district needs to provide teaching assistants in the class to assist on an individual
basis," she said. "With the recent cutbacks, I don't think they can
provide that."
The plan resulted from a 1993 class-action suit initiated by the family of Chanda
Smith, then a disabled Los Angeles student who flunked 10th grade twice after
her requests for help were denied.
The lawsuit was among similar cases that swept the nation after passage of the
1973 Individuals With Disabilities Act required schools to provide extra assistance
to children with special needs. The U.S. Department of Education has repeatedly
found Los Angeles out of compliance with the law.
Falvey, the Cal State L.A. professor, said there should be opportunities for
even the most severely disabled students to be included in regular activities
as lunch and assemblies. "To the maximum extent possible, they should be
educated in the same classrooms [as general students]," she said.
The district has $93 million in annual contracts with about 85 nonpublic special
schools for the severely emotionally disturbed, autistic or learning disabled.
The district must try to reduce such referrals.
Alan Gartner, a special education consultant, agreed that almost any disabled
child can be integrated to some degree.
"It's a question of what the district is willing to do," he said.
A key finding in the federal court's investigation into Los Angeles was that
too many African American children were identified as disabled and too few limited
English speakers.
Over the past two years, New York schools reduced the number of children defined
as disabled from 160,000 to 140,000 by making more careful evaluations, said
Francine Goldstein, who oversees New York's special education programs.
Deborah McKnight, interim director of the San Francisco Unified School District,
said that nearly all of the system's 7,100 special education students go to
regular classes for at least part of the day.
However, it has been difficult to retrain regular teachers, and there is a shortage
of special education instructors. The change in San Francisco has been, she
said, "very hard. It's an ongoing process."
Times staff writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report.
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