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With special education mandates requiring more resources and impacting school budgets, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations are of more than passing interest to school officials.  With that in mind, Director of Special Services and Grants Pam DiPaola presented the first of two presentations to the Board of Education on how special education impacts Lansing schools.  "I thought it was important to see what the intent of the law is according to Congress," she told the Board.


IDEA was reauthorized by the federal government in 2004, and finalized in New York State in 2005.  DiPaola says the revision was intended to strengthen the authority of parents, giving them more impact on day to day programs.  It seeks to improve academic achievement, provide incentives for scientifically-based reading programs, more equitable allocation of resources, and support development of the use of technology to maximize accessibility.  It also seeks to make special education more responsive to an increasingly diverse population, provide ways to resolve disagreements between schools and parents, and provide effective services to help kids get jobs or further education after graduation.

"The district's responsibilities have shifted a bit," DiPaola said.  "We must move to a 'response to intervention' model.  Due process, mediation and resolution have been added to the law.  There is a huge emphasis on general education.  And things like bus driver / monitor training were always suggested, but now they are mandated."

She noted that 'Child Find' responsibilities have been expanded.  This requires the district to find children needing educational intervention services who live within the district but attend private schools.  But the district's responsibilities don't stop there.  It is responsible for policies and procedures, personnel development, procedural safeguard notices, dispute resolution, evaluation timelines, defining learning disabilities, and summary reports.  It is responsible for producing annual reports, special education programs and services that are based on scientific research, and transition services.

The law extends to student behavior as well as achievement.  "Manifestation determinations have also changed," she explained.  "When a student has a disability and they have committed an offense that either produces a pattern of suspensions or a longer term suspension you must do a manifestation determination to determine if the disability caused the behavior, or if the district's failure to implement the Individual Accommodation Plan (IAP) properly caused the behavior."

DiPaola said that the IDEA was merged with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act and the MiKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.  "This 'Child Find' requirement is specifically for students with disabilities who are homeless, or wards of the State," she explained.  "This means that periodically I have to call the Department of Social Services or homeless shelters to see if there are any Lansing students who happen to be homeless."

She said the act applies to disabled students at private schools such as the Montessori school or Imaculate Conception, but not to home schooled students.  But Lansing must still provide services.  "If a home schooled student has disabilities Lansing is responsible for providing the services at the student's home, or the student could come here," she said.  In addition Lansing will contract to handle some of Ithaca's students.

Meetings also take an enormous amount of time.  "Last year we conducted 378 CSE, CPSE and 504 meetings," DiPaola said.  "Averaging the time it took over 180 school days for the preparation, the actual meeting, follow-up, and IAP development.  It took two and a half hours every day."

DiPaola also outlined the direction her department expects to take in the future.  This includes implementation of a full intervention model, increasing academic scores, establishing a parent advisory comittee, expanding prodfessional development for teachers, and partnering with BOCES and the regional planning task force.  Additionally she says they will increase co-teaching with regular classroom teachers, budget and plan year-round evaluations and meetings, and align special education programs with the K-12 program.

DiPaola says the revision was also meant 'to provide relief from irrelevant and unnecessary paperwork burdens that doesn't lead to improved educational outcomes.  But she noted that the intent and the reality don't always match.  Deadlines for reporting have been tightened, meaning less time to do more paperwork.  How job placement or higher educational goals are being reached must now be integrated into each IAP.  "Every single thing they've added has required three times the paperwork," she complained.  "I'd rather go back to the original paperwork requirement.  It's very intense."

Superintendent Mark Lewis noted that he spent a week observing in the elementary school, and that he saw some of these goals being implemented there.  "The level of enthusiasm for co-teaching was very impressive," he said.  "It was very encouraging.  It's a matter of grouping students so that our special education staff can work with a select with a select number of general education teachers.  Teachers support that level of grouping."

DiPaola promised a second session in which staff that implements special education programs in Lansing will outline what they are doing.  Meanwhile a half-time position has tentatively been included in next year's budget to help handle the burden of required meetings.

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