Central special-ed parents want lab teacher back

A group of Calhoun High School special-education parents are asking the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District administration to reinstate the “collaborative” special-education instructor who co-teaches the Living Environment laboratory with a mainstream biology teacher.

The position was cut in the district’s 2012-13 spending plan to help balance a budget that, according to a new state law, can rise no more than 1 percent. The cut is one of several that the district has had to make in recent months because of a 2 percent cap on the district’s property-tax levy –– the total amount that it can collect in taxes to meet expenses –– which Governor Cuomo passed last year. In all, 23 staff positions, including eight teachers, are being eliminated next year.

The parents say they understand the economic realities that the district faces. But they worry that, without the aid of a special-education teacher who fully understands students’ disabilities, their children may be unable to complete the 20 hours of biology lab required by the State Department of Education to take the Living Environment Regents exam.

The parents and their children attended the Central District Board of Education meeting on May 2 to express their concern.

“Our children are worth the investment” in a collaborative lab teacher, said Pam Cohen, of Merrick, whose daughter Gillian underwent a liver transplant in 2005 and is now in Calhoun’s collaborative program.

Michelle Fischer, another special-education parent who attended the meeting, explained that collaborative students have, until now, been allowed to take Regents Competency Tests, which are aimed at special-education students who receive Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs. But that will not be the case in the future.

The last class of special-education students allowed to take the RCTs, Fischer said, will be the current 10th grade. Gillian Cohen is in ninth grade and will be required to take –– and pass –– a minimum of five Regents exams to graduate and receive a diploma, although she’ll be able to do so with a 55 average, compared with 65 for mainstream students.