High School special ed. changes officially nixed

The Valley Stream Central High School District Board of Education voted on May 11 to maintain its special education plan — a co-teaching model in grades 7 through 11 — for the 2010-11 school year.

District officials had planned to make reductions to the special education in the 2010-11 budget, but were later informed by the State Education Department that these changes would have put the district out of compliance with state requirements.

The district will still offer the co-teaching model, five days a week, in math and English for its seventh and eighth grade special education students, and in the four core subjects in ninth, 10th and 11th grade.

Superintendent Dr. Marc Bernstein was informed by state education officials that if the district chose to implement a co-teaching model for its special education population, those classes needed to be taught by a general education and special education teacher.

Under the initially adopted 2010-11 budget proposal, special education was to lose two full-time teachers and one part-time teacher. Those teachers would have been replaced with teacher’s assistants in ninth and 10th grade English inclusion classes, as well as in ninth grade social studies. Dr. Bill Heidenreich, assistant superintendent for personnel and administration, said the district chose those classes because they did not culminate in a Regents exam.

District officials were later informed that using teacher assistants in co-teaching classes would put it out of compliance with state law.

Bernstein also found that if the district chooses to use the co-teaching model, it is not required to offer it in all subjects or in all grades. In addition, state education officials told Bernstein that co-teaching can be provided for a only portion of the day to a special education student, based on their need in each subject.

There have been no official studies on the impact of the co-teaching model on special education students, Bernstein noted, and the district is still determining if it is the best way to educate its needier students. “I’m wary of hailing the co-teaching model as God’s gift to education,” he said.

He explained that the district would rather determine if a special education student needs co-teaching in every subject based on his or her success in that area. If a student is excelling in a particular subject, he added, the district would like to eventually move that student into a general education class in that subject.

“The general philosophy of the district is to get youngsters into the main stream and least restrictive environment,” Bernstein said. “That’s our goal.”