Loss of classrooms puts parents of special needs children in distress in Sonoma County

Last spring, families of special needs students at El Colegio Preschool in Rohnert Park were told that two classrooms would no longer be available, sparking an emotional struggle as they tried to find a place for their children when school started.

The classrooms were operated by the Sonoma County Office of Education to serve students with special education needs and students with medical needs from across Sonoma County.

But over the past five years, Sonoma County has moved to educate students with special needs in their home districts rather than outsourcing them to SCOE or other nonpublic schools.

El Colegio's two classrooms were put into service for returning Cotati-Rohnert Park students, causing confusion for parents of the displaced students, who said they had little information about the impending move and had difficulty to reach someone who can help during the summer break.

Many of the displaced students return to districts that do not have programs to support them, parents say, and so families must begin anew their long and difficult search for a place in special education.

Emily Peterson's five-year-old daughter Aisley suffers from Cornelia de Lange syndrome and autism and was displaced by the postponement.

The process was “secret” and “not transparent,” Peterson said, adding that officials from SCOE and her home school district, Santa Rosa City Schools, were difficult to locate in the weeks before summer vacation.

What was already a rushed process became even more painful for Peterson and her family, who felt that El Colegio had been the perfect program for their daughter's special needs.

Aisley received the medical care she needed from a rotating nurse on campus and was able to interact with students at a similar learning and social level.

“This was a fantastic group of kids and staff,” Peterson said. “It's so unfortunate that they don't work with the individual students and recognize that there is a need here to continue this program. Instead, they send us all away and we are left with no option but to return to our home districts.”

Scarce or non-existent resources

Returning students with special needs to their home districts is not as easy as it sounds. In some smaller districts, places for students with special education needs are scarce, and programs for students with additional medical needs are sometimes nonexistent.

Another displaced El Colegio mother, Fatima Sandoval, was denied placement for her daughter in her home district of Gravenstein Union and in two outside districts before returning to the Rohnert Park preschool with her requests.

Her three-year-old daughter, who has high-functioning Down syndrome, is now attending the only remaining medically intensive class at El Colegio as a last resort.

Sandoval asked that her daughter be identified as “M” in this story.

M's new class represents a big change from the general special education class she was in last year.

Sandoval said the classes were “too restrictive” for her daughter – who has no complex medical needs – but it was the only option this summer as the start of School was approaching.

“As of now, she will attend El Colegio while we figure something else out,” Sandoval said. “It's a little frustrating — I've spoken to her teacher and she's going to try to get (M) out into general society as much as possible … but that general society should still be her classmate.”

The two families point to a problem in Sonoma County when it comes to placing students with special education needs in non-restrictive and appropriate programs, as required by law.

On the way to inclusion

The move to re-prioritize El Colegio classrooms for special education students from the district is in line with nationwide efforts toward inclusion.

Students with special needs perform better academically and socially in their home districts, says Elizabeth Engelken, executive director of the Special Education Local Plan Area of ​​Sonoma County, a district organization with representatives from 44 school districts that act as a district for oversight of special education.

“There have been incentives and movements here over the last five to seven years, both from parent representatives and from research results that indicate that children perform better when they are in the school environment where they live,” said Engelken.

For this reason, 22 SCOE classrooms Stores have been closing across the country over the past five years.

According to Eric Wittmershaus, communications director for SCOE, the closures are due to a diminishing shortage of referrals from districts wanting to outsource their work to the county office.

These classrooms provide an alternative for students whose families and school districts believe their student's needs are better met elsewhere. In these cases, a school district pays SCOE each school year for the student's education.