Friday, September 15, 2006
Parental consent form one of many special education changes
aoconnell@wiltonvillager.com
WILTON — As the families of Wilton's 465 special education students settle back into the routine of the school year, they may notice some new initiatives, new forms to be signed and new practices in place in the schools. Among the recently-introduced measures is a new parental consent form which must be signed before restraints or other aversives are used on students in the program.
Although the form is new,
the district's special education
administrators stress that informed parental
consent for physical restraints isn't new at
all.
"This is a new piece of paper, not a new initiative," said Pauline Smith, assistant director of special services. "There is always informed consent."
This past summer, parents of special education students alleged that restraint and seclusion techniques were being used improperly in the schools. Christine Chambers, director of special services for the Wilton Schools, has said that is not true, and added that the new form is simply a new way of handling informed consent.
"There are several new protocols coming out this year and this is not unusual. We're just taking a look at our practices and procedures," said Chambers.
Special education parents are pleased with the form, although they want to know more about it, said Caroline MacNeil, stepmother of an autistic Wilton boy who was outplaced by the district. She and other parents want to know which students the consent form will be sent home for, what sort of restraints are being used, and what will happen if a parent refuses to sign.
"I can guarantee that some parents won't sign," said MacNeill. "What will the schools do then?"
This summer parents and a former special education aide also alleged this summer that aides had recently been barred from talking to parents about the progress of students.
Chambers responded that all correspondence about any child in the special education program must come from a certified individual.
"Our aides are qualified and our aides are valued," said Chambers. However, she added, they are not certified.
"We want appropriate communication," added Smith.
Many of the new protocols in place in Wilton's special education program this year come from the 2004 reauthorization of the national Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]. Since 2004, the United States Department of Education has made several hundred pages of changes to the law, resulting in changed Individual Education Plans [IEP] and a set of guidelines called Response to Intervention [RtI], which governs the process by which children are identified as special education students.
"The goal is to reduce special education designations," said assistant superintendent Deborah Low, who is masterminding the program in Wilton. "It prescribes a series of actions you take before [designating a student as a special education student]."
For example, if a kindergarten student is having trouble reading, said Low, the teacher would assume the child is just having trouble grasping reading, not that he or she needs to go into special education. The teacher is required to change his or her teaching style, slow down, work in small groups and work one on one with the child before having the student evaluated for special education services.
"In a sense it's not new news at all," said Low. "We're already doing this. But it's more prescriptive."
Another change in the special services department is that Linda Lyall, formerly a teacher at Cider Mill, was appointed as secondary director of special services.
"This is a big, big change," said Chambers. Lyall will work alongside Smith, who directs the special education program for children in preschool to grade five.