Fewer students are receiving special education services in Virginia than have in a decade.
After years of continuous growth, which outpaced the growth in total student enrollment, special education rosters lost more than 4,000 students in one year. Numbers are down to about 168,000. Less than 14 percent of the state's student population, is expected to fall in the special education category this year, compared with 14.5 in 2004.
Official numbers, broken down by city and disability, should be complete by April.
"We've had a fairly significant drop," said Paul Raskopf, with the state Department of Education. "Whether that's a blip on the screen or an anomaly, we won't know until next year."
Educators said the drop probably was caused by declining student enrollment and changes to the way educators identify and help struggling learners.
Numbers statewide began to level off in 2006. In South Hampton Roads, the numbers dropped for two years in every division but Chesapeake and Suffolk. In Suffolk, overall enrollment is up and special education numbers remain consistent. In Chesapeake, special education numbers have fluctuated.
In Chesapeake, enrollment has dropped for two consecutive years and is expected to continue to decrease for two more years.
In Virginia Beach, enrollment dropped by about 1,000 this fall.
"That certainly would have had an impact," said Virginia Beach's Robert Mitchell. About 300 of those students were in the special education department.
Another reason could be that educators are looking for options in placing the students.
"I think across the board people have become more cautious about putting kids in special education before they try out other interventions," said Mitchell, director of the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children. "We are looking at lots of things to try with the students before we look at special education."
One such technique, called "response to intervention," is being slowly phased in. Teachers identify struggling learners early, match the instruction to students' needs and track individual progress. More school divisions will pilot the method next school year.
John Wills Lloyd, professor at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, said concerns about about identification of special education students also could be a factor in the decrease. Studies have found that minority children often were identified for special education more frequently than other groups.
Schools now watch out for over-representation of one race of gender.
But some parents worry that "response to intervention" is simply delaying getting students needed special education services. For students with clearly defined disabilities, parents want immediate special education services rather than to try out a series of other methods first.
Lloyd said there could be a silver lining in the decrease: Fewer students could make special education classes more homogenous, allowing teachers to focus on a disability.
Amy Couteé, (757) 222-5216, amy.coutee@pilotonline.com
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A reality Check
Some facts:
NCLB is a federal madate not fully funded and never will be.
The American Public expects an education equivalent to Japan's and Germany's while underpaying professional teachers and with a shorter school day and shorter school year.
General Education teachers think they are only responsible to teach students with an IQ of 100 and no behavior problems.
Students who come to school unprepared to learn are not automatically special education students.
A disability is something inherent inside the child - not related to enviornmental factors or lack of appropriate teaching. And certainly not related to lack of being taught right from wrong at home. There are many wonderful parents out there but there are just as many woefully unprepared to be good parents.
Schools think we are still living in 1950 with two parent households with a stay at home mom and classrooms with same aged children all prepared to learn the same thing at the same time in the same way. That is a far cry from today's reality.
just my .02
What did you expect???
Of course the number of "SpEd" students is going to drop, when they are taken out of sp. ed. classes and then mainstreamed. This is another attempt to make it look good on paper. All they have done is forced these students to sit in regular ed classes. They simply say that there aren't inclusion classes available and stick them in a regular ed. class. Its called "mainstreaming." Most sp. ed. students do poorly in reg. ed. classes because the individualized instruction is not there. In some cases, a sp. ed. student can be disruptive and that affects everyone in the class. So, all the way around, it affects everyone involved. I find it ironic how this article was published on the heels of the NCLB article. NCLB = No Child Left without us kissing their Behind. We need to return to old fashioned education and discipline. Let the teachers teach and let the parents discipline. Bottom line..it will never change. Thats the reality of it.