Schools Accused of Pushing Mainstreaming to Cut Costs

By JOHN HECHINGERDecember 14, 2007; Page A1
GREECE, N.Y -- For years, Jonathan Schuster's mother begged the public schools here to put her son in a special program where he could get extra help for his emotional problems. By 11th grade, Jonathan had broken his hand punching a wall and been hospitalized twice for depression -- once because he threatened to kill himself with a pocket knife.
But teachers insisted that Jonathan, who suffers from attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and bipolar disorder, could get by in regular classrooms. His mother, Kathleen Lerch, says the reason was cost. "It was all about the bottom line," she says. Citing confidentiality, school officials declined to discuss Jonathan's case but said they seek to provide an appropriate education to all children.
1
* * *
Plus, read more about trends in integrating special-needs students, at WSJ.com/Mainstreaming2.
Advocates for the disabled have long promoted the inclusion of special-education children in regular classes, a practice called mainstreaming. Many educators view mainstreaming as an antidote to the warehousing of children with special needs in separate, and often deficient, classrooms and buildings.
Now, some experts and parents complain that mainstreaming has increasingly taken on a new role in American education: a pretext for cost-cutting, hurting the children it was supposed to help. While studies show that mainstreaming can be beneficial for many students, critics say cash-hungry school districts are pushing the practice too hard, forcing many children into classes that can't meet their needs. Inclusion has evolved into "a way of downsizing special education," says Douglas Fuchs, a Vanderbilt University education professor.
Districts have a powerful motivation to cut special-education costs. U.S. schools spend almost twice as much on the average disabled student as they do on a nondisabled peer, according to a 2004 federal study. But the study also found that, in recent years, per-student special-education costs rose more slowly than for the general population. One of the likely reasons, researchers found, was cost savings from mainstreaming.
In 2003, Fairfax County, Va., an affluent Washington, D.C., suburb, hired Gibson Consulting Group to study its special-education program. Gibson, a firm specializing in education, says it has saved clients millions of dollars by "improving productivity and eliminating inefficiencies." The firm's president, Greg Gibson, says mainstreaming nearly always saves money because regular classrooms have fewer teachers per student.
Gibson found that Fairfax spent an average of $14,671 per special-education student in all types of classrooms -- 85% more than for a pupil in general education. At 21 special-education centers, the per-student cost was even higher: $22,195. Mr. Gibson estimated that the district, which currently has a $2.2 billion school budget, could save $229 million through 2015 by closing 16 of the centers and taking other steps to teach more disabled children in regular classrooms.
Fairfax shut down the centers, prompting some parent protests. Fairfax officials acknowledge that the moves reduced costs, but say that children are better off in mainstream classrooms. They would not specify how much has been saved but said it was far less than Mr. Gibson's projections because special-ed students have received additional support.
Robert MacMillan, chair of the special-education department at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, says the Plymouth, Mass., public schools are currently cutting costs by moving students from separate centers -- either public ones operated by multiple districts or private facilities -- back into community schools and, where possible, into regular classrooms.
'For the Kids'
Cheryl Jacques, director of Plymouth's Pilgrim Academy, a separate public center primarily for students with emotional and behavioral problems, says her center's enrollment is dropping because districts are trying to be "economically responsible." Though she supports bringing students back to local schools if the children are ready, in some cases districts are likely "keeping kids that don't belong there," she says. Pilgrim charges districts $24,000 a year for each student. At Plymouth's public schools, the average cost of a special-education student runs $13,343. Bruce Cole, Plymouth's director of special education, counters: "I do what's best for the kids."
In the Greece Central School District, with 13,000 students, the push for more mainstreaming began in 1998. That year, Steven Walts, a former Maryland schools administrator, took over as superintendent in this middle-class suburb near Rochester, N.Y., where many work for Eastman Kodak Co. and Xerox Corp.
At the time, Mr. Walts was under pressure from New York state to include more disabled children in regular classrooms. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that students be taught, when possible, in the "least restrictive" environment.
Making Gains
Since Congress started pushing for mainstreaming more than a quarter century ago, many academic studies have found that the practice helps children with disabilities make academic and social gains. The two largest federal studies, each examining the records of 11,000 disabled school-age children, concluded that while failure rates rose, mainstreamed students overall tended to have higher grades and test scores than their counterparts in separate classes.
In Greece, Mr. Walts slashed the number of students referred to special outside schools, cutting separate classrooms and limiting "resource rooms," or learning centers for students with disabilities.
From 1998 to 2005, the percentage of Greece special-education students considered fully included -- spending 80% or more of their day in general education classes -- more than tripled, to 71%, far exceeding the national average of 54%. The number of students receiving special services at all fell below state and federal averages, to 8% from 15%.
Special-education budgets plummeted, too. Between the 1998-99 and 2004-05 school years, Greece reduced its spending on programs for disabled students by 26%, to $13.1 million from $17.6 million. Spending on special education dropped to 8% from 15% of total expenditures.
Upset at what they describe as the district's increasing refusal to provide services, a group of parents began meeting and comparing notes. They suspected that the district was effectively mainstreaming by simply capping the number of students eligible for services. Some children who were classified as special-education students were declassified and placed in regular classrooms with little or no additional help.
Mr. Walts left Greece in 2005 to become superintendent of the Prince William County public schools in Maryland. His office referred questions to Keith Imon, an administrator who also worked with Mr. Walts in Greece. Mr. Imon says Mr. Walts's office never directed employees to deny needed services or set quotas on classifying students as disabled. "I can say without a doubt that he makes all decisions based on what's in the best interests of the kids," says Mr. Imon.
Some school officials agreed with parents' concerns. Josephine Kehoe, who served as interim superintendent after Mr. Walts's departure, says principals told her that before she took over, they felt "pressure to spend the least amount of money possible" on special education.
In 2005, eight families, including Jonathan Schuster's, filed a lawsuit, accusing Greece of denying disabled children a "free appropriate public education" by restricting access to special classrooms, eliminating students' special-education eligibility and dumping them in regular classes.
The suit, which became a class action in U.S. District Court in Rochester, cited a 17-year-old 11th-grader with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. The student, identified only by the initials "K.B.," made the honor roll when receiving instruction in a separate, 15-student class. But when placed in a regular classroom in the 2004-05 school year, K.B. got failing grades, the suit says.
To settle the lawsuit, the families and the school district agreed to appoint Margaret McLaughlin, a special-education professor at the University of Maryland, as a joint expert to evaluate the district's program. After examining documents and conducting extensive interviews, Prof. McLaughlin says she was "quite stunned" by how much cost was influencing the push toward mainstreaming.
"It was, boom, one year, the kid was in a private placement and the next year he was dumped into a regular school with really limited support," she says.
No Deficiencies
In a legal settlement in August, the district acknowledged no deficiencies but agreed to place no limit on the number of students who would be placed in separate programs or receive other services. Under the consent decree, the number of separate classrooms with eight students and a teacher and an aide would increase from nine in the 2006-07 school year to a dozen in 2007-08. Already, since the 2004-05 school year, the percentage of students in fully inclusive classrooms has declined to 59% from 71%.
Steven Achramovitch, who became superintendent in November 2006, declined to discuss the lawsuit's allegations or Prof. McLaughlin's conclusions. Over the past year, the district has hired about 35 new special-education teachers, a 25% increase, and added $3 million to the 2006-07 school year's $14 million special-education budget. "It's going to be more costly, no question about it," he says. Mr. Achramovitch adds that the moves are unconnected to the lawsuit. "We'll do whatever is in the best interests of our kids," he says.
Deborah Hoeft, Greece's special-education director, says district surveys show that most parents of disabled children are pleased with the system's services.
Example of Success
Amid the controversy, Greece received national attention last year when Jason McElwain, then a 17-year-old senior with autism, scored 20 points in the last four minutes of a high-school basketball game. Jason met President Bush, and school officials hailed the student as an example of the success of including disabled children in school-wide activities.
Some parents praise recently added programs. Sharon Eddy says her son Ryan, now a fifth-grader, floundered in mainstream classes until third grade, when he transferred into a separate autism class with only eight children. The new setting "has been wonderful," she says.
But others say the district is still denying services in the name of mainstreaming. Christine Latus, a former elementary-school teacher, says her son Michael, a fifth-grader with dyslexia, needs a separate, specialized program either within the district or at a local private school for children with learning problems. Instead, the system has placed 10-year-old Michael in a mainstream classroom with 30 students, 12 of whom have special needs.
On a recent morning, Lisa Farina, Michael's teacher, asked him to stand in front of the class since he had grasped the meaning of a graph during a smaller discussion. At first, Michael froze, his eyes downcast. Then, he muttered a few nearly inaudible words about his findings.
At home after school that day, Michael, even with the help of a computer, struggled to write 10 sentences about a book he had read. "In reading, we're not getting too much help, except when we go into the smaller group," he said.
Michael's reading lags behind his peers by at least two grade levels. On a homework assignment this year, analyzing a political cartoon, Michael wrote in a nearly indecipherable scrawl: "The message seas that the it dos not wreak."
Individual Attention
Ms. Farina says she won't discuss individual students. But she says she has full-time help from a special-education instructor, as well as visits from other support staff. She says the school doesn't have enough students for a special class for dyslexia. She says students receive individual attention, working in groups of six to eight.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Schuster, the student whose mother sought help for his emotional problems, says the school system should have pulled him out of mainstream classrooms much earlier.
Around the time the lawsuit was filed, the Greece schools agreed to put Jonathan in a separate class especially for children with emotional problems. He settled down and graduated -- though with a 2.0 grade point average. Now 19 years old, Jonathan lives at home and works in a supermarket stockroom.
"It was too late," Jonathan says. "I don't feel I met my full potential."
Write to John Hechinger at john.hechinger@wsj.com3