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Changing The Face Of Special Education

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Changing The Face Of Special Education

By Larissa Lytwyn

During his December 2 presentation to the school board on the 2002–03 special education profiles, Pupil Personnel Services Director Michael Regan detailed a changing “approach” to special education.

“We are seeking to have [special education services] viewed from being a ‘place’ to being viewed as a continuum of services within the home [or public] school system,” he said.

Since taking the retiring Robert Chiappetta’s place last July, Dr Regan told board members that he is currently working to hire a special education supervisor.

“We are currently serving 523 special education students, and that number is growing very rapidly,” said Dr Regan, “because Newtown is growing.”

Special education students live with a wide range of issues, from learning disabilities to severe autism.

The role of the new supervisor would include drawing out-placed students, whose conditions tend to require more intensive care, back into the district.

During the 2002–03 school year, the town spent $1,622,512 on 39 out-placement students; more than $6 million is spent on special education services as a whole.

Returning out-placed students to the district would not only save costs but also increase the range of services in-town, drawing potentially new special education services to Newtown, said Dr Regan.

“Hiring a supervisor would also increase [our department’s] visibility at state operated Planning and Placement Team [PPT] meetings,” Dr Regan noted, particularly as movements continue to provide increased services within the Newtown public schools system.

Dr Regan has already drawn three students back into Newtown Schools.

He is a great proponent of the increasingly popularized movement to include special education students in “regular” classroom settings because of studies’ indication that interaction between special needs students and their peers incur social and academic benefits to both groups.

For more information, visit www.state.ct.us/sde/deps/special/ or contact Pupil Personnel Services at 426-7626.

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