Urban schools

[Rizzo]

From my experience with special education theres no reason to not except a student unless of course the student has demonstrated grave risk to himself and all others. And even demonstrating this risk won't guarentee them to be sent away. My girlfriends mother is a special education teacher for Lansing Public and she tells me that some of the most extream students are sent to her and her staff to accept. In these cases its really heartbreaking, and I think the standard scenerio is to keep them protected in an environment capable of helping them. This would be the answer I suspect. The student would be accepted for as long as the system can viably support the student without extream risk to himself or others.

[ModSquad]

I have a question, and it's going to come off wrong, but I don't intend it to....

Is a "public school" REQUIRED to accept all special ed students? Is there some sort of cut off where it isn't reasonable for that student to be accepted? I ask only because I don't know how this all works. I'm assuming any citizen has a right to attend a public school?

Actually this is a VERY good question. Public School are required to educate every singfle student that comes through their door. In the case of special education there are some very stringent laws regarding the level of education they receive. These laws are all based on IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). The basic premise of this law is that every Special Needs student has to be given an IEP (Individual Education Plan). This IEP is the "golden" ticket so to speak. What I mean is that anything...and I mean ANYTHING that is in a student's IEP has to be provided regardless of cost. We have students where GRPS employees are paid to go to the house every day, get the student out of bed, feed, dresss them, and put them on a bus every day. We have numerous students that are assigned 1 on 1's where they literally have a teacher's aide that is assigned to the student all day. I could go on. Our most expensive students cost us over $65,000 per year to educate. The average yearly cost for special education students in GRPS is over $20,000.

Hundreds of parents in Grand Rapids choose charters or private education for their "regular education" children and send their children with "special needs" to GRPS because of the great services.

Now, one may ask, why do Charter Schools get off without providiing special education? Actually they don't get off. If a parent with a special needs child wants to send their student to a charter school and their student is accepted, they can legally fight for all the services required.

The reality is that GRPS has build TREMENDOUS special educational programs, some of the best in the midwest. Parents with special needs children are looking to get great services for their children. What makes more sense...fight for services with an institution that currently does not have it or go to GRPS which has great services? The answer is obvious.

[Rizzo]

You know GRPS does have one heck of a good special needs program. I wonder if this model can show everyone else that GRPS isn't such a bad system... GO DAVE!

[PBJ]

Actually this is a VERY good question. Public School are required to educate every singfle student that comes through their door. In the case of special education there are some very stringent laws regarding the level of education they receive. These laws are all based on IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). The basic premise of this law is that every Special Needs student has to be given an IEP (Individual Education Plan). This IEP is the "golden" ticket so to speak. What I mean is that anything...and I mean ANYTHING that is in a student's IEP has to be provided regardless of cost. We have students where GRPS employees are paid to go to the house every day, get the student out of bed, feed, dresss them, and put them on a bus every day. We have numerous students that are assigned 1 on 1's where they literally have a teacher's aide that is assigned to the student all day. I could go on. Our most expensive students cost us over $65,000 per year to educate. The average yearly cost for special education students in GRPS is over $20,000.

Hundreds of parents in Grand Rapids choose charters or private education for their "regular education" children and send their children with "special needs" to GRPS because of the great services.

Now, one may ask, why do Charter Schools get off without providiing special education? Actually they don't get off. If a parent with a special needs child wants to send their student to a charter school and their student is accepted, they can legally fight for all the services required.

The reality is that GRPS has build TREMENDOUS special educational programs, some of the best in the midwest. Parents with special needs children are looking to get great services for their children. What makes more sense...fight for services with an institution that currently does not have it or go to GRPS which has great services? The answer is obvious.

Thanks for the insight. I figured you are required to teach everyone SOMETHING. I take it that every program is specific to each child based on some test that molds the IEP? Does the state give the school system more funding per special ed student than it does a normal student, since the cost of education is obviously way higher? It just suprises me that a school system would be required to provide "education" when that education is so rudimentary, or non useful to the student that it basically wastes time and precious resources that could be used elsewhere. Paying for someone to go, dress, and get the child ready and to school seems like something that the school shouldn't pay for in my opinion.

I went to a private school, and I would agree that it's much easier for a person to send thier student to a public school for a special education experience than paying almost $7k a year for a private education. We DID have special ed students, just not many of them.

[Mark Miller]

Lighthouse Dave I have a couple of questions.

In regards to vouchers, the last I had heard they were still being touted as successful in improving the overall quality of the entire school district in Milwaukee. This was first discussed in the book, "Wealth of Cities" by John Norquist, the former mayor of Milwaukee. The book is probably over 10 years old now, so I am sure there is other data available.

Recently John has still touted the success of the voucher system and is still a proponent of the voucher as a way to improve inner city schools.

The other question is in regards to the Reggio Emilia school that is a GRPS charter. Attached is a link from today's press that paints a relatively positive picture of this school.

What are your thoughts on Reggio Emilia?

My wife and I were impressed by the teachers here when we toured last year. It is also nice to see that they are adaptively reusing a very old building instead of tearing it down and building new. I guess it helps to have such a huge grant

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss...7150.xml&coll=6

[ModSquad]

Lighthouse Dave I have a couple of questions.

In regards to vouchers, the last I had heard they were still being touted as successful in improving the overall quality of the entire school district in Milwaukee.

What are your thoughts on Reggio Emilia?

In regard to vouchers in Milwaukee this is from a study done by Arizona State University:

School voucher proposals represent, as Peter W. Cookson wrote, a

[Rizzo]

See, building on these positives can surely put GRPS in better light.

[d59]

If you take all of the test scores from students across the state, you will find students achieving at the highest levels from most if not every school system (EVEN GRPS!). The reverse is also true. A child