Rose had her first sports team experience with regular kids.  I was a little nervous but needless to say, she did fine.  She was right in there along with all the other kids.  She wasn't always on her best behave but, that was really any different from all the other kids.  There's a longer story but for now, yes, she shots and she SCORES!!!  Her first goal and she was only five.   Wow!!!

Rose’s Planning and Placement Team met again in the usual place.  There were many familiar faces and a few new ones.  Joan Simone, the SPED teacher and Rose’s case manager, Christine N. new speech therapist, Anne Bartholomew, Rose’s regular ed kindergarten class room teacher, Pat Stazko, our town’s special ed director joined Cindi Deshais, principal, Anne Linden, OT, Lori Boscarino and Pat Mace, school psychologist along with Cheryl and myself. 

This was our six week checkup, a chance for all of us to take a look at how Rose’s start to kindergarten and consider a few adjustments.  Teachers and therapists gave quick reports, mostly positive. From their perspective Rose’s start with her sixteen, mostly non-disabled peers was going well.  From our parent’s perspective, the transition was going extremely well.  Rose was thrilled to be taking this significant step towards “Big-Girl”-ness. 

A few issues surfaced that the group discussed trying to work out solutions.  One concern raised by Mrs. Bartholomew, Rose’s classroom teacher, was Rose’s habit of mouthing classroom objects.  Her chewing on the class shared pencils was particularly noticed by her classmates and they were put off by it on occasion.  The team kicked around a few ideas centered on giving Rose a positive oral sensory input in place chewing on the class’s supply of shared pencils.   A sour chewing candy, a chewing gum plan and a nuk-type chewing device were suggested.  We settled on the nuk-type device to be used at Mrs. B’s discretion.  Another concern of Mrs. B’s was Rose’s inability to put her snack away with the rest of the class at the end of the prescribed time.  Rose, always a slow and leisurely eater, wasn’t connecting with this one part of the classroom routine.  Mrs. B was looking for other strategies.  Pat Stazko, mentioned a visual timer with a minute hand that swept a red pie away.  The visual cue provided by all of the red being swept away with time would provide a visual reinforcement that  the activity was over.  The team agreed to order one for the classroom. 

One adaptation had already been made to accommodate Rose’s petite stature,  extensions had been added to the classroom sink faucet handles.  Mrs. B pointed out that although Rose needed these, and they quickly took on the nickname “Rose handles”, other smaller classmates benefited as well and that they should really be in every kindergarten classroom.  A simple but obvious example of how one adaptation for Rose benefited many “regular” students. 

Lori B, PT, raised a concern that Rose’s gross motor skills had regressed over the summer and through the start of the school year.  She attributed some of this to her lack of one-on-one therapy time with Rose.  Lori was seeing Rose with her whole class for 30 minutes in a gross motor group and another 30 minutes in gym class each week.  She thought those groups were working well but more could be done.  The team discussed this at some length.  I continued to push for a “no-pull-out” approach but Lori was still concerned.  She felt strongly that Rose needed and benefited from direct hands on in a one-on-one setting.  We reluctantly agreed to a ½ an hour a week pullout, at some point you have to trust the opinion of the professional as to what was the best for Rose given Rose’s abilities, the therapists abilities and the school setting.  All of Rose’s teachers and therapists have always been sincerely enthusiastic about her success.  As her advocates we were trying to maintain and support that enthusiasm while still pushing for positive change.  I am starting to appreciate more and more what a delicate balancing act this can be.  

The team reassessed the situation.  Cindi noted that there were now two half hour pullouts, one for speech articulation and the new PT session and Cheryl was available to drive Rose to school.  An extended day was proposed; Cheryl would bring Rose to school early one day a week.  Rose would have her ½ hour of speech and PT and then experience lunch and recess with the lucky full day kindergartners before joining up with her usual afternoon class and then take the usual “regular” bus ride home to end her school day.  The benefit were the eliminating of the one “special” pullout from Rose’s school day and the change for Rose to experience the routine of a longer school day as well as meeting the requests of the two therapists for one-on-one access.  It was a reasonable compromise and we agreed.

Joan Simone, the SPED teacher, reviewed her contributions and went a long way to explaining how smoothly Rose’s special services were integrated into the regular classroom.  Rose’s classroom was centers based, part of the day was spent as a whole group and part of the day was spent with the class divided up into smaller groups moving between activities organized at four centers.  This seemed like a more academic, formal version of the house keeping, sound table and quiet reading corner centers of Rose’s Pre-K class.  Mrs. B would have one center, Ms. Stewart, the classroom para, would take another.  A visiting parent might take another center, and therapists would use the fourth center.  When speech or OT visited the classroom they had a ready and eager small group of classmates ready to join Rose in her extra academic games.  It was clear that they enjoyed their time as well with the therapists and these visits blended smoothly into the routine of the day.  The regular students benefited from the exposure to different methods of teaching and Rose benefited, as we’ve always seen her, from modeling the skills and behavior of her fellow classmates.  Joan went on to explain how she used a Practice Learning Center everyday to reinforce what Rose and her classmates had been learning, to give Rose and her classmates had been learning, to give Rose extra strategies, drills, games and homework assignments.  It was clear that she had ready access and opportunity to bring her special education strengths directly into the flow of class day.  I remembered attending the school open house night and have a dim awareness of the classroom routine and the center based activities.  It was very comforting and reassuring to how hours of Rose’s therapies and supports were able to be inconspicuously and enthusiastically blended into Rose’s kindergarten classroom.  I was starting to get a real, practical understanding of what an inclusive classroom looked like.  

An important part of that classroom is a regular ed teacher that enjoys and welcomes Rose with an open-mind and high expectations.  Clearly Rose was fortunate to have found Anne Bartholomew.  Initially, Anne had some concerns she expressed to Cheryl in a chance meeting in the halls.  Anne early in a second career as an inexperienced kindergarten teacher, hesitantly expressed that she was uncertain if Rose would be able to achieve the academic goals of kindergarten.  Cheryl immediately reassured Anne that we were just happy that Rose was in a regular classroom and we were confident that she would make progress.  Maybe this wasn’t significant or maybe it was jus the right few words at a key moment being supportive, even demanding change is most effective when done with a positive, nurturing, non confrontational consistent manner.  Credit goes to Anne and Cheryl for establishing this subtle bond.

Inclusion.  Anne’s enthusiasm, willingness to adapt and her joy of Rose quickly grew into an excellent teacher/student relationship.  We are continually grateful that chance has found Rose in a school environment that is rapidly and actively moving towards inclusion.  A key ingredient of that inclusion is the warm and enthusiastic welcome Rose has received from every teacher and therapist.  Positive relationships are vital to healthy and effective teacher-student exchange.  One of our roles as parent advocates is to promote and nurture that relationship.  

A good example of this is a moment we shared at this PPT meeting.  During the various shared reports on Rose's challenges and progress, one small mystery had surfaced.  All the school folks had noticed that  had noticed that as Rose worked through her different tasks of the school day she often provided a running play-by-plat parallel talk. This was a welcome steam of speech from someone that was still so new to the spoken word but what was a bit mystifying was her comments were usually directed at "Halley".  Now the teachers and the therapists all knew Rose well enough to know that Halley was Rose's best friend from last year's Pre-K class, but this year, while still best of friends, they were in different classrooms. So why all the constant addresses to Halley?

This was a easy one for Cheryl and me because we had seen this same behavior at home for the last few months and had already cracked the code.  

Cheryl shared the answer, “Halley is the name of Rose's best friend and the name of her imaginary friend as well.”  

Watching their collective realization was magical moment, the satisfied moment of understanding of a room full of people deeply interested in teaching Rose had fit another piece of the puzzle in place; better understand the student and the student will better learn.  Almost in unison, raised eyebrows, smiles and a long “Ooooohhh!” followed by laughter at the joy and silliness of the moment.  Learning and teaching should be fun.

             A hand-me-down costume made by the kid's Aunt Martha.  First Erin was Simba, then Katie and now Rose's turn.  Photo courtesy of Uncle Joe when Rose made the trip four doors down to ask for some candy.

OK, sometimes a vacation is just a vacation.  We went back to visit Cheryl's mom in Florida the week after Christmas. A few days on the Gulf of Mexico, visit Grandma and do some horseback riding and then one crowded theme park, it was fun.

           That's the first time we've ever dipped our toes in the Gulf of Mexico

a pictures with Grandma - photo on left by Rose

horseback riding - OK, everybody but me

a very crowded day at Busch Gardens

Cool picture of Rose and a brave Erin attempting to consuming a very large turkey leg.  This was one of two choices available.

and a beautiful sunset over Tampa Bay on our last night in Florida

Concerning Budget issues;

First I want you to know that I am very much in favor of a budget increase and a tax increase to support improved education for all students in Windsor schools.  I feel we need to commit to improving our schools year after year.  Not just when it is financially convenient.  I am more than willing to make the small sacrifice of paying a tax increase needed.  It is unfortunate and discouraging to hear of so much talent and time and effort diverted to juggling one or two percentage points out of the budget when Windsor has significant education issues like the Achievement Gap of students of color that need progress now..

Concerning Special Education and Inclusion efforts;

On a positive note, I would like to commend the Windsor schools for the efforts to make dramatic progress in the number of students with disabilities that are included in the regular classrooms and especially Pat Stazko, Director of Pupil & Special Education Services, for being an advocate for change.

Comparing the data for the 2002/03 to the 2003/04 school years; for all students in Special Education, close to 600 students; the percent of students receiving more than 80% of their school time in a regular classroom setting has made a healthy jump from 34% to 52% and the students receiving their education in a non-regular education setting has decreased from 24% to 10%.

Of special interest for me is the Inclusion of the 30 or so Windsor students with Intellectual Disabilities.  My youngest daughter, Rose, has Down syndrome and is a member of the PJ class action settlement that was brought about because children like her were so widely excluded from the general education classroom for the more than 30 years since first required by federal law and during the 10 plus years it took to settle the lawsuit. 

Today, Rose is enjoying Kindergarten very much, fully included in a regular classroom at Roger Wolcott.  I am very hopeful that she will continue to receive the educational benefits, and friendships that happen in our regular classrooms through out her school career.  I am hopeful when I see the progress that Windsor is starting to make.  The number of Students with Intellectual disabilities that spend their school day in a self-contained classroom setting has been reduced dramatically from 80% to 26%.  And the number of students spending more than 80% of their school day in a regular classroom setting has started to show some progress, from 2% to now 11% of the students.  Both of these are big steps that show Windsor schools have reversed the trend of less and less inclusion that has been building for more than seven years and I want to applaud all the teachers and therapists and administrators that helped make this happen.  I hope that Windsor schools can build on these initial successes.  Getting students into the classroom is the first step, properly supporting the success of the students to help them achieve their full potential is the goal.

On the WHS Extracurricular Eligibility Requirement:

I still find this to be a giant step in the wrong direction although I will struggle to try to stay open minded. I don’t understand the “incentive” of taking away a healthy activity like a sport or a club from a struggling student.

Two hundreds students were declared ineligible after the first quarter.  With so many students struggling and following the now, sadly, predictable patterns of poor success I really question the value of this program.

Additionally I would warn the board that not everything is being done in good faith to help these students.  My personal experiences and my informal survey tells me that as many as 50% of the teachers are not using the IGPRO system to notify parents of their students progress even when directly requested to do so.  Teachers are only human but parents emails are not returned, phone calls aren’t answered, IGPro reports are not sent, peer tutors don’t show up but only the student will bear the consequence.  I don’t think this is fair.

The intent by the Board of Education to encourage students to achieve is well meaning but poorly executed. The belief that a significant number of students are going to be motivated to succeed because of the threat of the loss of eligibility is unfounded.  Is it based on recognized studies of this type of punitive approach or is it based on the out of date thinking that a student has to earn the right to participate? Did the Board of Education carefully study the efficacy of this approach or is it experimenting with the children’s High School experience. I don’t want to hear that some other town is doing it so we decided to try it.  We need data.  There are many studies available that support the idea that students achieve more when they are reassured that they belong to the school community and not in any danger of being excluded.  As radical as this sounds, this approach has been shown to be effective by repeated educational studies over the last few decades. 

I am particularly concerned about the relationship between the Achievement Gap and the enforcement of the eligibility requirement.  When there is a long established difference in academic achievement between white and black students it is clear that we are not putting our students in a position where they can succeed.  This is an old problem that has been solved in some Connecticut schools like the Amestad Academy .  I would ask that the BOE look hard at these successes and bring these lessons learned to Windsor schools as soon as possible.  I wish that’s where you were focusing your efforts.

I listened to Dr Feser’s presentation at the last Windsor High School PTSA on the Minority Student Achievement Network and the Tripod project and was very encouraged to hear her impassioned plea to follow the “moral imperative” to help students of color, to help all students achieve.  It was wonderful to hear the knowledge and insight gained by the surveys of tens of thousands of students on how to best help students achieve.  The message of the benefit of encouragement over demand was clear.

 Are we giving a mixed message here? Do students struggle because they choose to fail?  Can anybody manage to get a 71 average if they just tried?  I don’t believe this is true.

 I would ask as you consider the budget you look at prioritizing success for all students first.  We should measure our success as a school system by helping every student to succeed.  This means focusing much more of your efforts on the students that struggle to get a proficient grade on the CMT’s or the CAPT tests and not worrying as much about the seminar students.  I would ask that the BOE make that your number one priority.

... the years are starting to fly by

February 2005

This story came to my attention through a wonderful listserv that I participate in through the CT Down Syndrome Congress after it had appeared in a local newspaper.  The article was very difficult to take.  My response to the reporter and his reply follows.

"Henrici: Schools doing better with retarded By Martin J. Waters, Record-Journal Staff

WALLINGFORD — Most of the discussion was about data — spiced with an alphabet soup of obscure education-speak acronyms.

But emotions eventually rose to the surface at a meeting about a controversial court settlement that requires more placements of mentally retarded children in regular classrooms throughout Connecticut . That's an area where Wallingford is among 24 local school districts that received bad ratings from state officials who must carry out the court settlement.

"We should have the right to make these decisions. We, the parents," said Michael Votto, chairman of the Wallingford Board of Education and a teacher for more than 30 years. He told Monday night's meeting about his daughter, now 27, who was educated mostly in classes in which mentally retarded children were taught separately.

Along with some other board members and interested parents, Votto criticized a 2002 federal court decision that requires increased mainstreaming of mentally retarded students. It is depriving students, in at least some cases, of the best available educational options — if those are special programs serving only the retarded, Votto said.

"A child with a 40 or a 35 IQ is not going to do well" in a regular classroom, he said.

State officials told the meeting that a preliminary look at data covering the early part of the current school year indicates Wallingford now is making satisfactory progress.

School board members asked state Education Department representatives to appear before them after Wallingford was one of seven districts reprimanded in September for failing to make any progress in complying with the court mandate during 2003-04.

School Superintendent Kenneth V. Henrici said he is confident that by next fall the school district will meet goals set in all five categories outlined in the court settlement.

The court settlement requires school districts throughout Connecticut to increase the percentage of mentally retarded students who spend at least 80 percent of their school day in regular classrooms.

The decision resulted from a lawsuit filed in 1991 by a group of parents complaining that their retarded children were being deprived of equal educational opportunities by being segregated in special education classes.

"It really comes down to a question of philosophy. It's a very difficult issue," said Valerie Ford, chairwoman of the school board's Instructional Committee.

At the committee's invitation, two officials from the state Education Department discussed the court settlement, which is known as the P.J. case, after the initials of one of the students whose parents sued.

"We understand how hard this is," said George P. Dowaliby, chief of the state Education Department's Special Education Bureau. However, he endorsed the broad conclusion inherent in the court settlement — that too many children were being excluded from regular classrooms.

"We've done it too cavalierly. We've done it without enough exploration of options to make it work in the regular education setting," he said.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny — known for his much-debated recent involvement in the Michael Ross death penalty case — ruled that Connecticut school districts historically have been too quick to isolate retarded children, in violation of a 1975 federal law on education of the handicapped.

He ordered implementation of procedures assuring that students receive an "appropriate education" in the "least restrictive setting." He gave the state five years to comply.

School board member Jennifer Cozzi-Harnandez was especially sharp in her criticism of the state for pushing hard to bring students back into regular classrooms before Wallingford has been able to provide staff training and other needed resources.

"Are you suggesting that it's the least restrictive environment to bring a child into a program that doesn't exist?" she said. "If the parents are satisfied, and the child is advancing by leaps and bounds, and was floundering in the regular program before, do you think that the district should force that student back into the district?"

Dowaliby said the court settlement provides flexibility for individual cases, as well as allowing up to 20 percent of a child's schooling to take place outside of the regular classroom. The settlement contains no requirement on what percentage of retarded children must be placed in regular classrooms at least 80 percent of the time. The plaintiffs wanted the court to order a specific minimum level, Dowaliby said, and that question is likely to arise again when Chatigny reviews the case in 2007."

My letter to the reporter:

Mr. Waters, 

I was greatly dismayed to read your article "Henrici: Schools doing better with retarded" from the Record-Journal as forwards to me via email. Even beyond the insensitive language, I was disappointed both as a person that cares about the world learning to accept and live with all our differences and also as a parent of young girl with Down Syndrome who has greatly benefited from the academic and social advantages of Inclusion. 

Clearly the people from Wallingford School Board fully deserve the negative attention they are receiving. First they have failed to comply with federal law for 30 plus years and now they are drawing much deserved attention for failure to comply with the 3 year old PJ settlement. 

When Ms Valeris Ford said about her objections, "It really comes down to a question of philosophy."  she was highlighting a weakness all too often seen with Board of Ed members and school administrators and teachers that stand in the way of progress in education.   It’s not a matter of personal philosophy that determines who has access to quality education, it’s a matter of law.

I respect Mr. Votto comments as a parent of an adult child with an Intellectual Disability but as a educator he should be aware of the wide acceptance of the benefits of Inclusion through out the academic community.  I am sure if you looked beyond the Wallingford BOE you could find countless parents like myself that are thrilled to have their child going to their neighborhood school learning alongside their friends in a regular classroom.

And Mr Dowaliby of the CT State Dept of Education badly needs to refocus.  We've done inclusion to "Cavalierly"? Really? How long should these students wait?  Until after they've graduated? And "We've done it without enough exploration if options to make it work in the regular setting?"  Why wasn't  Mr Dowaliby making himself aware of those options during the 10 years it took to settle the PJ case.  He doesn't have to do any more than read up on all the other schools both in Connecticut and around the country that are doing Inclusion successfully.  Have him go to Vermont for a day. Mr. Dowaliby, as a representative of the SDE is charged with carrying out the PJ settlement.  He needs to step up his sense of commitment.

Ignorance of the best educational practices is sad state of affairs.  Fear of change is no excuse.  Doing a good job of the wrong thing is nothing to be proud of  Educators at the town level have a direct impact on the quality of the day to day educational experience of every child in their district.  Dragging their heels, with all deliberate speed,  to bring bring about known effective educational practices is not acceptable. This kind of behavior should be against the law... oh, wait, it is!

A high quality education makes possible quality life decisions and is every child's right. Articles like yours delay the much needed benefits of an inclusive education from deserving children that have been too long denied.  Please, next time, do your homework first before you take such a narrow, limited perspective .Read the PJ settlement, read the EAP reports, read the IDEA law, read the rulings from the countless court cases that have consistently supported the civil and human rights of children with intellectual and any other disability to have their neighborhood regular school classroom be their first choice for education.   Read the numerous studies listing the consistent and far reaching social and academic  benefits of Inclusion for both Children with and without diabilities. Talk to teachers that get it and hear them tell you 'Of course it makes sense.  It's just good teaching!'  Talk to parents from some town other than Wallingford about the struggles and the joys of Inclusion.   And then go meet some actual students, also not from Wallingford .  And then come back and try to write an accurate article.

Sincerely,

Chris McAuliffe

The reporter's reply:

     I appreciate receiving your e-mail, as I would like to do a follow-up story on this subject. I now have your organization, and your Web site, as resources when I'm able to work on the story again. It would help me if you are able to provide me with any more background information about implementation of the PJ settlement or suggest other people and organizations, both government and non-profit. 

    The article of Feb. 7 was a report about what went on at a meeting, the type of story that makes no claim to have covered the issue from all angles. However, inherent in the article was the fact that the point of view of some of the Board of Education members is in conflict with that held by many people -- families, advocates and health and education professionals -- involved in the issues of the PJ case. The fact of the class-action lawsuit speaks to that and the federal court decision is an important validation of that viewpoint. The article also stated that Wallingford was among seven school districts identified by the state as having failed to make any progress toward implementing the court settlement. The superintendent later said he disliked my use of the term "reprimanded."   

   Also, as a point of information, you misread what George P. Dowaliby said, which was the opposite of your reading of it. He said that in the past mentally retarded children had been excluded from regular classrooms too cavalierly.

    The article said: 

  "We understand how hard this is," said George P. Dowaliby, chief of the state Education Department's Special Education Bureau. However, he endorsed the broad conclusion inherent in the court settlement - that too many children were being excluded from regular classrooms.
   "We've done it too cavalierly. We've done it without enough exploration of options to make it work in the regular education setting," he said. 

   And, responsibility for use of the term mentally retarded is this newspaper's, not of the participants at the meeting. In fact, several members of the Wallingford Board of Education were unhappy with the terminology. Their letters and a response from the executive editor appeared Feb. 16, but are not yet available to me in our internal computerized archives. You may be able to find them in the archives section of our Web page. Mental retardation remains the standard term of reference in journalism. It's the term used by The Associated Press, the New York Times and every other major news organization I checked.  Although, like language itself, that evolves over time.

-- Marty Waters

    My replty to his reply:      

 Mr. Waters, 

Thank you for your thoughtful reply.  I would be glad to help make available more resources concerning concerning the lawfulness, the basic fairness and the academic and social benefits of the inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities in regular classrooms and the implementation of the PJ settlement  A good starting point for you would be the state's website, http://www.state.ct.us/sde/deps/PJ.  I would suggest you go to the reports section and read the EAP reports. 

And thank you for trying to clarify Mr. Dowaliby's statement.  I've re-read it and unfortunately it is open to mis-intepretation as to what was done "too cavalierly".  Although I am heartened by your explanation I am concerned that other readers, like me, might have misinterpreted Mr. Dowaliby's comment.

Please take a look at the PJ website and let me know if you have any more questions.  The Connecticut Down Syndrome Congress as well as other organizations would be more than happy to assist you in future stories.

Sincerely,

Chris McAuliffe

Rose’s Strengths:

Sense of humor

Happy

Motivated

Social

Enjoys helping and teaching

Responds to positive encouragement and praise

Visual learner, repetition, imitates

Learns through games

1^st Grade Goals:

A year of full inclusion

Reading and writing

Riding to and from school on the same school bus as her neighborhood friends

The physical and social skills necessary to continue to play team sports at her age level (Rose has already participated in soccer, T-ball, dance classes and gymnastics all with regular age peers,)

Suzuki (violin) lessons

After our PPT the school asked for some reference info.  Here's what we sent along (plus some updates since then.)

A great read about a principal's perspective on running an inclusive school.  

http://ftp.disabilityisnatural.com/articles/documents/InclEdPrin.pdf

Here's a really great article:

http://ftp.disabilityisnatural.com/articles/documents/InclEdPrin.pdf

For people first language (and yes this is important to us):

http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/peoplefirstlanguage.htm

For an historical perspective on Down Syndrome:

 Genome by Matt Ridley - The book is written with a different chapter discussing a significant issue about each chromosome and, of course, Chapter 21 is predominantly about Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21).  It's more of an historical prospective with a very sobering view of Eugenics movement at the turn of the century.  It will give you a strong impression of just how very far the world has advanced in less than a hundred years.

For general books on how families (mostly parents)  have coped with DS I would recommend:

Choosing Naia by Mitchell Zuckoff

Life As We Know It by Michael Berube - 

For the perspective of people with Down Syndrome:

Count Us In by Jason Kingsley and Mitch Levitz

Bus Girl: Poems by Gretchen Josephson

Children's Book:

We'll Paint the Octopus Red by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen and Pam Devito

For books on Inclusion:

·           Creating An Inclusive School by Richard Villa and Jacqueline Thousand

·           Restructuring for Caring and Effective Education - Piecing the Puzzle Together by Richard Villa and Jacqueline Thousand

·           Restructuring High Schools for All Students by Cheryl Jorgensen

·           The Differentiated Classroom - Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson

·           Inclusion - 450 Strategies for Success - A Practical Guide for All Educators Who Teach Students with Disabilities by Peggy A Hammeken

·                     

I was attending an LRE committee meeting here in town recently when I unexpectedly received some good news.  The LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) committee made up of teachers administrators and parents was formed by our school district (in response to the P.J. Settlement here in Connecticut ) to support the inclusion of students with Intellectual Disabilities (formerly known as Mentally Retarded) into the general classroom.  While we were waiting for folks to arrive Pat Stazko, our SPED director, and I fell into a neighborly conversation.

“So, how’s Rose doing?”

“She’s doing great.  The new thing is swinging.  She’s finally got it.”

“How old is she?”

“She’s six.”

“That’s pretty good.”

“It took a while.  She was a little frustrated at first.  She had the back and forward rocking but not in time with the full swing.  She told me ‘I can’t do it.’ I think her cousins from down the street came over to play on the swings and she studied them closer.  It seemed like a day or two later she had it all together.  Now she’s addicted.”

“That’s great.  That’s very good for the development of the vestibular system.”

“She loves it, she tells her mom ‘I’m going to go pump like crazy’ and then heads out the swings.”

Our conversation bounced from one topic to the next when we touched upon Joan Simone, Rose’s SPED teacher.  I can’t remember how the connection was made.

“So, is Joan Simone going to co-teach another class next year or is she going back full-time to the resource room (our name for self-contained classroom)”

“Oh, no.  They’ve done away with the resource room.  All the kids are going to be in the regular classroom.”

I was quietly shocked, later that night when I relayed the news to Cheryl I had to choke back tears.  I was overwhelmed that we were so close to such a step in the right direction, to think how a year ago, we even considered in passing the possibility of  a self-contained classroom for Rose.  Had Rose’s experiences been a positive part of this?  Certainly folks like Pat Stazko and Cindi Deshais and all the teachers and therapists are seeking and embracing change.  Hopefully we helped at least in a small way to make this happen sooner then later.  Even a small touch of this is a powerful feeling, very close to the heart of that feeling that draws us all closer together.