Photograph by Robert Scheer
District psychologist Alice Ruzicka talks to Andy, a special-education student who has been mainstreamed into a regular class.
By Cecily Barnes
Before 6-year-old Andy Johnson tentatively joined Mrs. Schwary's kindergarten class at Saratoga Elementary School, Schwary asked her students to remember how shy they felt and how afraid they were on their first day of school.
"This is how Andy will feel," she told them.
Not so surprisingly, the 5-year-olds understood this, and were very friendly when Andy joined their class.
Andy, now 7, has Developmental Delay Syndrome, (DDS) a catch-all phrase for kids with undetermined disabilities. In Andy's case, he is extremely active and enthusiastic, sometimes so much so that he'll push a classmate or throw a handful of sand at another student.
"He doesn't do it to be mean," said his mother, Patti Johnson, who asked that the family's first and last names be changed to protect her son. "He just has a very low threshold for stimulus, and sometimes negative attention gets more response than positive attention."
Andy has the same academic capabilities as his peers, but his fine motor skills, such as handwriting, are below average, and he has a tough time with conventional behavior, such as sitting up straight in his chair and keeping quiet at study time. In the past, children without these skills were often relocated to a classroom for kids with special needs. This is what happened to Andy.
But this year, following the national trend, Saratoga schools began aggressively incorporating special-education students into the regular classrooms. Extending from the theme "Inclusion: A Shared Responsibility," Andy and others like him began attending school this year in classrooms with their peers.
"The difference now is we are working towards a more inclusive program where we will work collaboratively with the classroom teachers and the special-education teachers," said Louise Levy, Saratoga Union School District's director of special education.
Although it is a federal mandate that school districts include special-needs children in the regular classroom whenever possible, the state provides little financial assistance to achieve this. "The state hasn't given us anything more than they've ever given us," said Louise Levy. "We're still under-funded for special-education needs."
The Saratoga Union School District will pull an estimated $400,000 out of its general funds to cover its special-education program this year, said district Business Manager Ellen Tipton. Last year, only $220,000 was pulled from this fund. The increased cost is not due solely to the district's inclusion model, although the aggressive attempts to mainstream have taken a financial toll.
"I couldn't tell you how much more but I know it is costing more," Tipton said. "When a special-needs student is mainstreamed in the middle school, they have five or six teachers. There is the substitute cost when these teachers go to meetings [for the special-ed student]."
Saratoga Union School District has 178 special-needs students (out of 2,177 total students) with disabilities ranging from speech and language problems to autism. Whereas most of these children previously were taught in special, small-group classrooms, the new inclusion model has concentrated on mainstreaming as many children as possible into the regular classrooms.
"There is no one model that you can look at and say this is the only way that children have to be included," Levy explained. "We have some children who are so severely handicapped that we may only be able to have them in the regular classroom for some elective classes, and P.E. We have other children who aren't even placed in the schools."
But for Andy, intensive mainstreaming seemed like the right thing to do. At age 3, Andy began bumping into other children and throwing sand. His parents had a difficult time getting him to pay attention or to sit still, and at 3 1/2, his preschool teacher asked that Andy be removed from school because he was too demanding.
"At that point, in tears, I called Alice Ruzicka [Saratoga Union School District's psychologist], and said, 'OK, now come tell me there's no problem with my child,' " Andy's mother said.
Ruzicka observed Andy and qualified him for the autistic-type program. Rather than return to preschool, Andy was sent to a school for kids with special needs.
"Unfortunately," his mother said, "the children were all eight years and older, some very violent and out of control. They were throwing rocks. I was in tears when I first went to see it."
Nonetheless, without any other options, Johnson sent her then-5-year-old to the program. It turned out to be not so bad. The older children adopted a big-brother attitude toward Andy and sheltered him. But the kids were still too old. After a year of kindergarten in the special-ed room, Johnson and Ruzicka decided it was time for Andy to join the mainstream class.
"If you put him in a classroom with children who all have problems, how is he supposed to know this is not normal? You've got to see that the child in front of you sits in the chair straight and doesn't push and keeps appropriate social space," Johnson explained.
Experts agree with Andy's mom, citing how mainstreaming allows children to observe appropriate behavior.
"I think [special needs] kids respond better when they're part of the nexus of the school, part of the mainstream, the core curriculum," said Louis Denti, a special education professor at San Jose State University. "But they have to have support."
The Saratoga Union School District has offered that support in a number of ways. First, all of the special-education teachers have been kept on board to co-teach with the classroom teachers. They have become permanent members of the regular classes, discreetly modifying lesson plans and activities for special-needs kids when necessary.
"We go in [the regular classroom] and see to it that [the students'] specific needs are being met and that the lessons being presented are understandable to them. And we make any modifications necessary to the lesson plans," explained Lara Garrett, special-education teacher at Redwood. "We're trying to be real sneaky so that [the kids with special needs] know we're there to help them, but other people don't."
In addition, the district is attempting to keep lines of communication open. Because there is no perfect formula that applies to all kids, regular meetings and times for discussion have been scheduled. Classroom teachers meet with special-ed teachers, who meet with children and their parents, who meet with Ruzicka. Everyone continues to meet with everyone else to ensure that every aspect of the child's life is working comfortably.
"The only way this will work successfully is if we are really a team," Levy concluded. "And an extremely important part of that team collaborative process is working with the parents. We want to hear their concerns, and we want to hear their needs."
Some parents have expressed concern that children who are mainstreamed may not receive the specific attention they need, or that they might be ridiculed and teased by other children. According to Louise Levy, she and other staff members work with each family to address their concerns and make sure that each child is integrated appropriately into the district.
This year, Andy started the first grade with his peers. It is the first time he's been full-time in a regular classroom since preschool. Now, in addition to learning his ABCs and 1-2-3s, Andy is learning how to say 'Hi' to other children. He is learning how to share toys, overcome shyness and verbalize what he needs.
He is learning one of elementary school's most important lessons: how to relate to others.
"I am very happy about how our school district has approached Andy and believed in Andy," Johnson said. "They've listened to what I have to say, and they've really gotten to know him."
According to SJSU's Denti, Saratoga Union School District is doing a great job. Mainstreaming has been a new and complicated task for the district, but they tackled it head on, with care and concern for the children involved.
"It's the coming thing," said Andy's mom. "One looks around the world now and says, 'There's blacks and Hispanics and Asians, and there's blonds and brunettes and redheads, and there's also kids with disabilities."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 11, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved