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The Oakville Beaver, W e d n e sd a y N o v e m b e r 7, 2001 - A 5 Students caught in middle while board tries new cost-cutting approach to special education By Angela Blackburn O A K V IL L E BEAVER S TAFF Students who need the most help keeping up in school may be out of luck as the Halton District School Board tries a new approach to special education. So says a local parent whose special needs child is still waiting to get help after entering Kindergarten last month. And board speech pathologists like Susan Townsend agree. She's worked as a speech pathologist with the board for 15 years and heads the 41-member Halton Professional Students' Services Personnel (PSSP), a branch of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF). They're psychological consultants, social workers, child/youth counsellors and speech language pathologists whose numbers have been slashed in half since the early 1990s. They help students with hearing prob lems, Down's Syndrome, autism, behav ioral challenges, learning disabilities, the intellectually gifted, and others. But board executive officer of human resources Dawn Beckett-Morton said while the new approach that arrived last spring is "a different beast," it's believed it will lead to more student services. She said the new model maintains a reduced internal staff, but partners with community agencies like the Halton Children's Aid Society (CAS) to provide social workers -- stretching board dol lars. The new approach was needed because special education funding is "sta ble," but the board faces higher enroll ment and special education caseloads. The board is doing less speech lan guage pathology assessments, but -is pro viding one-on-one support via an educa tional assistant specializing in communi cations. Group, rather than individual pro gramming, is the focus. School board special education super intendent Brenda Kearney will outline the new special education model at a Committee of the Whole board meeting at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. And from 5 p.m. -7 p.m. that night, Townsend and the complement of 41 PSSP members who work for the board will picket the school board office. Joining them will be Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin and Earl Manners, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation. The 41 PSSP members have been in contract negotiations with the board for two years and are getting nowhere. They say they're in a fight, not for money, but for their jobs -- and services for kids. The rally will mark the second held in a month. "Members of the unit are frustrated," admitted Jim Douglas, chair of the PSSP negotiating team and an executive officer of the OSSTF. In 2000. Halton had 52 PSSPs. Today it has 41. Townsend and Beckett-Morton said the board offered a buy-out package to the PSSPs last spring, then introduced its new special education delivery model and PSSPs weren't consulted, said Townsend. "The cuts to our numbers have meant a lowering of the services our special needs students receive," said Townsend. She said the new approach lacks con tinuity of services provided by in-house people. It also involves professionals whose mandate, training and experience isn't geared to education, but social service, she said. Townsend said she sees lots "paper work", wait lists and back logs. Oakville's Sandie Garside attests to it. Her five-year-old daughter, Emmalyn, had fluid in her ear as a tot which may have led to Emmalyn having trouble being understood. Emmalyn had been in a speech and language program through a Halton Region-funded preschool that was to have been replaced when Emmalyn reached Kindergarten at Oakwood Public School. Yet, to date, Garside said she's still waiting for Emmalyn to qualify, never mind start programming, and has heard about year-long waits. Garside said she's concerned the delay will create deficits upon which Emmalyn will build her school career and social development. "It's important to nip it in the bud now or the problems are going to multiply," said Garside. "My daughter came home in tears because her friend can't understand her," said Garside. Townsend fears special education services will get only to the most needy or be one-size-fits-all rather than tailormade. "Instead of looking at needs and schools, the process says here's what we can offer and is slotting kids into the pockets," said Townsend. Beckett-Morton said she's not aware of backlogs, but that it wouldn't be unusual at the start of a school year. Townsend said board speech language pathologists would likely cost less than those hired from outside at $100-$ 150/hr. since the board staff could likely do assessments in half the time given their familiarity with the system. Though the new scenario is supposed to support more students, Townsend said, "I don't believe more kids are being seen. There are more referrals, more wait lists and a lot of problem-solving going on." D r. 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