Much discussion has surrounded the current debate over the Hamilton County Department of Education’s proposed 2019-20 budget. Those in favor of the budget rightly point to underfunded initiatives and the need to make teacher salaries competitive. Those opposing the budget raise serious and valid questions about the district’s historic inefficiencies and lack of results.
As the Hamilton County Commission prepares to vote on the budget, I want to make the case that a particular part of this budget—that part funding exceptional education—should be funded at the level requested by HCDE. The argument below is a lengthy one because the issue is complex, and it is only after considerable reflection that I am asking the Commission to support something that will impose a cost on taxpayers.
Hamilton County schools have historically ranked near the bottom in the state across various measures related to the education and treatment of children with special needs. Despite the best efforts of many fine teachers and administrators, the story has been one of educational neglect, lack of best-practices training, abusive disciplinary practices, and bullying of parents who dare to complain. At its worst, these practices have been tantamount to the pre-instutitionalization of children who can learn and have the right to be taught, not warehoused until aging out of the system. Sadly, and as documented by the Tennessee Department of Education, the worst of these shortcomings are experienced by African American students with disabilities. This problem has driven many families out of our community and has resulted in costly, unnecessary lawsuits which the school district has consistently (meaning always) lost.
But there is reason for hope—real hope. Last year, in response to this chronic problem, the School Board unanimously supported the Three-Year Plan for Exceptional Education Reform, designed to bring Hamilton County schools into compliance with state and federal laws and standards, and in line with evidence-based best practices for the education of students with disabilities. The Three-Year Plan was the product of a year-and-a-half long collaboration between more than a dozen nonprofit organizations, families of children with special needs and HCDE leaders. I was privileged to play a small role in that process, and I am grateful to the families and nonprofits who got the ball rolling—rolling, to be clear, without the support or goading of any outside funder.
The Three-Year Plan emphasizes the right and ability of students with disabilities to attend their home zone schools and be educated in a general education setting, with appropriate supports, to the maximum extent possible. This is known as inclusive education—a concept backed by more than forty years of research and by law. By contrast, since the 1970s no research has found academic or social benefit for the segregated model historically practiced by HCDE.
HCDE’s new superintendent, Dr. Bryan Johnson, has demonstrated his commitment to inclusive education and the successful implementation of the Three-Year Plan by appointing senior leaders in general and special education who believe in and who are competent to make these changes. Now, the exceptional education portion of the proposed budget is specifically geared to support the successful move toward inclusion in our schools, with most students with disabilities attending their home zone schools next year—the first time the majority of children with significant disabilities will be able to attend their zoned schools with siblings and friends, instead of being bussed to distant cluster sites around the county. It’s an exciting day in Hamilton County for children with disabilities and their families.
Specifically, the budget provides for 10 new exceptional education teacher positions and 30 new assistant positions, a $1.8 million investment, which will facilitate the move to inclusive education in our schools. These educators will be in general education classrooms supporting all students with the transition to inclusion. This is known as ‘co-teaching’; an educational model where both a general education teacher and an exceptional education teacher are jointly responsible for the academic progress of all students in the classroom. Like it or not, most students with disabilities are moving to their home zone schools this August, and this transition can only be a success if the proper supports are in place to support all our children.
Some will ask whether inclusion means a compromised education for students without disabilities. This is a valid question. The good news is that multiple studies show that inclusion in no way limits the educational opportunities or lowers the academic standards available to non-disabled students. Research shows that even the presence of students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms do not negatively affect typical peers in terms of allocated instructional time, actual instructional time, or learners’ engaged time.
In fact, this same body of research shows that students without disabilities make comparable or greater academic gains (math and reading) in inclusive classrooms. One recent, quasi-experimental study of elementary and middle schools actually shows a substantive and significant positive difference in math scores in inclusive schools compared to non-inclusive ones. In addition to academic benefits, typical peers also benefit socially from the inclusion of children with special needs. If empathy and acceptance of people not like ourselves is a goal of public education, then inclusive practices facilitate these goals.
So inclusive education is not free, but if the two perennial problems of public education in Hamilton County are academic underperformance and bullying, evidenced-based and supported inclusion is our best chance of tackling both issues successfully.
And while the transition to inclusion does come with real costs, it also comes with real savings: Hamilton County currently ranks near the top nationwide in the per-pupil money it spends on transportation for students with disabilities, as these students are bussed to so-called ‘cluster sites’ across the county—at a cost to taxpayers of more than $7,000 per student with a disability, compared with less than $600 per student without a disability. Sending students to their home zone schools, and actually assessing which students need special transportation instead of using special transportation as the default (and no, this assessment has not been standard practice for HCDE), will dramatically reduce transportation costs in years to come—in effect shifting funds away from transportation and into education. The 40 new positions for teachers and assistants to support this transition help secure these future savings.
In addition, the proposed budget allocates approximately $1.5 million to the exceptional education budget to comply with the state's mandate that 15 percent of the district's IDEA funding (i.e., federal funds designated for educating students with disabilities) be redirected to address disproportionate disciplinary practices for African American students with disabilities. That $1.5 million will pay for 43 positions providing positive behavioral supports for all students.
While I agree that disproportionate disciplinary practices for students with disabilities must be addressed—this is a recurring problem for HCDE and is reflected strongly in the Three-Year Plan—the state's mandate that these funds come from IDEA money has a perverse effect: If exceptional education is funded at its current level next year, $1.5 million in services our children with special needs now receive will be effectively cut because of the state's mandate that this money be redirected.
This point bears repeating: If exceptional education is funded at the same level next year as it was this past year, this effectively means a $1.5 million cut in service to our children with disabilities.
In summary, exceptional education in Hamilton County is historically underfunded, and students with disabilities have not been given access to the education they are morally and legally entitled to receive. The Three-Year Plan unanimously endorsed by the School Board addresses these issues, and the proposed budget reflects these priorities. Funding the exceptional education portion of the budget is a critical step away from our failure to educate our most vulnerable children, meaning fewer costly lawsuits, and ultimately less reliance on public services as our children with special needs are given the opportunity to grow into more capable, independent, and fulfilled adult members of our community. This is what good public policy looks like.
I imagine the school budget will be a matter of horse trading between the County Commission and the School Board in the weeks to come. I am asking that the exceptional education portion of the budget, which is money morally and economically well spent, not be one of those horses. I say this as someone who has been a vocal critic of HCDE in the past, and even under the district’s exciting new leadership I continue to have serious differences of opinion.
But I also believe we are turning a corner. The Three-Year Plan for Exceptional Education Reform marks a dramatic, positive change in direction for some 5,600 children with disabilities in Hamilton County schools—nearly 13 percent of all children in our community. If implemented correctly, these reforms will mean substantial academic and social benefits for all 44,000-plus children in our schools and long-term gains for our community. I urge the County Commission to embrace this vision.
I recently met a kind woman whose adult son with a severe disability lives with her and her husband. She said to me, “This is the South. We don’t hide away our relatives with special needs here.” Thousands of children and their families in Hamilton County are counting on our leaders to make that moral sentiment a reality.
Dr. Cale Horne
Coordinator, Chattanooga Inclusive Education Working Group