When the Superintendent of Schools and his staff began working on a plan to improve the district-wide special education programming for Platte County R-3 Schools, they felt the new plan would benefit the students in many ways, but Superintendent Dr. Jay Harris, while excited about the plan, has expressed regret about not getting the families’ feedback early in the planning.
“What we should have done is much like what we do a lot in actually creating time to invite the families in to say, ‘here’s the things we’re thinking about, here’s the reasons why, but we also know that you have thoughts and things we need to consider as well,’ and to have the chance to listen to them,” Harris said. “So, when we did that, it was a mistake, and I own that mistake.”
When parents found out about the planned changes for transferring their kids to other schools, they were concerned about how their children would handle, and react to, being in schools with which they weren’t familiar.
Dr. Jay Harris
“I was worried that we would lose the sense of community we have felt with our son’s current school,” parent, Stephanie Maxwell said. “As a special-needs parent, you worry all the time about how your child is being treated, especially with kids like my son who is nonverbal and has autism. Over the last several years, we have been relieved as we’ve gotten to know staff at the school and met other families with children attending there as well. All around town we run into teachers, parents, librarians, etc. I was afraid we were going to lose that feeling of familiarity. I was also concerned at how far away my son would be from his home, his family, his pediatrician, after-school therapy and emergency contacts. I also believe that other children benefit from having kids with disabilities in their school, segregating children to different locations because of their abilities sends a non-inclusive message to the student body. I think every school should be able to provide services to a child no matter what their diagnosis.”
Several public meetings were then organized to get the school staff and parents together to hear their concerns.
“What we’ve done now is we’ve taken a step back, paused, and said OK, let’s listen to the feedback from our families and hear what they have to say and consider that feedback along with our staff’s feedback to determine what’s the best place, what’s the best solution we can identify for our students and our families, so that’s where it was left and once we met with our families twice and we listened to them, we made some adjustments,” Harris said.
Special Education programming includes: Functional, Autism, Behavior Support and Cross Categorical.
Maxwell was told that there was no longer room at Siegrist Elementary for the self-contained autism classes (currently two classes K-5).
The District Level Programming currently is Functional and Autism at Siegrist and Behavior Support and Cross Categorical at Compass. The 2023-2024 original consideration was Functional at Siegrist, Autism at Barry, Behavior Support at Compass and Cross Categorical at Pathfinder. The updated Site Assignment is Functional at Siegrist, Autism at Barry and Compass, Behavior Support at Compass and Cross Categorical at Compass.
“The autism students from Seigrist will now be split between Compass Elementary and Barry Elementary depending on where the student lives,” Maxwell said. “The plans to move cross-categorical to Pathfinder were canceled after meeting with parents.”
Maxwell’s son Will is non-verbal and has autism. Maxwell emphasized the fact that many students with developmental disabilities have a hard time with transitions and new places. It often takes much longer for children in these classes to adjust than their general education peers. Many special needs students thrive with routine and regularity. It’s important to give them an environment where they feel secure and comfortable so that they can focus on learning. The school district has said there is not enough room at Seigrist Elementary to keep Special Education programs in the same location as they have been the last few years.
When the parents first became aware of the changes, Maxwell talked with other parents who were also upset with the original decision. She asked for a meeting with Dr. Harris and was then able to contact two school board members, who prior to parents reaching out had no idea this change was being made, and about 10 other parents via social media. They united and brought their concerns to Dr. Harris and Dr. Jennifer Beutel in a meeting on Feb. 21.
Most of the people who attended the recent, special school board meeting concerning the changes were parents and grandparents of the children who will be affected by the location changes. Along with Dr. Jay Harris, Dr. Jennifer Sample, a local pediatrician was also present.
“Relocating some of the programs would actually be closer for some families than others, the hard part is they’ve been where they are for a number of years and so people are used to that and I think that’s just a pretty significant change for those families and that’s where we should have proactively engaged them and had them be a part of identifying the best solution ahead of time and we didn’t,” Harris said. “We’ve taken a pause, and I own that mistake and I’ll continue to say that’s on me. There are four programs in the district that are district-wide special education programs and the reason they’re district-wide is because these programs are relatively low in student numbers. They have specialized instruction and need specialized space, and in some cases even specialized equipment such as physical therapy equipment. So currently the functional life skills elementary students are at Siegrist, the two autism classrooms are at Siegrist, the Behavior Support is at Compass and the Cross Categoricals are at Compass and so for every student, if you live in the South in the district they can get bused up here to attend those schools and that program. Our staff sat down and talked about how can we improve our opportunity to provide focus specialized instruction and have each program supported by each elementary school, which then feeds into the middle school so next year we’re building Platte Purchase Middle School and Barry converts to an K-5 Elementary School, so by doing that we’ll now have four elementary schools, and so the thinking was to put one program at each elementary school and then two elementary schools will feed into Platte City Middle School, two elementary schools will also then feed into Platte Purchase middle school and then they can provide specialized instruction with high quality space and equipment taking all the pressure off just one school and allowing those students to get a little more focused instruction.”
Maxwell said that at the original meeting, the administration said that moving the autism program to Barry School would provide better programming, but that they failed to specifically say what would be improved other than a bigger classroom.
“Prior to making the original choice to move students to Barry school, the school district failed to do any type of parent survey, they also did not research or consult with anyone as to the impacts this move would have on students and their families,” Maxwell said. “Dr. Harris, the superintendent, was very kind and apologized for not putting more thought into this decision to move students.”
Since Maxwell’s son, Will, is non-verbal, she knows that having a conversation with him about long-term plans will be difficult. But as the school year comes to an end, she will try to explain that he won’t be going back to Siegrist. “The adjusted plan I think will be smoother for most students than the original idea,” Maxwell said. “My son has been to Compass Elementary in the summer for extended school year programming along with many other children that will be affected. I think the hardest transition will be for those that have to go to Barry Elementary.”
For Harris, getting parents, teachers, staff and board members on the same team to make decisions about what’s best for all the students in local schools is the most important goal.
“It’s important that we partner with our families, it’s important that our staff are at the table as well to have a say, and our teachers that work with these students every day, they all know what good instruction looks like and what high quality learning space looks like and how those programs can support each other,” Harris said.
He believes it is of upmost importance for families to be at the table to offer feedback on what’s important to them and their children.
“We need to take a step back and say, ‘OK, let’s rethink this and find a positive solution,’ and I think we found one and we’re going to move forward,” Harris said. “It’s incredible that cooperation with families and the teachers is so very important, that we’re all partners in the well-being of our kids and the success of our students and that’s something we’re going to continue to focus on. So, basically this is just to kind of spread the kids out a little bit so they will get more attention and in school they will be able to have more focused instruction in a quality learning space that also allows for us to focus on professional development for all staff so they can support the children in these programs throughout the school day. This is what we heard from families, and this is where we should have taken the time to proactively engage them since they let us know that being close to their school was important to them, especially when you have students with high needs. Some of them even relocated to be close to their kids’ school, they want to be able to get up there quickly if they’re needed.”
Maxwell is extremely grateful that the concerns of the parents were heard, and the school administration decided to reconsider the decision to move students. While the autism students are still having to relocate, she believes the new plan is much better than the first.
“Ideally, no student would have to travel to another town to receive special education services, which is still the case with three other special education programs (Functional, Behavioral, and Cross-Categorical) in which children from the entire district are brought to Compass. However, the other classrooms have much smaller numbers than the autism program and at this time administration has deemed it not practical to split into one in the northern part of the district and one in the southern part,” Maxwell said.
Local residents can be assured that parents, teachers, administrators and school board members are committed to working together to ensure that all children prosper.