Each week in our school’s Courier newsletter, there’s a little section at the bottom called “Did you know….” that highlights a quick fact about our school. This week’s fact is that ANCS serves a higher percentage of students with disabilities than any other charter school in the Atlanta Public Schools. Currently about 14% of ANCS students qualify for and receive special education services under an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The percentage was about the same last year, which put ANCS not only highest among charter schools but in the top quartile of all APS schools. And the percentage of students at ANCS who receive accommodations for a disability under a “504 plan” is higher than any other school in all of APS according to the district’s assistant superintendent of student services.
So why is it the case that ANCS serves such a relatively high percentage of students with identified learning disabilities? I think there several factors at play:
Working with students and families to identify disabilities and how they do (or do not) impact a student’s school experience: Uncovering a disability and how it affects a student’s education is often a complicated endeavor that depends upon skilled teachers and specialists and good communication between home and school. Thankfully, those conditions are in place at ANCS. And we aim to intervene early with students who demonstrate academic or behavioral challenges so that they get the supports they need before gaps grow. Our “student support team” coordinator focuses solely on working with teachers and parents to develop plans early to help students who show evidence of struggle to experience success.
Just as important as communicating the ins and outs of the evaluation and eligibility process is the way in which schools and families talk about what the disability actually means for a student. To many parents, the fact that their student has a disability is perceived as negative, so our work also involves helping to change that perception—when it exists—so that parents are able to see their child’s disability and the accommodations or modifications put into place to help support their child as an acknowledgment of the fact that their child simply learns differently. In other cases, we have to guide parents to understanding that a student’s challenges in school do not necessarily mean he or she has a disability. And our parents of students with disabilities are often helpful in supporting parents of a student with a newly-diagnosed disability. These sorts of honest and humane conversations where having a disability is seen for what it is—not more and not less—ultimately create a culture that is better-equipped to serve students with disabilities.
A recognition that it is okay to have a learning difference and that our job is to help students adapt to them: Students with IEP or 504 plans will sometimes come to us from other schools where they experienced struggles. From the stories they and their parents tell, these struggles are often rooted in what a mentor of mine calls “ableism”. Many well-meaning educators focus efforts on trying to help students “overcome” a disability in order to learn in the same ways as a peer who does not share that disability. This approach can often lead to frustration for the student when the disability cannot simply be conquered through sheer will or high expectations. Giving guidance to a basketball player who is short to “grow taller” in order to improve at the game makes about as much sense as the equivalent of what schools sometimes ask, say, of students with attention deficit or dyslexia to “focus more” in order become better readers or to stay organized. Some students have disabilities based in physiological differences that are out of their control to change. Therefore, it can be more productive to help students gain the skills to live and learn with their disability and for teachers to provide the supports that allow them to do so. We aim to do this at ANCS so that students can have a more academically and socially fulfilling experience at school by knowing themselves well as learners.
Dedicating an appropriate level of resources to serving students with disabilities (which also benefits all students): I recently heard someone comment as a part of a panel discussion that he was struck by the “lack of innovation” among charter schools when it comes to special education. From what I’ve seen and heard through the years, I think part of the reason schools that are innovative in many areas of their program might struggle when it comes to special education is simply because adequate resources aren’t directed towards special education or, when they are, they are done in such a way as to only benefit special education. At ANCS, we have a full-time special education coordinator and 11 special education teachers across our two campuses. Of course, this level of staffing fits with our relatively high percentage of students with disabilities. But it also allows us, more often than not, to educate students with disabilities in classes with their peers and all students then benefit from having multiple teachers in a classroom. And when it is more appropriate for a student to receive more personalized instruction for a period of time, we have the flexibility to do so. Additionally, many of our teachers have participated in training about “Universal Design for Learning” which provides a framework for developing curriculum and instruction that is supportive of a range of learners, whether they have a disabilities or not.
These are some of the main reasons why I believe parents of students with disabilities are attracted to our school and why those students are, by and large, successful when they are here. This isn’t to say we always get it right or that students with disabilities never encounter challenges in their learning while at ANCS or that there are not schools with specialized programs that are more appropriate for certain kinds of disabilities. But guided by Coalition of Essential Schools principles such as “the school’s goals should apply to all students, while the means to these goals will vary as those students themselves vary”, “provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves”, and “the school should honor diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity” we hope to create a learning environment where opportunities for learning and growth are equally accessible to all of the students we serve, even if they might get there in different ways.
To talk more about our work with students with disabilities, you are welcome to attend a parent coffee being hosted by our PTCA “special needs committee” on Tuesday, September 16th at 8:15 AM at our elementary campus. Along with some members of our special education team, there will also be individuals from the Atlanta Public Schools special education program in attendance so that you can learn more about the relationship between charter schools and APS in the realm of special education and the roles we play in supporting students with disabilities.