Starting Another Journey

I have spent most of my blogging time over on my PRO on HCPS site and reading The Gradebook. Plus keeping up with Goader.

And I found a blog that has some interesting comments about special education.

I have a backlog of notes on ideas to write about but keep putting them off. I imagine when something happens to trigger my need to vent, I will at least have some notes to fall back on to help me.

The final decision on the Whitehead vs. HCPS should be coming out soon. There will be as much about this case that will never be known as was in the last one. As with a lot of things within the world of public education, there seems to be more focus on issues away from education that impede education.

My wife and I own a couple of pre-schools and have done so for 33 years. Each school has two national accreditations. We used to receive many children with disabilities referred to us by District personnel. We had a reputation for being able to meet their needs, with supports and services of course. I am not sure if the drop off of referrals was due to my parental support to successfully advocate for these appropriate supports and services to be continued within the public school classroom after the student left us.


My company is starting a new endeavor which could go on for several years. The more I learn, the more I realize how to learn more. We are starting a partnership with The University of South Florida's Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support Project.

Our letter of acceptance from the Project Director states we were "competitively selected from numerous applicants in the community. Because of the commitment of your staff to quality early education practices, their interest in adopting evidence-based practices and the strong administrative leadership of your program your center truly excels."

Sounds good to me. As long as I don't commit the sin of being arrogant and recognize when I am ignorant, I will take an accolade now and then.

I will take this moment to expose an ironic event within HCPS. In the past, some IEP meetings that I attended in support of a parent were held up while the District (not Hillsborough) researched whether or not I was a lawyer. Hillsborough, on the other hand, once brought an attorney to an IEP along with their top Directors involved in Special Education (SpEd and Staffing and Compliance)while the parent only had me. At the subsequent IEP meeting, the parent brought me and her lawyer. Upon introductions, the HCPS attorney stated he was only there for the IEP because the parent had brought legal council to the IEP meeting and added something to the effect that he thought attorneys shouldn't be at IEP meetings because they impeded the IEP process.

The parent's astute lawyer then asked the question of the HCPS lawyer "Were you at the last IEP meeting?" to which the HCPS lawyer said "yes". The parent's lawyer asked "did the parent have legal council at that IEP meeting that you were present?"......to which the HCPS lawyer had to say "no".

Catharsis is good for the soul.

I look forward to my new endeavor. I know at least one of the leading educators behind this project at FMHI. There were several from FMHI involved in the development of the Superintendent's Advisory Council on Special Education for HCPS. It would be interesting to see what the return was on their time invested.

The significance of this program is the statistical information that shows that in 2005, pre-school children were 3.2 times more likely to expelled from public pre-school programs than students in K-12 programs(Gilliam, 2005), pg 3, [Fox, L, Jack, S., & Broyles, L (2005). Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Supporting Young Children's Social-Emotional Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior. Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute.]

I don't want to be part of the problem of the public education system. I am well aware of the discussions that say that "private schools" can pick and choose their "raw material". The recent discussions on The Gradebook about the status of the three Hillsborough schools that have been cited by the state to be closed next year if they don't show improvement has been a concern of mine. It appears from the public comments on that blog that it is a consensus of many people that the reason for these school's failure is "the public".

Let's assume that is true. Then what is the answer? Kick the public out? Just accept it as "it is what it is"? While we have all heard about "early intervention", this program advocates for "early prevention". "Mental health providers are actively engaged in supporting the social-emotional development of Head Start children through skill development and ongoing instruction". [ibid. pg 12]

The high school setting is not a conducive place to develop the pre-adolescent and adolescent social-emotional skills needed to benefit from the educationally focused setting. I get that part of the equation. What I don't get is when people say "our public schools are not baby sitters" and "it is up to the parent to prepare the kids for school" and "the kids should come to school with the right mindset to sit in class and learn" and "teachers should not have to teach character, that is the parent's job".

I then want to ask what is the purpose of extra curricular programs such as athletics, band, chorus, cheer leading etc. How do those prepare a student to receive educational benefit from the classroom. If evidence-based research shows that social-emotional development is the key to any and all later education, and if the public school system wants more return for their dollar, then maybe there needs to be a revamping of the way our public school system sees it's purpose. All of the time and money spent on educational reform may be like trying to reform a Model T Ford.

Kicking schools out of the system seems a bit odd. My less-than-trusting perspective of the school system tells me that "grades" will be manipulated to deal with this problem. I sarcastically predict that next year we will see GPA's of 9+ (don't we already have 8+). My logic on this is that in order to manipulate the low grades to a "higher level", the high grades will again be artifically inflated. It is already happening, so how could I be wrong? Time will tell.