Raleigh, N.C. — Parents and advocates for disabled children are lobbying against a proposal to lift size limits on special education classes.
The State Department of Public Instruction sees class-size requirements as constraints, and proposes to eliminate teacher-student ratios for special education. A class of seven students with autism, for example, is required by state rules to have one teacher and two assistants.
But advocates for children with special needs, especially autism, worry this move will lead to bigger classes with fewer teachers.
"School systems are often strapped, and we think this would allow them to justify larger class sizes," said Jill Hinton Keel, executive director of the Autism Society of North Carolina.
DPI officials said they feel that school systems need more freedom to design special-ed classes. But with the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind, they said they doubt any school system would actually increase the size of the classes.
Keel said she agrees with the philosophy, but she expects unintended negative consequences.
The proposed changes to class size are part of a longer list of proposed changes state officials are considering.



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May 2, 2007 1:00 p.m.
Well said. Who are the schools to decide what level of teaching a child should recieve. It is okay that some kids are behind, they all can not be the same. The one issue I have with IEP's is there are certain circumstances I have heard of people being assigned someone to take notes for them. And let me tell you, these are not kids as severly disabled as Crisp describes. I will be cautious to monitor what they put in my son's IEP and the services he is to receive. I do not want him to get older and have someone pratically doing the work for him. I do think these more drastic IEP's are about parents who have gone off the deep end though.
May 2, 2007 12:32 p.m.
May 2, 2007 11:31 a.m.
May 2, 2007 11:06 a.m.
May 2, 2007 7:40 a.m.