Carroll County Public School System is doing a good job creating partnerships with community preschools to ensure that severely disabled students are educated at the centers, said a Howard County parent.
“They?re really motivated, and they?re making great strides,” said Jessica Pearsall, a Howard County parent whose son, Robby, has Down?s Syndrome.
Several years ago, Carroll parents expressed an interest in having more severely disabled children placed in community preschool programs to provide their children with opportunities to learn in educational settings with students without disabilities.
“We have found our private service providers to be wonderful,” said Stephanie Savar, director of special education for the Carroll schools.
The school system has partnered with about 50 community preschools, where Carroll?s special education staff provides students with a variety of services, including speech and physical therapy at the centers, said Savar.
The community preschool teachers also participate in workshops with the Carroll staff to develop the best ways to educate students with disabilities.
Howard parents are seeking similar services for severely disabled students, said Pearsall, who was told that her son, now 10, didn?t qualify for special education services in a community preschool setting.
“We were basically told that the program didn?t serve students with Down Syndrome,” she said.
When children with disabilities make up 10 percent to 15 percent of children in a classroom, there?s more opportunity for disabled students to succeed, said Pearsall.
“The more typical peers you have, the less adult interaction needed because there?s a lot of modeling of appropriate behavior,” she said.
Since Carroll parents raised the issue, the number of staff members in the system?s community preschool program has gone from zero to eight, said Savar.
“We?ve had a lot of support for funding from our school board and county,” she said.
In Howard, a committee is examining parents? request to include more disabled students in community preschools, and the school board is expected to discuss the matter during budget talks in the spring, said Joshua Kaufman, school board chairman.
