Shell Game? Minneapolis Public Schools to dismantle citywide autism program

I like waking up to a good Twitter exchange, especially when it concerns one of my favorite subjects: the Minneapolis Public Schools. 

This morning, the Tweet that started it all was a shout out to Minneapolis Star Tribune education reporter Alejandra Matos, who did a wee bit of poking into Minneapolis’s recent “family friendly” decision to stop providing its well-regarded citywide autism program:

“A little more deeply” is right, but it’s a start. 

Minneapolis has been offering a citywide autism program for years, where kids with autism get access to regular classroom experiences and the best of the best autism services, with real deal teachers trained in working with autistic kids. Here is how Matos describes it:

In the program, about four or five autistic students are assigned to a classroom with a specialized autism teacher, assistant teachers and aides. The children are also assigned to a mainstream classroom led by a teacher with experience teaching students with autism. The students often stay together from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Parents love it, apparently, with one even referring to it as a “gem” that the district “should be showing off.” And so the district is dismantling it.  For the kids’ sake, of course:

District officials say they want to free up more resources to serve students in their community schools, and federal law requires the district to serve students in the least restrictive way possible. They say the change will allow more inclusion into mainstream classrooms across all schools.

But parents say their kids have always had the option of inclusion and mainstreaming, as well as the option to send their kids–autistic or not–to their community school. Now, the difference is they won’t have the option of citywide, intensive programming staffed with autism-trained teachers and assistants.

Whatevs. Minneapolis Public Schools “Chief Academic Officer” Susanne Ziebart Griffin doesn’t really need parental or school board input anyway:

“I acknowledge parents’ concerns,” said chief academic officer Susanne Griffin. “These are their children. They want the best for them.” Griffin said that decisions to close classrooms are made all the time. “This is not uncommon.” The district does not need a board vote to make these changes because it is not a matter of policy.

Griffin had me at: “This is not uncommon.”  But not everyone is buying this blithe little brush off:     

Ow. “A shell game with services at the expense of students’ education rights.” 

That sounds like something worth digging into, a lot more deeply.

 

2 thoughts on “Shell Game? Minneapolis Public Schools to dismantle citywide autism program

  1. Always, always, always follow the money. Here is the key statement – “In the program, about four or five autistic students are assigned to a classroom with a specialized autism teacher, assistant teachers and aides”. Now they are saving the money spent on the training, the assistant teachers and the aides. It’s all about money.

  2. They keep saying they won’t save any money NEXT year. But how about when 60% of those students aren’t in the program anymore? When they are served by resource teachers with 1:20 caseloads?

Comments are closed.