PSS SPED program still working to close learning gap

A total of 873 students in public and private schools of all ages are being provided special education services, yet schools are still faced with the challenge of finding qualified staff to adequately meet all the needs of these students, according to Public School System SPED program director Suzanne Lizama.

This issue and more were the focus last Wednesday when the Special Education State Advisory Panel or SESAP convened to discuss the program’s successes and challenges.

The hardest part, Lizama said, is that “every school is supposed to have at least two HQT [highly qualified teachers] but they don’t and they are essentially the curriculum planners for our students.”

“We have too many aides…and we are losing teachers,” she said.

Of the 873 in the special education program, 108 have autism; two have deaf-blindness; nine suffer from emotional disturbance; 26 have hearing impairments; 57 have intellectual disabilities; 41 have multiple disabilities; seven have orthopedic impairments; 91 suffer health impairments that hinder their learning abilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, attention deficit disorder, uncontrolled diabetes, hemophilia and cancer; 382 have specific learning abilities; 19 have speech or language impairments; three have traumatic brain injuries; four have visual impairments, and 124 have development delays.

Lizama said that 80 percent of these students are in regular class settings everyday.

“Every school should have highly qualified teachers to give students the education they deserve. Even though there are a lot of good things happening, I just wish the Legislature would put a portion of the scholarship fund, just 10 percent, to be appropriated for master’s degrees in hard-to-fill positions,” she said.

She said PSS is not the only entity that needs these positions, citing as an example the Division of Youth Services and the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Although PSS has teacher aides to supplement the contact teachers for the special education program, it is not ideal. “You can count the number of vacancies for SPED teachers… There are many vacancies and I wish I could fill them all,” she said.

For middle schools on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, the data showed that for 229 special education students, there are only 13 HQTs with the help of numerous aides.

For elementary schools, it’s 269 students to 16 teachers and for high schools it’s 282 students to nine teachers.

Despite this, Lizama noted that the special education program graduated 80 percent of their students, based on their 2014 annual performance report. This is a 10-percent increase over their 2013 performance.

Lizama said a large percentage of students with disabilities were suspended or expelled last year due to various factors so the program worked to reduce this with the use of alternative education and in-school suspension.

The annual performance report further showed that 47 percent of students who graduated from the program were either in college or employed within a year.

Lizama spoke on the State Systemic Improvement Plan and their movement into Phase 2 of the plan, which aims to have at least 55 percent of third grade students with Individualized Education Plans in three target schools to perform at or above reading proficiency against grade level and alternate academic achievement standards by June 30, 2019.

According to the SSIP Phase 1 component, “The overall trend data for reading proficiency of 3rd grade students with IEP indicates a downward trend over the last four years. The proficiency gap between 3rd grade students with and without disabilities has steadily increased over the past few years and the gap continues in subsequent grades.”

According to the SSIP, PSS is aware that academic improvement may take up to four years, which will eventually show improvement in the learning gap amongst all students and not just those with IEPs.