Local School Leaders Address Learning Disabilities Statistics

According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, 35 percent of children with learning disabilities drop out of school.

Sixty percent of adults with severe literacy problems are found to have untreated learning disabilities.

But in a school system with an average SAT score of 1,175 and 81 percent of its graduates going on to four-year colleges and universities, it might be hard to believe that these statistics could apply.

Even The Wall Street Journal took note of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in 1999, when it honored Chapel Hill High School as one of the top 10 high schools in the nation.

But some educators say the statistics and accolades given to Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, while impressive, do not always tell the whole story.

"Chapel Hill seems to focus on the cream," said Jane Byron, director of learning disabilities at UNC. "If you're an average Joe, then you're kind of overlooked."

The awards tend to leave out about 1,380 special-needs students with diagnosed disabilities like attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, autism and dyslexia.

And a survey on Exceptional Education, presented to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education last September, sparked extensive discussion among some board members.

"There are some things we do very well," said former school board member Roger Waldon after the survey's presentation. "But a document like this tells us what we are not doing well."

But Byron said the survey results merely put into writing what teachers have known for years. "All the survey did was to get it out in the open -- teachers have been struggling with this for a very long time," she said.

One statistic Byron and board members pointed to is the tenuous relationship between resource teachers, or teachers specifically trained to teach exceptional children, and regular teachers.

Of the nearly 340 staff members who responded to the survey, 40 percent said the instructional efforts of regular education teachers and Exceptional Education staff are not well coordinated.

"The relationship between regular and special education teachers is adversarial," Byron said. "It's not a team effort. That's not to say there's not exceptions, but it's definitely not encouraged."

Board member Maryanne Rosenman also said she has encountered this issue directly -- two of her children have been diagnosed with learning disabilities and the third is autistic.

"As a parent, I found that in elementary school there seemed to be good communication," she said. "But on the school board, I hear more complaints from parents in secondary schools. Some teachers just don't want to deal with it."

But Rosenman said the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, passed in 1975, requires that teachers "deal with it."

The act specifically mandates that all public schools must offer all eligible children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment to meet their individual needs -- all resulting in a student's Individual Education Plan.

"I can understand why teachers feel overwhelmed," Rosenman said. "But on the other hand, if a child has an IEP, it's a legal document, and you are mandated to follow it."

Even armed with a legal document, Rosenman said she still ended up sending two of her children outside the public schools to the Hill Center in Durham.

A 24,000-square-foot building off U.S. 15-501, the center opened 25 years ago when UNC benefactor George Watts Hill learned his stepdaughter had a learning disability.

Rather than keep his stepdaughter in public education, Hill sent her to boarding school and bought a yellow farmhouse in Durham.

Hill's farmhouse, initially dubbed the Learning Development Center, served as an intensive, half-day remediation program for students with specific learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders.

"He simply couldn't find something that would address her needs, specifically the needs of bright children with learning disabilities," said Wendy Speir, director of admissions for the Hill Center.

And based on the center's student population, Hill's experience is all too familiar to parents of exceptional children in the area. Speir said 72 percent of the Hill Center's students come from public schools, with some children traveling from Sanford and Clayton -- both more than an hour drive away.

"Some of these kids have been beaten down, and they feel like a failure," Speir said. "Immediately there is an increase in academic skills and self confidence."

Speir said this confidence stems directly from the individual attention students receive at the center. The center strictly maintains a 1-4 teacher-student ratio -- a practice Speir said is not possible in public schools, where oftentimes classrooms can contain more than 30 students.

"Exceptional Education teachers in the public schools are excellent, but they're overwhelmed," Speir said. "They can't always meet the needs of all the children they want to work with."

But Margaret Blackwell, Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools executive director of Exceptional Education and Student Services, said the public school system's resource teachers do not have as heavy a caseload in comparison to state averages.

Blackwell said resource teachers in Chapel Hill and Carrboro typically have about 20 students each, about 10 less than the state limit.

"We actually have a moderate caseload for resource teachers," Blackwell said. "It's considerably lower than what the state allows for."

But Blackwell said the survey results did reveal a lack of communication between regular teachers and Exceptional Education staff members -- an issue she says the department is addressing. "We're offering teachers more opportunities to train," she said. "We're looking at the forms and how we can be more consistent."

In addition to standardizing reporting procedures across the system, Blackwell said her department is also looking to create a common language for parents, regular education teachers and Exceptional Education staff to facilitate communication.

Blackwell said that despite obstacles in communication and other problems her department is working to address, the future is bright.

"We are always looking for way to strengthen that link," she said. "Overall, we have a high-quality program."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.