"Students with disabilities in the Charlottesville school division graduate at a rate 22 percentage points below the state target, according to a new special-education report from the Virginia Department of Education.

A revision to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act now requires each state’s education department to send a report to the federal Department of Education exclusively focused on its school division’s special-education programs.

Virginia’s first-ever report shows that in 2005-06, the 753 students with disabilities in Charlottesville schools - 17.4 percent of the student population - had a graduation rate of 33.3 percent. In 2004-05, the rate was 37.7 percent.

In Albemarle County, 1,905 students with disabilities - 14.9 percent of all students - graduated at a rate of 63.1 percent in 2005-06. The rate in 2004-05 was 56.6 percent.

The state target was 55 percent for 2005-06, and, taken as a whole, the state’s students with disabilities graduated at a rate of 48.6 percent.

“I don’t think the state of Virginia does a very good job of meeting this constituency of students,” said Joe Szakos, vice chairman of the city’s Special Education Advisory Committee. “I think we have to get away from the myth in Charlottesville that everyone is doing fine.”

Szakos said that the budget priorities of school officials should reflect a willingness to address the needs of all its students, especially for those who are struggling despite putting forth the effort.

“Are you going to put resources forward for the kids who you know are going to graduate or are you going to make sure every child is going to be the best they can be?” he asked.

Emily Dreyfus, chairwoman of the Special Education Advisory Committee, saw the state report as something that school officials need to build on.

“It shows there’s a lot of work to be done,” she said. “What this information means is that the [school division] needs to look more at how kids are being taught. What is the curriculum doing and how does it need to be adjusted or beefed up in order to ensure that students with disabilities have a greater rate of success?”

With new leaders at the central office, Dreyfus is optimistic that the division will improve its plan for students with disabilities.

Beth Baptist, director of special education and student services, has been with the division for two years, and Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins will be starting her second school year in Charlottesville in a few weeks.

“These problems are weighty enough that there’s not going to be a quick fix, so I’m hoping we’ll see improvements from this past school year,” said Dreyfus.

By assigning as many students with disabilities to general education classrooms as is appropriate and having special-education teachers become co-teachers in more general education classrooms, Baptist feels these students can achieve at a higher level.

“That’s been one of my main goals over the last two years,” she said, “to have a more seamless transition between groups.”

A misleading rate?

Baptist said the 33 percent graduation rate in the report for 2005-06 is misleading because it does not paint the full picture of how students with disabilities are being reached.

“That doesn’t mean that 33 percent of our students with disabilities are meeting their goals,” she said of the report’s graduation rate.

The Virginia Department of Education offers five diploma options for students and the federal department recognizes only those students who earn an Advanced Studies or Standard diploma as having graduated.

The personal plan that Charlottesville teachers and guidance counselors script for each student with a disability - known as an Individualized Education Plan - may have the end goal of another diploma, such as the Modified Standard, Baptist explained. While these degrees are recommended for some students with disabilities, recipients are not counted as a graduating student.

“This is one of the parts of [No Child Left Behind] that really bothers me,” Baptist said. “We’d love it if every student could leave here with an advanced or standard diploma, but that’s not the appropriate option for some students.”

In some ways, Dreyfus likes the high standard to which the federal government holds students with disabilities, noting that higher expectations lead to higher achievement.

“If you get a modified standard diploma, you probably don’t have the transcript to be successful in higher education without some additional community college or remedial experience,” she said.

State plans action

A balance needs to be struck between keeping expectations high and allowing students to take advantage of all of the state’s degree options, said Patricia Wright, chief deputy superintendent of public instruction at Virginia’s education department.

Wright said that other states may not offer as many degree options as Virginia does, and therefore their graduation rates and achievement scores among students with disabilities - and all students - may differ.

“Our modified standard diploma may be more difficult than the standard diplomas in other states,” she said.

The state education department plans to petition the federal government in the near future to ask that all diplomas be counted in the calculation of graduation rates in 2008-09.

“That doesn’t mean they’ll agree,” Wright said, “but I think the board has every intention of going through with it.”" (Matt Deegan, The Daily Progress, August 6, 2007)