AMHERST — Better professional development and neurodiversity-affirming training for all teaching staff in the Amherst and Pelham public schools, along with sufficient funding for paraprofessionals to work one-on-one with students, are among recommendations being made by the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee’s steering panel.
At a joint meeting of the Regional, Amherst and Pelham school committees Monday, steering committee members pushed back against what they say has often become targeted cuts disproportionately affecting students with disabilities, including those with individualized education programs and Section 504 accommodations.
The reductions come even as parent Ellen Jedrey-Guidera said needs have grown, with over 900 students in the Regional, Amherst and Pelham schools with IEPs, making up 25% of the population at the high school, 31% at the middle school, 24% at the Amherst elementary schools, 23% at Pelham Elementary and 68% in the preschool.
“Financial support for our programs to properly meet legally mandated educational needs of our special education students has not been adequate for many years,” Jedrey-Guidera said.
The drop in paraprofessionals support, due to budget cuts, has come even as there is no reduction in needs, she said.
“Paraprofessionals are a necessary cost of providing inclusive education. They are low cost and high impact,” Jedrey-Guidera said.
Neurodiversity affirming training and professional development for all staff is also a must, said parent Angelica Bernal.
“Just as Amherst is a diverse community racially, ethnically, culturally and linguistically, we’re also a neurodiverse community,” Bernal said. This includes students who are autistic, have attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome and other developmental disabilities.
Bernal expressed concern with how the district resolved the recent issue with a chaotic fifth grade classroom in what is known as the Explorers program at Fort River School. The solution was to have some of the students in this classroom, where they learn only in English, be merged for some classes with the Caminantes dual language program.
But the drastic changes to established routines and predictability for children “should not have been done without sufficient time for an appropriate transition,” Bernal said.
Parents are also frustrated that some of the neurodiverse students have been labeled as “noncompliant” and “defiant,” Bernal said. Had an inclusive, welcoming culture for all students already been underway, the chronic problems that have affected the Explorers fifth grade classroom could have been averted.
“Ultimately providing appropriate training across the board will help transform our schools in ways that are crucial at this juncture, both in terms of our school environment and also budgetarily as we face upcoming shortfalls,” Bernal said.
The request is for a proactive rather than reactive approach, which Bernal said will lower out-of-district placements, which cost more money. and cut down on legal fees.
Jedrey-Guidera said another demand is better communication. This was shown when there was lack of details provided to families about the “mix it up” program with the fifth graders at Fort River, which SEPAC also contends was done without input from the district’s director of student services.
“Introducing this program late in the year has already created upheaval and disregulation on some students in both Explorers and Caminantes,” Jedrey-Guidera said.
Bernal said that inclusion means full access to the curriculum. “Information about disability and neurodivergence must be embedded in the general curriculum to normalize differences and acknowledge disability as a type of human diversity, ” Bernal said.
The group also wants a recommitment to co-teaching, noting that “robust investment in special education benefits all.”
“The degree to which we lift up students with disability is the degree to which we lift up all,” Bernal said.
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman said the district avoided paraprofessional cuts last school year and have made serious adjustments quickly to make sure student needs are met.
“I will not allow the narrative that the district does not value paraeducators,” Herman said. “We do. And we want to make sure that we provide our students what they need.”
Herman also disputed how data drives decision, saying she data for and against is useful but doesn’t drive how it applies to services. “We apply services in the district based on student needs,” Herman said.
Amherst School Committee member Sarah Marshall said school officials need to expand understanding of diversity and how to support that full range of needs.
Amherst School Committee member Irv Rhodes said this is a challenging topic.
“When people think about diversity they think about color, ethnicity, but they forget about behavioral, they forget about a large number of people who are out there,” Rhodes said.
Pelham School Committee member Rachel Figurasmith said parents are already navigating “hellish scenes” for their children
“There is real direct impact when administrators are hearing that budgets are tight, that shows up in IEP meetings and affects decision-making in really significant ways,” Figuramish said.
Jennifer Curiale, also a member of SEPAC, said if there are functional classrooms then children won’t be leaving the public schools in Amherst and Pelham.
“The mindset shift of if we can we really support students who need it, if we can value functional classrooms and really what it takes to make a classroom functional, I think in the long run we could stem the flow and make ARPS a place people are attracted to, rather than how they are going to plan their escape for middle school,” Curiale said.