‘My own state legislators have voted against doing what’s best for my son’ in Kansas | Opinion
As the parent of a child with Down syndrome, I have become all too aware of the revolving door of teachers and paraprofessionals in our schools and, particularly, in our special-education classrooms.
It’s not our teachers’ fault. Years of systemic underfunding of our special-education programs has led to a loss of educators who are — rightfully so — unwilling to take yet another pay cut or spread themselves thin to try to keep up with growing class sizes.
The sad reality is that most educators who leave do so to seek out better pay and benefits. And who could blame them?
One of the biggest issues this revolving door creates is a lack of consistency, which hurts special education students’ ability to thrive in the classroom.
For students like my son, it takes time to build trusting relationships with their teachers, and time for their teachers to understand how to put them on track to reach their goals both inside and outside the classroom.
Our special education students working with new professionals on a monthly — or even weekly — basis does not support those needs.
A great example of the damage this kind of inconsistency can cause is the year my son was placed on a behavioral intervention plan.
He had never required such a plan in the past, but the revolving door of educators threw him off balance.
He would run from the classroom, even from the building, to escape the unstable environment.
It was terrifying for him, for myself as a parent and for the educators responsible for his safety.
This sudden change in his behavior and needs was clearly due to the changes within the classroom.
Once he was with a stable teacher and support staff the following year, his behaviors diminished and the intervention plan was removed.
The inconsistency of the revolving door in the classroom impacts individual students in ways many politicians simply don’t understand.
Not having enough teachers to go around means our schools — and particularly our special education classrooms — can’t meet the needs of our special education students’ individualized education programs.
Our students have these plans for a reason. Not following a student’s individualized educational plan is illegal — meaning that when schools don’t have adequate funding to follow those plans, they’re put at risk of costly lawsuits that can ultimately take even more money from our classrooms.
Our legislators need to fix this, and they need to do it now.
My family has been part of the Andover school district since my son was 8 years old. He is now a sophomore.
Being in public schools is so much more than learning math or geography — it means being a part of a community.
Right now, my son is in an inclusive learning environment among other students, where he benefits from absorbing information around him at his own personalized pace, and where his peers benefit from learning how to be friends with and support a diversity of students.
But over the last few years, I have felt critical components of our special education programs slip away while I have watched our elected officials, like state Sen. Ty Masterson and state Rep. Kristey Williams, vote against fully funding our special-education programs — and even put public school funding more broadly at risk.
In essence, my own state legislators have voted against doing what’s best for my son and all public school students.
Our students in special education programs have a right to be a part of the community and be productive members of society just as much as any other student.
I encourage my representatives, and every representative in the Kansas Legislature, to put politics aside and fully fund special education to ensure every student has the right to be part of a community and thrive.
Beth Hollenbeck is the mother of a special education student in Andover, Kansas.
