LYNN — An increasing amount of special education referrals is making it more difficult for school officials to find space to service children in the Lynn Public Schools pre-kindergarten program.
“The biggest issue is that we do have a huge number of 3 and 4 year olds coming to us to be evaluated for preschool,” said Lynn Catarius, administrator of special education. “The majority are eligible for special education. We really are needing space for that.”
Two years ago, there were 250 special education referrals for pre-K and this year, there have been 400 — of those 400 who were referred, there were 245 kids that did register. Each month, Catarius said they get about 40 referrals.
Catarius said there have been two pre-K neighborhood classrooms at Harrington and Connery Elementary schools that were servicing only typically developing 4 year olds.
But she said there are so many students coming that have been identified as having special needs that a request was made to change those classrooms to be integrated to include special education students.
Catarius said the school district is mandated to serve 3 to 5 year olds who are eligible for special education, but Lynn Public Schools is not required to serve regular education students.
The School Committee recently voted to allow those two neighborhood classrooms to be integrated to include special education children, along with keeping the current pre-K structure as is for another year.
This past school year was the first time a two/three-day split was used for pre-K, which Catarius said allows for more instructional time for students.
With a five-day, half-day a.m./p.m. model, students were in school for about 12½ hours per week, but she said that included having breakfast and other components, which made it challenging for related providers, who provide services special education students need, to get in and see the kids.
By changing to a two or three full day, Catarius said the program is able to give the students with needs more time and still keep the same number of students.
Projections for next school year is that there will be 127 special education slots available and 160 regular education slots. Who fills the regular education slots is determined by a lottery, Catarius said.
“The issue was if they (the School Committee) were to not vote for the two/three split, we would have to take some of the classrooms to go five full days, which would significantly decrease the amount of regular education slots we would have,” Catarius said.
With the two-three split, she said students in a typical three-day would have multiple needs, such as significant speech services, but would also need occupational and physical therapy. In a two-day, students may have significant speech and language needs, but don’t have fine or gross motor issues, Catarius said.
The five full-day classroom program is reserved for students with significant needs above and beyond what is addressed in a two and three day program, she said.
For the most part, those classes are integrated, she said, because officials felt it was important for special education students to have regular education peers, or role models.
“This is definitely something that keeps me up at night,” Catarius said. “The number of students at very young ages that are being referred and having some significant delays is very concerning. How do we meet their needs and continue to be fiscally responsible in the district?”
School Committee vice-chair Donna Coppola voted against keeping the two/three day split for another year. She said she has received a lot of feedback from parents that it was not working for them. She wanted to go back to five half days, half in the morning, and half in the afternoon.
“We changed from a two to a three day instead of a half day because we were having difficulty providing services on IEPs,” said Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham. “We are required to provide preschool services to students with special needs … Everybody would like to have every day but a half day was not allowing us to get the job done.”
Latham said school officials are restricted by space and resources. She said they can expect another 400 referrals next year — she’s looked in her crystal ball and no rooms are going to appear in September.
“It’s a crisis and we have to service these children,” Latham said.
