Special ed gets short shrift

Jack Coyne, president of the San Mateo-Foster City School District board, said the district is working to fill the hole, and another administrator said the board is trying to work with the county to contract a speech therapist.

"Any place we have an opening we do end up contracting out," Coyne said.

Laurel parent Coryne Wong-Whittington said her 8-year-old son had not received speech therapy since Aug. 30. He had been receiving the service since age 2.

"We're having huge problems, we don't have a teacher," she said.

Similarly, parent Katey Bielagus said her 8-year-old daughter's behavior had become "almost uncontrollable" since the service was taken away. She had been given speech therapy since age 3.

Speech therapists treat speech, language and voice disorders in a painstaking process spanning years. Interrupting therapy can lead to behavioral problems and worsening speech patterns.

In September, the school sent a letter to 12 families affected by the loss of the therapist saying it would be reevaluating students to identify those still in need of speech therapy, Bielagus said.

It also said the problem was lack of money.

The school district has in the past relied on higher-priced contractors for speech therapy, and finding a speech therapist willing to work full-time for a smaller salary is proving difficult.

Bielagus said she filed a grievance with the California Board of Education, but that it simply faxed the San Mateo-Foster City School District asking it to call her to give her the status of the program.

Laurel Elementary School Principal Carolyn McRoberts deflected the charges and said the district, not the school, must hire a speech therapist.

"I understand the parents' concern, and I don't know why it's taking so long for this position to be filled," the first-year principal said.

McRoberts said the special education program is going on without the speech therapist at Laurel. There are three special teachers - one it shares with Beresford Elementary - and a psychologist.

"I'm not saying my child's not making progress, it's just this one piece, Bielagus said of the missing speech therapist. "It was her main diagnosis and it's hard when speech and language are not served," she said.

Students could make up the lost hours - about an hour and a half per week per student - when one is hired, McRoberts said. Making up the time is beside the point because the school is legally mandated to fulfill students' Individual Educational Plans, Wong-Whittington said. Veteran teachers in the district called the missing therapist highly unusual, she said.

Bielagus said she would be satisfied if speech services were tacked on to the end of the school year.

Stephen Baxter can be reached by e-mail at stephen@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 109. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.