As a man with a severely cognitively disabled brother and as a previous Catholic School teacher: providing special ed is out of reach of Catholic schools as a practical matter. The priest in charge of my school really wanted to start a program (which would have been the first Catholic special ed program in the state) but the costs were j…
As a man with a severely cognitively disabled brother and as a previous Catholic School teacher: providing special ed is out of reach of Catholic schools as a practical matter. The priest in charge of my school really wanted to start a program (which would have been the first Catholic special ed program in the state) but the costs were just impossible to raise. Several million upfront for the dedicated, specialized facilities and space, plus around $40k per year per student (compared to our tuition of about $4k per year or, in the public schools, $16k per student in state spending per student).
All this to say, yes, it would be wonderful if Catholic schools provided special ed. But half a million per year to educate one classroom of twelve children would rival the cost of a whole 100+ student middle school combined. It's not a matter of will to do it -- many pastors and teachers want to see it happen -- but of the specialized costs that come with serving a highly diverse high-need community.
I'm sure what you write is true. All the more reason to question those who want to abolish the Dept of Ed and the services they provide for disabled students, since it's practically impossible to raise private funds to do the same even when the will is there.
I am heartened to see what seems like a growing desire to accommodate special needs where possible; and I agree with you about the the infeasibility of providing the level of services public schools are legally obligated to provide (barring major restructuring of how schools are financed)
But I have also seen Catholic schools that are so used to thinking "we can't accommodate special needs" that they refuse accommodations that are free and very minor, simply because they don't want to open the door to doing ~anything at all (like, "this kid is still getting used to operating their wheelchair; if they come in quietly and non disruptively, is it okay if they're a few minutes late to class?" --> "No, there's exactly 5 minutes transition time between classes; any kid who is late gets detention; if we start giving exceptions, how could we enforce any school discipline at all??")
Thankfully, our principal was already pretty reasonable for accommodations like that. Part of the purpose (we felt) of having a special education program is to teach the general student body charity towards people with different needs from their own. That has to start from the literal adults in the room saying "they need this, so in the virtue of justice we will give it to them". So yeah, it definitely begins with extra transition time and not making a big deal about absolute, identical conformity from every student on things like that.
I worked as a teacher's aide for handicapped students for years. Other than being wheelchair accessible, having separate bathrooms with tables and showers as well as toilet, and having a higher number of staff than a regular classroom, it wasn't all that different from a regulat classroom. I doubt it was as expensive per student as you claim.
The things you describe are for for physically handicapped students -- which we already served and had accommodations for. We were looking at Down's, Autism, Intellectual Disability, and other groups that require specialists. So that 40k figure is looking at physical therapy, speech therapy, social skills work, and the rest. My own brother cost our school district $55k per year, and that's a figure I know for sure.
Also might be of interest perhaps in a different way as a diocesan model: in the diocese of Pittsburgh, there is something called the St. Anthony's Program and it is wonderful. It's for students with special needs and is an option that allows them to integrate in a typical Catholic school, but with specialized life skill classes, etc. https://stanthonykids.org/
As a man with a severely cognitively disabled brother and as a previous Catholic School teacher: providing special ed is out of reach of Catholic schools as a practical matter. The priest in charge of my school really wanted to start a program (which would have been the first Catholic special ed program in the state) but the costs were just impossible to raise. Several million upfront for the dedicated, specialized facilities and space, plus around $40k per year per student (compared to our tuition of about $4k per year or, in the public schools, $16k per student in state spending per student).
All this to say, yes, it would be wonderful if Catholic schools provided special ed. But half a million per year to educate one classroom of twelve children would rival the cost of a whole 100+ student middle school combined. It's not a matter of will to do it -- many pastors and teachers want to see it happen -- but of the specialized costs that come with serving a highly diverse high-need community.
I'm sure what you write is true. All the more reason to question those who want to abolish the Dept of Ed and the services they provide for disabled students, since it's practically impossible to raise private funds to do the same even when the will is there.
I am heartened to see what seems like a growing desire to accommodate special needs where possible; and I agree with you about the the infeasibility of providing the level of services public schools are legally obligated to provide (barring major restructuring of how schools are financed)
But I have also seen Catholic schools that are so used to thinking "we can't accommodate special needs" that they refuse accommodations that are free and very minor, simply because they don't want to open the door to doing ~anything at all (like, "this kid is still getting used to operating their wheelchair; if they come in quietly and non disruptively, is it okay if they're a few minutes late to class?" --> "No, there's exactly 5 minutes transition time between classes; any kid who is late gets detention; if we start giving exceptions, how could we enforce any school discipline at all??")
Thankfully, our principal was already pretty reasonable for accommodations like that. Part of the purpose (we felt) of having a special education program is to teach the general student body charity towards people with different needs from their own. That has to start from the literal adults in the room saying "they need this, so in the virtue of justice we will give it to them". So yeah, it definitely begins with extra transition time and not making a big deal about absolute, identical conformity from every student on things like that.
I worked as a teacher's aide for handicapped students for years. Other than being wheelchair accessible, having separate bathrooms with tables and showers as well as toilet, and having a higher number of staff than a regular classroom, it wasn't all that different from a regulat classroom. I doubt it was as expensive per student as you claim.
The things you describe are for for physically handicapped students -- which we already served and had accommodations for. We were looking at Down's, Autism, Intellectual Disability, and other groups that require specialists. So that 40k figure is looking at physical therapy, speech therapy, social skills work, and the rest. My own brother cost our school district $55k per year, and that's a figure I know for sure.
If it's of interest, here's what Mrs. Flynn and I do in our spare time:
https://firefoundationdenver.org/
That is definitely of interest -- I'll be passing this on to a few people, I think.
Also might be of interest perhaps in a different way as a diocesan model: in the diocese of Pittsburgh, there is something called the St. Anthony's Program and it is wonderful. It's for students with special needs and is an option that allows them to integrate in a typical Catholic school, but with specialized life skill classes, etc. https://stanthonykids.org/