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But Claremont educators are working on a plan that would eliminate those lengthy rides for at least some students while keeping them connected to their peers and communities and — if all goes well — reducing costs. Next school year, they hope to begin operating a special education classroom space staffed with mental health workers and certified special education teachers to serve some of the students who are currently tuitioned out to other districts for special education services.
In the first year, the program, which was introduced at a school board meeting last month, would accommodate an estimated three of the 10 students from the district’s two elementary schools who are currently being bused to one of a dozen specialized schools around the state, along with keeping an estimated three new placements within the district. It would incur a net budget increase of roughly $60,000 for the first year, depending on the actual special education population, but is expected to save the district money over time.
“We’re going to try to start small and work our way up,” said Benjamin Nester, director of special education for the Claremont School District.
The district currently sends about 30 students to several schools, including the Spaulding Youth Center in Northfield, N.H., the Bridges School in Brattleboro, Vt., and NFI North in Contoocook, N.H. Most of the placements are for emotional or behavioral issues that the students’ Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team — which includes parents, teachers, specialists and administrators — have determined are too serious to be handled within the district, Nester said. An in-house program would not eliminate out-of-district placements, but could reduce them significantly, he said.
The benefits of such a program range from the practical to the ideological, school officials and staff said.
“I believe that over time this is something that’s going to help our district run more efficiently,” said Claremont School Board member Jason Benware, who emphasized that he was speaking for himself, not for the board, which is currently deliberating with school administrators over next year’s budget. “It’s an expensive thing to send a kid out of district.”
The district currently spends an average of $90,000 per out-of-district placement. The projected cost for the new program, a two-classroom, therapeutic environment staffed by an administrator, a social worker, two teachers and five mental health workers, is $600,000. (One of the original proposed staff positions was cut during budget deliberations, removing about $65,000 from the proposal.)
Over time, the program could expand to serve more students. Nester expects it could begin saving the district money within a year and a half to two years; however, special education budgets tend to be nebulous due to the changing student population and evolving needs.
“You can’t quantify human behavior,” Nester said.
Beyond saving money, an in-house program is potentially better for students, Benware said.
“It’s a quality of life issue,” he said. “Some of these students are traveling an hour and a half in each direction. You might give them 10 hours a week back.”
Additionally, staying within their home district affords students better peer relationships and stronger community ties.
“Families prefer it. Educational professionals prefer it. And I think the students prefer it,” Nester said.
Dan Habib, a filmmaker and project director for the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, said keeping students within their home districts has more than just popular opinion to support it.
“All the research points to better outcomes for students who are educated in their community,” said Habib, who explored the challenges and benefits of creating a strong support system for at-risk students in his 2012 documentary, Who Cares About Kelsey?, and has traveled the country visiting school districts that have successfully implemented robust behavior-focused programs for special education students, many in very poor communities.
But such benefits don’t happen automatically, he said. “I think it’s a wonderful thing if those students can come back to the district and be supported there,” he said. “It needs to be executed carefully. You have to have good leadership and you have to have buy-in.”
Other challenges in getting the program off the ground may include selling taxpayers on the initial cost increase and recruiting staff.
Benware believes community support for the program will be strong if people grasp its value. “There will probably be people who balk at this … (but) I have faith in our community that they can understand the investments that make the most sense,” he said. “To me, this is an investment in being more frugal over time.”
In fact, a strong special education program, one structured to help students with intense behavioral issues, might eventually serve as a magnet for other schools in the area, said Claremont School Board member Michael Petrin.
“I think every school is struggling with this,” he said. “My thought is that in the long run we may also be able to bring students in (from other districts).”
This fall, the district struggled to fill numerous vacancies in its special education department, which serves roughly 400 students. Some of those positions remain vacant, Nester said. He believes, however, that staffing the new program will be less challenging because of the nature of the positions. Six of the nine proposed staff positions are mental health professionals, which are generally easier to fill than educator positions, Nester said. The program would also have an administrator and one teacher for each classroom.
The physical location of the new classrooms has not been confirmed yet, but administrators have conducted space studies and are confident they can accommodate the program in one of the school district’s buildings.
The school board will meet again next Wednesday to discuss the full school budget, which includes the new program.
Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com and 603-727-3268.