By Dustin Brown
Anthony Napolitano is a spunky 4-year-old who likes to dance and loves his half-day sessions of preschool.
But Anthony, whose comedic antics and friendly ebullience have won him the title “mayor of the school” from parents at Forest Hills West in Middle Village, may be forced to commute miles to another site because of a growing shortage of seats for the type of special education program he needs.
“We’re talking about a child that has great delays already,” said his mother Mary Napolitano, who is fighting to find a way to keep her son at the same school. “If you pull him out and put him into another school, it’s going to cause greater delays.”
The city Board of Education has recommended that Anthony, who has Down Syndrome, move into a full-day program with other developmentally disabled children.
Although Forest Hills West does not currently offer such a class, school administrators said they have the space, the staff and the student need to do away with two half-day sessions and replace them with a full-day program that Anthony could attend.
All that stands in the way is a well-intentioned federal law and the state’s efforts to comply with it.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was reauthorized by Congress in 1997, calls for special education students to be placed in what is called the “least restrictive environment” — a classroom setting where they can interact as much as possible with their non-disabled peers.
Educators largely believe the law benefits special education students because it encourages them to move more rapidly into a mainstream setting, rather than being unnecessarily isolated from other children their age.
“It’s very helpful to have them exposed to normal behaving peers, where they learn to imitate the behaviors of other children who are behaving in the normal range,” said Rebecca Cort, the statewide coordinator for special education quality assurance in the state Education Department.
But Anthony is among the notable exceptions to that rule, the children whose disabilities require that they attend class with other students who are at the same level.
“There has been a trend to move toward integration, which is a wonderful thing,” said Napolitano, who lives with Anthony, her husband and their two other children in Middle Village. “But my son is not ready for integration. He has too much of a developmental delay to be able to go into a class like that.”
The problem lies in the state’s attempt to comply with the law while still providing segregated classrooms for the students who need them.
About five years ago, the state Legislature ordered the Education Department to stop creating any more segregated prekindergarten classes “unless there was a clearly demonstrated need,” Cort said.
The law was an attempt to counteract the state’s historical tendency to put into restrictive settings students who would probably thrive with normal children their own age.
“It was a very good step at the time,” said Margery Ames, the executive director of the Interagency Council of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Agencies. “It doesn’t necessarily make sense right now, because the numbers are changing again.”
Educational professionals in New York City have noticed an increasing crunch in full-day segregated classrooms over the past two years, with placements becoming fewer and fewer for the students who need them.
“I believe that many professionals would feel that there is still the need for more full-day classes than are allowed now on the preschool level,” said Ronald Lenkowsky, the director of the New York League for Early Learning, which runs Forest Hills West and five other schools around the city.
Lenkowsky said the full-day segregated pre-K class his school offers in Whitestone is already booked for September, and similar programs around the city run out of spaces in much the same way.
The state is willing to allow schools to open up new segregated classrooms, but in order to get approval, school administrators have to prove that there is a need for them.
To that end, the state has sent out surveys to schools asking about their vacancies and capacity to expand to determine where more programs need to be opened up.
Lenkowsky said the New York League for Early Learning sent back its survey expressing its interest to trade two half-day classes at Forest Hills West for a full day class.
But because of the shortage of sites that now exists, any placement Napolitano finds will likely be far away and require a lengthy bus ride — something she refuses to subject her son to.
“I won’t let him on a school bus because he’s not able to convey to me if there’s a problem on the bus,” Napolitano said. “That worries me.”
Napolitano has enlisted the help of Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village), who has a brother with Down Syndrome and is advocating on her behalf to the Education Department.
Although Napolitano said she is willing to drive her son a distance to another program if that turns out to be the best option, she is hopeful Forest Hills West will be allowed to provide what he needs.
“He doesn’t want to leave at the end of the day, he’s having so much fun,” Napolitano said. “I wanted to keep him in the school because I felt so strongly about the school.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
