HOOD RIVER — Anne Carloss, executive director of student services, and Anne Cole, early intervention program coordinator, gave the annual report on the district’s early intervention and early childhood special education programs at the Hood River County School District Dec. 13 board meeting.
The meeting was held at Pine Grove Elementary, the program’s headquarters.
“It’s been my pleasure of working in with this unique opportunity to supervise [children] 0-5 — I think we’re the only school district in the state of Oregon that gets to do this,” she said. While HRCSD’s programs are run through the district, in many counties, it’s coordinated by education service districts.
Cole said early intervention and early childhood special education are two separate programs, though they are often talked about as one because their team works with all age groups. Specifically, early intervention covers 0– to 3-year-olds, and early childhood special education covers services for 3-5-year-olds. Services are free to children and families in Hood River County who qualify, and for children experiencing some type of disability or developmental delay.
There are two eligibilities, Carloss said, and children who may quality at 0-3 may not qualify for 3-5 due to different eligibility requirements. Referrals come from physicians and parents, childcare, preschools and other partnering agencies, Cole said.
“Of course, our goal is to get kids as early as possible, so we love referrals just straight out of the hospital at birth to help kids,” Carloss said. “Because we know that the brain is developing at the most rapid rate it will ever be developing in our entire lifetimes.”
A comprehensive team of people provide services to children in the program across the county and at several different locations: A speech-language pathologist, early childhood specialist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, deaf and hard of hearing specialist, vision specialists, autism specialist, and a paraprofessional / instructional assistant, with services provided in homes, community childcare and preschools, Oregon Child Development Coalition (OCDC) preschool, Mid-Columbia Children’s Council Head Start and Preschool Promise programs, in community settings such as a park or the library, community playgroups and at Pine Grove itself.
The district does not run a full-time preschool program, Carloss clarified. “Sometimes people misunderstand Pine Grove and early intervention / early childhood special education and think we are running a full preschool program and kids come here full-time and we service them,” Carloss said. “We do have community preschools renting space here at Pine Grove; we also have a daycare, which is renting space. But we do not have the funds to run our own preschools, which we did years and years and years ago.”
A lot of their paraprofessionals and instructional assistants play many different roles in the program, working directly with children, Cole said. “They’re creating materials for us, but they also act as interpreters because all the testing, all the meetings, a lot of the work we do with children are in their native language,” she said. “And if we don’t speak Spanish, which is the primary language here in Hood River, for us as a second language, we really need that help.”
All placements must be inclusive, Carloss said. “The State of Oregon firmly believes that inclusive settings is mandatory for all children, so we do not have a separate preschool just for kids who experience disability; all of these programs are integrated and inclusive, which I think our community should be really proud of.”
Carloss and Cole also talked about two community playgroups run by the district — one at Pine Grove Elementary on Fridays from 10-11:30 a.m., and another at Cascade Locks Elementary on Mondays from 10-11:30 a.m. — that are open to all.
“Moms, dads, grandparents, neighbors — it’s a super inclusive setting,” Carloss said. “We can integrate our services directly into that time.”
Though Oregon offers early intervention and early special education for free — not the case in the majority of states — state funding is inadequate. This biennium, the program was underfunded by $22 million, down from previous years. What’s more, the district didn’t learn about this year’s budget until Dec. 12 — the day before the school board meeting. Funding for the program comes from the state, not the district.
“Somehow early intervention didn’t even get funded at what we were funded at [last year],” Carloss said. “How and why that happened is perplexing to all of us. We are running in a deficit — we are actually using up all of our savings this year to keep our staff whole.”
Director Julia Garcia-Ramirez (position 4) asked what the board and community members can do to ensure funding. “We hear and see, we know how special education is a need, we know that the numbers are increasing, we see more and more kids qualifying for services, but we’re still going on a deficit — so why is it not adequate?” she asked.
Carloss said she and Cole had been advocating for more funding that afternoon before the board meeting, and they are hoping to get “at least the $22 million back” in the January-February legislative session.
“That will still have us running in a deficit, which will make us have to trim services when our numbers {of children] are going up. So just for everybody to be aware, there is a crisis here in the state of Oregon,” she said.
Director Chrissy Reitz (position 1), board chair, as well as OSBA (Oregon School Board Association) board member on the legislature policy committee, said advocating for education funding should be across the board, because inadequate funding is forcing districts across the state to make choices on what to cut.
There are currently 104 children being served in the program, though the number fluctuates as the school year progresses. The district received 30 referrals in October alone.
“Earlier is better, we know that,” said Cole. “This is the age range we really need to start working with kids to make a difference in their lives, and we really see a lot of positive growth in children when we start early.”
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