Autistic students face gains and losses come fall

When autistic kids return to Seattle's public schools this fall, there will be winners and losers.

Autistic elementary students in Southeast Seattle will be able to stay close to home and learn with their peers in a new "inclusion" program at Graham Hill Elementary. And autistic high-school students in the Queen Anne Hill and Magnolia areas will be able to attend an inclusion program at the Center School.

Autistic preschoolers, however, will lose their after-school "Extended Day" programs at Alki and Viewlands elementaries, which served the city's south and north ends, respectively. The programs are being discontinued by Seattle Public Schools after a run of less than five years.

Parents were notified of the changes last week. As a result, at least one family is considering moving to another district that has a similar program.

Seattle's decision illustrates a dilemma facing many Puget Sound area school districts: Scientists are diagnosing learning disabilities at earlier ages and in more children; districts are legally obligated to provide them a "free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment." Yet state and federal support isn't keeping up with district costs.

THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES Five-year-old Sammy Hansen watches family friends play video games after school. Sammy, who is autistic, is likely to be affected by Seattle Public Schools' plan to close a number of special-education programs.

Jenny Hansen, 30, credits the Extended Day program with helping her 5-year-old autistic son, Sam, string words together into sentences. The after-school program is based on research suggesting that early intensive teaching can improve the academic potential of autistic children, whose numbers have skyrocketed nationally in the past 20 years.

"To have it shut down for children, it galls me," Hansen said. "It makes me afraid for those other babies out there who are turning 3 this year, who have needs that aren't going to get met. It breaks my heart."

Sara Woolverton, special-education manager for Seattle Public Schools, says the district was forced to make the tough decision to meet its minimum legal obligations to other autistic kids.

Districts don't get any more special-education funding after their disabled student population tops 12.7 percent of total enrollment, said the district's Duggan Harman, who tracks the program's costs. In Seattle, special-education students constitute 13.2 percent of the total enrollment.

Besides the new inclusion programs at Graham Hill and Center School, Green Lake Elementary and Aki Kurose Middle School will get more resources so that severely disabled students can go to school there, Harman said.

The University of Washington's Experimental Education Unit, a national leader in autism research, contracts with the district to provide services to some of its autistic students. Not coincidentally, the district has become a magnet for families with such special-needs children, said Michelle Corker-Curry, who oversees the district's special education, Title I and advanced learning programs.

This year there are 255 autistic students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools. That number has been growing faster than any other student disability category. Though K-12 students with autism make up 4 percent of the district's special-education population, the resources to serve their needs account for about 14 percent of district spending on special-education services.

"Autism is really increasing every week, every month, every year," said Corker-Curry. For reasons still unknown, the Puget Sound region and Silicon Valley in California have among the highest incidence of autism per capita in the nation.

According to a report by the Washington Association of School Administrators, which is lobbying state lawmakers for more funding, Seattle Public Schools spent $51.6 million in the 2002-03 school year on its special-education program, but received only $29.4 million from state and federal sources. Nearly one-quarter of local tax revenue was used to cover the rest, even though the local levy is meant to supplement basic education.

The funding gap isn't limited to Seattle: The 35 districts in the Puget Sound region spent about $233 million on special education last year, but almost 30 percent wasn't covered by the state, according to Superintendents Advocating for and Valuing Education (SAVE). A coalition of 11 superintendents, from Spokane to Bethel to Federal Way districts, filed suit against the state recently, demanding that the Legislature fully fund special education.

"The standards are high and we expect every child to succeed," Seattle Superintendent Raj Manhas said at a SAVE meeting last month. "That's not going to happen without more resources."

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com