In 1975, the United States Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), which mandates that youth with disabilities ages three to 21 be provided a “free and adequate” public school education. IDEA also states that students must be taught in the “Least Restrictive Environment” (LRE) possible.

Until recently, the DC public school system struggled to comply with all the requirements the act mandates. Special education programs in DC public schools were failing to accommodate students’ needs adequately. It was common practice for parents of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities to enroll their children in private schools and then sue the city for tuition coverage. DCPS was sending a huge chunk of each year’s budget to private schools because of this.  

Just two years ago, the state of special education in the District was still dire. City Council member David Catania even labeled it a “crisis.” DC was put on the federal government’s special education “needs intervention” list for the eighth consecutive year, and graduation rates and math and reading scores for special education students lagged far behind the city average for general education students. Catania saw this problem and introduced legislation to change the issues in 2014. On March 10, 2015, three new laws went into effect: the Enhanced Special Education Services Act, the Special Education Quality Improvement Act, and the Special Education Students’ Rights Act. These laws aim to protect student rights, support teachers, and improve the quality and capacity of the special education system in the District.

It seems that significant progress has been made. Cowates Dixon, a special education teacher who began teaching at Wilson in 1994, said that DCPS has made “phenomenal” efforts to ensure the success of its students with special needs by instituting differentiated instructions in the classroom, comprehensive support plans for each student, and placement of students in the LRE appropriate for their needs.

At Wilson today there are two types of special education classes: “self-contained” classes, in which the entire class has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), and “inclusion” classes, where special education students are learning in the same space as general education students. DCPS adamantly supports the idea of inclusion in the Special Education Resource guide on their website, which states that the goal of inclusion is to “help all students develop the skills they need to eventually learn in a general education classroom with their peers without disabilities.” The guide also emphasizes the importance of inclusion in a more general and philosophical sense.

Special educators at Wilson agree that in recent years the program has evolved in positive ways and that the school in general has become a much more inclusive environment for students with physical and intellectual developmental disabilities.

When Jillian Mode, who teaches both self-contained and inclusion English, arrived at Wilson in 2007, most of the special ed classrooms were in the basement. For the most part they were cut off from the rest of the school. Now, Mode says, “students with IEPs are a lot more integrated and all over the place.”

English teacher Antoinette Carr appreciates this change. “That’s what I always longed for, to just incorporate them into the student body,” she says. According to Carr, students with special needs are treated the same as general ed students: they go to different teachers for their various subjects. “They’re just regular students who learn the same content as everyone else, they just have different learning needs that have to be accommodated,” she says.

Another factor that has improved the Wilson experience for students with special needs is the student body’s increased acceptance of them. Mode has seen this change throughout her time at Wilson and notices that being a special ed kid “isn’t such a big deal anymore.” Carr stated that the students themselves have learned to “embrace their status” and no longer see it as something to be ashamed of.

Despite this positive progress, Carr believes there is room for improvement, especially when it comes to teachers’ workloads. “We need a lot more staffing,” she says. “It’s too much to have to teach and be a case manager.” Carr has to balance teaching a class of her own, instructing three different teachers, being available for all the inclusion classes, and taking care of the 15 students on her caseload. “You might see all us special ed teachers running around all the time, and that’s because it’s like we have several full time jobs,” she says. This makes it hard for her to pay close attention to all of the students she is responsible for, so ensuring their success is much more difficult. Carr often works extra hours, and rarely takes her lunch break. “The students need a lot more attention than downtown realizes,” she adds. The dedication required of the special ed teachers results in a high turnover rate; most of the special educators don’t stay for more than a few years. “They quit really quick because it’s so overwhelming,” Carr says.

However, Carr and Mode agree that special education at Wilson is on the road to improvement. “It’s changing for the better,” Mode says. •