SC Panel to Consider Special Needs Diploma in ’11 (SC)

December 15, 2010

South Carolina students with disabilities could earn a special high school diploma designed to recognize their accomplishments and help them become independent under an idea up for debate next year.

Parents say a diploma that shows their children’s progress is long overdue. Currently, disabled students who can’t pass the high school exit exam and earn the ne cessary 24 credits can receive only a certificate of attendance. And they’re counted as dropouts, even if they stay in school until the maximum age of 21 – an insult to what’s already a slap in the face, said parent W.C. Hoecke.

"It hurts. You’re not going to let my kid have anything," said Hoecke, the Columbia father of a 16-year-old with Down syndrome. "He’ll graduate, but he won’t graduate. … It says what you’ve done doesn’t count."

Though his son Karl does well in reading and history, math will always be a challenge, said Hoecke, who advocates for a modified diploma that his son could show an employer.

"These kids are great employees, and model employees. They want to show the world they can do what everyone else is doing," he said.

The Education Oversight Committee is trying to create a meaningful diploma for special needs students that doesn’t lead to students being incorrectly dumped into that track. The independent agency delayed discussion Monday until its next meeting in February.

Recipients would still be counted as a dropout for reporting purposes, but parents say it’s the recognition that matters.

"It’s very discouraging to go to school for 15 years or longer and walk away with nothing," said Mary Eaddy, director of Parents Reaching Out to Parents, or PRO-Parents. "Kids with disabilities walk out with a certificate that says you occupied space."

Outgoing schools Superintendent Jim Rex said student profiling is a concern, and any alternate track must be regularly monitored to make sure minorities aren’t inappropriately placed there. But he said a limited program would benef it students with "special needs who really do work hard and work to their capacity, and have done everything asked of them."

Earning a diploma could include on-the-job training and would be tied to a child’s "individualized education plan," which is required for every special needs student. More than half of the state’s 85 districts already have a local version of the idea. At least 45 school districts responding to a summer survey from the Education Department said they allow for some sort of alternate diploma.

But the criteria vary widely, Eaddy said.

"If there were a statewide alternate diploma, there would be some consistency and competency attached to that, so employers would know what you’ve achieved," she said. "We need some uniformity to it."