School district will try to fill void on special ed programs

By Rebecca Mayer

The Lake Oswego Review, Jun 26, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (22 Reader comments)

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Clackamas County Educa-tional Service District is cutting some special education programs from its services next year and leaving smaller districts to offer their own.

Patrick Tomblin, director of special education/special services, says the changes will allow Lake Oswego School District to improve its programs and provide them at a lower cost.

Tomblin was hired by the district last summer, and the district has been working on a new model for special needs programs for the last three years.

“We will be trying to be sure that the proposals we have for special education will have a smooth transition,” said board chair Linda Brown.

One benefit of the changes is a child’s transition from school to school should be smoother. In the past, most of the students attending ESD programs were Lake Oswego or Oregon City kids, who jumped around to various sites for their education. Previously ESD offered programs in LOSD schools in addition to other cities.

For example, Delta is a behavior/anxiety program that includes higher functioning students with Asperger’s and autism. In the past, the ESD-run program placed Lake Oswego students at Hallinan Elementary for grades one to three. Then they would do grades four to six in Oregon City, transfer to Lake Oswego Junior High and then graduate from Lakeridge.

“So you’d never develop a cohort of kids,” said Tomblin. “This puts kids on one side of the lake or the other. We think that’s much better for kids.”

Many of the sites will remain the same, while LOSD looks at adding new ones, as well.

“Our classrooms are going to be a less restrictive service model where it’s in a neighborhood school as opposed to bouncing around,” said Tomblin.

Also, the current model serves 64 Lake Oswego students for $1.2 million, while the new model is expected to serve 103 students for $1.26 million.

“Basically right now the cost for an ESD program is $35,000 per student. We can serve (for example) 12 students for far less,” said Tomblin. With the old model, the program would have cost $420,000 to pay ESD. The new model is $188,000 to keep it in Lake Oswego.

Additionally, if another district would like to place a special education student in Lake Oswego, the cost is about $30,000.

Currently, three students are requesting transfers into LOSD’s Community Transition program for 18-21-year-olds. They are the only ones who will likely transfer in next year.

There are others wanting to get into the district to take advantage of the autism support programs, however there is not capacity for them at the moment, said Tomblin.

The autism support programs will undergo a shift next year giving students case managers who specialize in autism. In the past, they have been managed by a person who handles a variety of special needs students.

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