Educating kids with special needs isn't cheap or easy, but it's the right thing to do, said Brenda Jordan, director of special services for Fargo Public Schools.
"Kids with disabilities are first and foremost kids. They're our kids," she said.
Jordan gave an overview of the district's special education efforts to the Fargo School Board Tuesday.
As of Dec. 1, 2001, Fargo's special education programs served 1,247 students, or about 11 percent of the district's total enrollment.
That percentage is in line with the national average, Superintendent David Flowers said.
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Fargo's total included 423 students with specific learning disabilities, 271 students with speech/language impairments and 188 emotionally disturbed students.
To work with its special needs students, the district has 150 special service professionals and 150 para-educator/support staff.
Dan Huffman, assistant superintendent of business services, put the district's annual special education costs at $12.4 million.
The federal government picks up about $1.3 million, or 10 percent, of that.
The federal government once set a goal of funding 40 percent of the cost of special education, he said.
If that goal were met now, the district would receive about $5 million for special education from Washington, he said.
Jordan urged board members not to get wrapped up in the acronyms, jargon and cost involved with educating special needs kids.
"You'll hear about how expensive it is, (but) don't lose focus," she said. "They're your kids. Our kids. Fargo's kids."
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Also at Tuesday's meeting, the board learned of the district's effort to improve the reading skills of its youngest students.
The district's goal is to have 85 percent of its third-graders performing at or above the 45th percentile on the Comprehensive Testing Basic Skills. A year ago, 73 percent of its students were at that level.
Since then, the district has added an intensive one-on-one program for the neediest of its first-grade students and also implemented a program that encourages students to read by identifying books that correspond to their reading level, said Chuck DeRemer, assistant superintendent for instruction.
He said the programs appear to be working.
"We're getting there," he said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jonathan Knutson at (701) 241-5530
