Special needs kids come to Sisters

More and more "special needs" students are coming to Sisters.

Sisters Elementary School is experiencing growth in its special needs program, which serves students with speech impairments, learning disabilities, autism, Down Syndrome, and Asperger's Syndrome (characterized by difficulties with social skills).

About 70 students, or 17 percent of the 429 students, are in the special needs category, said Tim Comfort, principal. In the past, the number of special students averaged 13 percent of the student body, Comfort said.

This year, Sisters Elementary showed an increase in student enrollment for the first time in four years, jumping to 429 students from 382, Comfort said (see story, page 1).

The increase was partly due to the popularity of the special needs department, Comfort said.

Comfort said their program allows for special education students to spend time in one-on-one and specialty-focused curriculum, as well as to learn in regular classes with the rest of the school.

"Our special needs program has good aide support," Comfort said. "Other schools cut aides back or have a pull-out program, where the (special needs) students are not with other classmates, but are in a resource room. Here we get both. We have students with aides in the classroom and the resource room."

Sisters Elementary School's special needs department has a staff of one speech pathologist and one resource room teacher, Ellen Wood, who has special education training and an endorsement in working with the severe and profoundly handicapped.

The program has nine full-time and part-time aides.

Comfort said the increase in student enrollment has made the special needs department cramped for space in the 23-year old building, which hasn't been enlarged since 1997.

The program currently uses two rooms. One room houses two to four classes at one time, including two "Title One" reading groups, the talented and gifted group, speech pathology, and the class for English language learners, Comfort said. The program's resource room serves the learning disabled and students with more severe special needs.

Sisters Elementary averages about 10 to 15 students each year whose native language is Spanish. This year, Comfort said the school enrolled three students who speak no English.

Comfort said the district this year hired an English language learning specialist for the first time. The specialist spends one hour per day at Sisters Elementary School, Comfort said.

Comfort said the school has been translating school letters and information into Spanish for the parents.

He said the school tries to help the Spanish-speaking children by giving them extra study and tutor time during and after school hours.

Some Spanish-speaking children also attend summer school.

"In prior years, all the students knew some English; they would pick things up but they just learned a little slower," Comfort said.

Comfort said he would like to see the district hire more help for the English language learners.