A staff report presented at Tuesday night's meeting by Gary Mahoney, superintendent of special education services, recommends the creation of congregated classes at St. John School in Oakville and St. Raphael School in Burlington for students in Grades 5-8, who have developmental disabilities. The classes would have an enrolment cap of 10 students and would be run by a special education teacher and two educational assistants.

Students in those same grades with mild intellectual disabilities could be placed in a congregated class at Ascension School in Burlington, according to the report. Enrolment would not exceed 16 pupils, and would also be overseen by one special education teacher and two educational assistants.

It is expected the board will approve the initiative so that these classes will be in place for the new school year starting this September.

"Parents were informing us that students required more contained settings so they can make some gains, and we want to be able to provide that range of service because one size doesn't fit all," Mahoney said.

The new classes are not mandatory, allowing parents to choose if their child would be best educated in a regular classroom or in a congregated class. Mahoney said only three classes are being proposed as it reflects the number of parents surveyed who were interested in such an option.

"The classroom capacity we're looking at starting with is probably going to be responsive to most of the people who would want the service," he said. "If it looks as if we have a larger response than we anticipated, we would have to look at the possibility of establishing another class. From our point of view, we would like to locate it in a school that has space in a location that is central enough that we don't create long commutes for the students involved."

The new system will reduce the number of educational assistants currently working with students on a one-on-one basis, resulting in salary recovery. However, an increase in transportation costs is expected as students will be travelling further distances to get to the specialized classes. For example, there will likely be Milton students travelling to classes in Oakville and Burlington, according to Mahoney.

"We don't have enough students to locate one in the north yet, but that would certainly be the direction we would be looking for in our next development, if we have a large number of students from that area," he said. "The issue for us with the north schools is that with the kind of enrolment pressures they are under with the enormous growth, it makes it harder for us to find open space."

The report recommending the implementation of these three classes was created by Mahoney based on information obtained by the board's special education services office staff in conjunction with the Special Education Advisory Committee. That committee consists of trustees, as well as members from various groups, like VOICE for Hearing Impaired Children, the Learning Disabilities Association of Halton, and the Halton Down Syndrome Association.

A representative from the Learning Disabilities Association of Halton said the decision to create congregated classes was "a huge move forward" for the Catholic board's special education program, as long as it best serves each student.

"In the way that class sizes are today, you have one teacher, 25 kids and sometimes a child that needs a very individualized program," said Heather Holden, a board member with Learning Disabilities Association of Halton, who has been involved with the group for more than 30 years. "Common sense says it isn't going to happen in a regular class. It also means you have a child who has significant learning needs who requires a teacher with more training than often regular classroom teachers have. It isn't an issue of integration or segregation, it is an issue of how you provide for individual students."

However, Holden added that this solution barely starts to address what she said is the Catholic board's lack of attention and funding for special education programming.

"When we look around at how students with special needs are doing, they are getting the short end of the stick," Holden said. "For students with learning disabilities, for example, it is an invisible disability and I think that many of our kids are invisible in the classroom because many of them have highly-articulate skills and they can tell you something, but they can't write it down. There's a big discrepancy between those students and other students and it is a huge problem."

Mahoney said the board has always been committed to students requiring special education. It is currently in the midst of creating an overall plan to increase the number of options for students, who require special education. There is no set funding schedule or timeline for these additions to special education services, but Mahoney said it is a priority and time is of the essence.

"Earlier this year, the board established a budget mandate to expand special education range of placements for all students," he said. "In order to be responsive to the board mandate, we've been creating an implementation plan within some identifications. We will eventually do it for all, but we can only bite off so much at one time."

The first groups to be addressed in this plan are the students classified in the intellectual category, which includes gifted, mild intellectual disabled and developmental disabled students. If approved by the board, starting this fall there will be two self-contained gifted classes in south Halton, two self-contained gifted classes in north Halton, two gifted resource classes, as well as the two contained developmental disabled classes and the mild intellectual disabled class.

Congregated classes for students with mild intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities are not a new concept in Halton.

The Halton District School Board currently has 15 congregated classes for developmental disabled and mild intellectual disabled students in Grades 5 to 8, according to Marnie Denton, manager of communications with the public board.

The program, called Life Skills, combines these students in small classes in schools across the region.

"These classes are spread throughout the north area, Oakville and Burlington," Denton said. "We transport the students, but we try to keep them in their own communities when we can."

To view Gary Mahoney's report, visit the Halton Catholic District School Board's website at www.haltonrc.edu.on.ca/meetings and access the full report for the May 6 meeting.