National Public Radio affiliate WGBH in Boston ran a 10-part series focusing on special education in Massachusetts. The series explored a range of issues, from services for autistic students to issues surrounding inclusion of special needs students in mainstream classrooms. Of the 10 pieces, five were mine. They follow:
Advocacy
Parents of the of 170,000 children in Massachusetts with special needs rely on their local school districts to provide appropriate services. Getting those services is especially difficult during the current economic recession. Even tougher, parents say, is dealing with feelings of ostracism as they hear others begrudging their families funding for services. Reporter Cathy Corman listened in on a workshop at a non-profit organization in Boston dedicated to teaching parents how to demand respect as they advocate for services for children with special needs.
Inclusion
In 1975, Congress passed a set of laws that came to be known as the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, or IDEA. IDEA calls for all students to be educated in the least restrictive environments. Fifteen years ago, many but not all public school systems began adopting a so-called inclusion model of education. The goal was to keep as many students as possible in general education. Reporter Cathy Corman spoke with several families and educators about the pros and cons of inclusion.
Lost in Translation
Families seeking help for children with special educational needs often face significant obstacles. Those obstacles may become insurmountable when families don’t speak English and schools don’t have appropriate interpreting services. Reporter Cathy Corman spoke with parents originally from China and Puerto Rico who described their feelings of frustration and helplessness.
Early Intervention
When children under the age of three have developmental delays, they may receive help from early intervention programs, or EIPs. The State Department of Public Health approximates that 32,000 infants and toddlers received EI services last year. The goal of EI is to reduce the need for special education services once children enter public schools. Reporter Cathy Corman tagged along recently one morning with a Dartmouth family whose five-year-old son began receiving earlty intervention services when he was 13 months old.
Among the Elite
Public schools stretch to meet the needs of exceptionally bright students. They also go to great lengths to educate the most severely disabled. Reporter Cathy Corman learned about the difficulties one family has experienced when schools have failed to accommodate a student who is both exceptionally bright and severely disabled
NPR member station WCAI
Kennedy’s Death: Price
One of the first bills Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s older brother, President John F. Kennedy, signed into law in 1961 created the Cape Cod National Seashore. Teddy Kennedy’s continued his family’s support for the Seashore and extended into parks throughout the country. Reporter Cathy Corman spoke with Cape Cod National Seashore Superintendent George Price about Senator Kennedy’s environmental legacy.
Truro 300 Story
Truro is tiny by any standards. The 2008 census noted just over two thousand full-time residents in this town near the tip of Cape Cod. But small didn’t translate into small potatoes when it came time to celebrate. People came from far and near this weekend to mark the 300th anniversary of the town’s founding. Reporter Cathy Corman was on hand at the parade Sunday morning to listen in on the festivities.
Provincetown Bark Park
What do you do when you’ve got a really great idea – an expensive idea – but haven’t got a dime? That was the dilemma the founders of Provincetown’s Pilgrim Bark Park faced. They wanted to create a safe place for dogs to exercise and socialize, but neither they nor the Town had money. Reporter Cathy Corman looked into the ways Provincetown residents raised the money to create the only dedicated dog park on the Outer Cape.
Cape Cod Time Bank
The unemployment rate has climbed above nine and a half percent. People from all walks of life are questioning what it means to live with and without work. Reporter Cathy Corman spoke with two Cape Cod residents who are rethinking the relationship between wages and community.
Hurricane Bill
From member station WCAI, Cathy Corman is at Le Count Hollow beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, to report on Hurricane Bill’s progress.
Chatham Cottages
This week’s unexpected summer Nor’easter caused flooding throughout the region. As reporter Cathy Corman learned, the storm wrought irreversible damage to a remote cluster of cottages on a spit of land on Cape Cod.
Writing center Grub Street has partnered with the City of Boston’s Elderly Commission to hold memoir writing workshops for seniors living in historically significant neighborhoods. Workshop participants have crafted meaningful narratives that document the living history of the city and of their own lives. Grub published Born Before Plastic, the first volume of essays produced in these workshops, and I have had the privilege to record some of the writers reading their memoirs out loud. Here is a sampling of those recordings.
