Just mailed this letter to Gov. Pat Quinn
Governor Pat Quinn
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601
Dear Governor Quinn:
Please read this before you vote on closing Frederick Stock School. Iʼd like to grab your attention before you make a grave mistake for the future of the City of Chicago Schools and itʼs health care system, both socially and financially.
PLEASE DO NOT CLOSE Frederick STOCK SCHOOL.
There are two major reasons that you should do everything in your power to prevent this school from closing:
1. It is the most magical, experienced, resourceful pre-school for children with special needs, as well as those without. The children learn from each other and from a totally dedicated, talented and caring team of staff, giving the kids experiences
and lessons, which will truly help them reach their full potential in life. Some examples include music therapy, pet therapy and gardening opportunities as well as math and English. The staff are extremely experienced, hardworking and I understand it is a ‘flagship’ inclusive pre-school setting standards for early education in Chicago. It is imperative that kids with special needs can be integrated and included in the education community with typical developing peers.
2. It would be an enormous waste of the taxpayersʼ money to close the school.
Iʼll address each of these in turn:
1. We recently moved house to be closer to Stock school in order for our son Finley to attend. Heʼs been going there since February this year.
Now three and a half years old, a rare disease affected Fin before his birth named Congenital Toxoplasmosis. This is a parasite that can attack the brain and the eyes of an unborn child and can cause devastating damage. Fin unfortunately sustained injuries to both. Around the time just after his birth when we found all of this out we were told weʼd be lucky if he would have the use of many of his faculties at all and we feared for the worst.
We did actually consider ourselves very lucky when we found The Toxoplasmosis Center was based here in this City at the University of Chicago and The Center helped us to fight the disease and prevent it from doing further damage.
At the same time we were introduced to the Early Intervention Program. As you will know, this program states that itʼs mission is to maximize the development of kids in Illinois with disabilities and developmental issues up until the age of 3, no matter what social, cultural and economic background they come from. ‘Early Intervention’ being key. As well as providing resources it helps fund the expensive therapy sessions by either replacing or complimenting existing health insurance.
We immediately enrolled Fin in the EIP and for 3 years he underwent 8-9 different therapies every week including Physical, Occupational, Visual, Speech and Language, and Feeding therapy.
Having completed the program on his 3rd birthday in January 2010, we went through the arduous, lengthy task of having him evaluated within the school system and finding him a suitable school placement, which was Stock School.
Despite having very low vision, hydrocephalus with a VP shunt (which took 7 separate brain operations to get it placed correctly), Cerebral Palsy, and a Gastronomy feeding tube (which he wears as a back pack most of the time) and in spite of his original diagnosis, Fin is walking (with the aid of a walker and some supervision), pulling himself to stand, communicating with some sign type gestures, loves drumming and loves animals and not to mention is a real character! (This is his blog if youʼd like to see how much he enjoys life www.FinleySamuel.com)
He has only been at the school for two months and has already been introduced to so much. I will just give one example here:
Because of his low vision and cognitive delays, loud noises and groups of kids in social situations often scare him. He is quite timid and anxious in noisy, groups of kids. We have already seen such a big improvement with this at home in just two months, because of him being able to participate in a group everyday at school. He is more confident socially, more explorative and has a better tolerance for noise and high levels of stimulation in group settings.
2. It was my understanding that after this great EI Program, kids with special needs could attend a pre-school like Stock to help maintain a level of activity, routine, therapy and to continue all the wonderful progress towards their goals, made in their first 3 years.
If there are no pre-schools for kids with special needs like Stock where will they go to get these services? Where else will have highly qualified and dedicated teachers and therapists? Will their buildings be accessible? Will there be medical and nurse assistance on site? What about all the equipment?
There are rumors amongst the parents about the children being bussed out to the suburbs to access suitable inclusive schooling. It seems unfair that these young, medically fragile children, who already often spend over half an hour strapped in to a bus getting to school, will have to be sat on transport for even longer periods of time. They are at risk of pressure sores and the transport can make their feeding issues more problematic, increasing reflux.
Right now there is no other inclusive special needs school in the city that we would consider suitable for Fin.
As Iʼm sure you are aware, in the US, the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) requires public schools to develop an IEP (Individualized Education Program) for every student with a disability who is found to meet the federal and state requirements for special education. The IEP must be designed to provide the child with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). The IEP refers both to the educational program to be provided to a child with a disability and to the written document that describes that educational program.
A question for you is how will the City of Chicago fulfill Finʼs IEP and all the other kids that have one in the area, without Stock school?
How sad and what a terrible waste of money to not be able to continue at least some of the progress our kids have made this far!
What is the point of providing powerful support for children with special needs up until the age of 3 only to leave them no place to get therapy, support and learning except expensive private schools and even more expensive private therapy classes? The majority of families in Chicago cannot realistically afford these costs.
What is more, the Chicago tax payer will only have to pay later when these kids will need that much more looking after in later life, having not had enough early support in transitioning into school?
Pre-school prepares kids for education and socialization; it gives them a routine and structure and helps them to build the foundational skills for school. The therapy built into the program at Stock school is wonderful and gives children like Fin the assistance and confidence they need to engage in ‘normal’ school life as much as possible.
The more input they get now in the school system, the less dependent they will be on the state for their personal care, socialization needs, life skills and wellbeing in future adult years. Children like Fin take longer to settle into school and do not adapt to change easily. These changes will be a huge set back emotionally and practically for special needs kids and their parents.
So please act now to save an incredibly positive and valuable resource for the community.
Help improve many little lives.
Ensure that Finʼs and othersʼ EIPs were not a waste of money and resources by not following through on them in an appropriate way.
And save the Chicago tax payer future costs!
Chicago is proud of Stock School and what it offers and represents.
Sincerely
Anthony, Gemma and Fin Samuel
