Some children need to be big fish in little ponds and some children can make it as minnows in the ocean; but when a child needs to be a big fish in a little pond, he or she is not going to make it in the ocean, according to Teresa Zutter, director of alternative school programs for Fairfax County Public Schools.
For a number of students, school can be as vast as the ocean and in order to feel like a big fish, these students can become disruptive in class.
IN THE PAST, chronically disruptive students would be placed into the Intervention and Support Program (ISP), whose purpose was to remove the students and, through counseling and instruction, change their behavior so they could return to their base school.
However, the program was deemed too costly and yielded little results. Beginning this September, the ISP will be replaced by the Summit Program, which takes the basic idea of the ISP and expands it to include mentors, a leadership program, independence skills and community service.
"The Summit Program is deigned to prevent the need for expulsion," Zutter said. "The program features are a new area of emphasis. They were things that we were changing under the ISP."
Through the ISP, a chronically disruptive student was sent to one of 19 sites, located within schools at the elementary-, middle- and high-school levels. The student's stay within the ISP ranged from one to three semesters, but if the ISP failed, there was nowhere else for the student to go, most often leading to expulsion. School Board members became critical of the program and called for its redesign.
"What really got on my nerves was the fact that the program cost about $20,000 per student and its success rate was about 20 percent," said School Board member Tessie Wilson (Braddock). "If we were spending $20,000 and it was successful, that would have been OK."
The ISP, designed to serve about 216 students, cost the school system $3.2 million last year. With 19 sites — six at the high-school level, seven at the middle-school level and five at the elementary-school level — the number of students at any one particular time was typically low. In fact, between the time period of June to December 2002, enrollment at the various sites ranged from one to 21 students, even while the staffing called for a general-education teacher, an instructional assistant, a part-time special-education teacher and a part-time counselor at each site.
"The kids in the ISP were chronically disruptive in the classroom. In no way am I saying they should be back in a regular classroom with a regular teacher," Wilson said. "But part of the problem was the program was designed for 216 kids and it never had that many kids in it. It was over staffed."
THE SUMMIT PROGRAM, designed for 168 students per semester, is projected to save $75,000; will reduce the number of sites to 12 countywide, thereby creating a larger enrollment per site; and will reduce the staffing needs from 59 positions to 38 by eliminating the instructional assistants. Zutter said staff from the ISP will have to apply for the Summit Program.
Like the ISP, the Summit Program's goal is to foster the student's return to the general-education population as soon as possible. To that end, students will take part in the new program for a semester, be evaluated and if possible placed back at their base school. Summit Program staff will continue to check on the student for another nine weeks to make sure there are no relapses.
"It all blends together," Zutter said. "What we're trying to do is intertwine the support the students need before they enter the alternative program and after the alternative program, to make it seamless."
If it is determined a general-education setting is not appropriate for the student, the Summit Program staff can refer the student to another alternative-school program, including one of three alternative high schools, one of four alternative learning centers or one of 32 interagency alternative-school programs.
Other important parts of the new program are the parent outreach, community mentors, the teaching of independence skills, a leadership and resiliency program, and other after-school programs.
"You have to remember some of the problems are multigenerational," said School Board member Catherine Belter (Springfield) at a work session in March. "The last thing [the parents] want to do is step in a schoolhouse because that was such a miserable situation for them."
Zutter said the after-school activities were an important component to mend broken ties and to also, depending on the activity, help students' feed need for risk, specifically referencing the Explorer Scouts as an example.
"Most of these kids are disenfranchised kids by the time [the School Board] sees them. They have already cut ties to their families, to their communities. They have no loyalty to their schools," Zutter said.