ACPS Sees Decline in Enrollment of Students With Disabilities

The Alexandria City Public Schools system is experiencing a decline in the number of enrolled disabled students, which largely mirrors a state trend, according to a presentation at Thursday night’s School Board meeting

As of December 2007, 16.9 percent of the school system’s students were categorized as disabled and this year that number is 13.8 percent.

The largest category of disabled students in the Alexandria system are those with specific learning disabilities.

It’s not clear at this point why the downward trend, although one speculation at the school board meeting was that schools could be doing more interventions.

The number of disabled students who spend 80 percent or more of their time in the regular classroom has increased while those who spend less than 40 percent of their time in a regular classroom has decreased.

There has been an increase in ACPS-employed speech pathologists, and the system is moving away from having as many of these positions filled by contractors.

The Virginia Department of Education requires that the adult to student ratio for disabled students is 4 to 1, but at ACPS the ratio is 2 to 1.

ACPS Executive Director of Student Services Margaret McLeod acknowledged that while the enrollment is decreasing in this arena, she encouraged a well-staffed program, saying, “It is important to maintain the current positions to support inclusive practices.”