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NEW OSEP DIRECTOR: IMPROVING SPECIAL ED. SERVICES IS DIFFICULT BUT DO-ABLEFebruary 4, 2000WASHINGTON -- Moving from Kentucky to the intense, sometimes insane world of politics inside Washington's beltway may be a daunting transition, but the government's new special education chief says his experience in the field gives him plenty of confidence. Kenneth Warlick took over as director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs Jan. 3, just as the department was preparing cuts to its fiscal 2000 budget and bracing for the unveiling of a scathing report from the National Council on Disability about the states' special education shortcomings. In an interview with Special Education News, Warlick said he brings to his new role optimism that springs from seeing programs in Kentucky and other states make a difference for students with disabilities. Warlick left a position as director of the University of Kentucky's Inclusive Large Scale Standards and Assessment Group to take the OSEP helm. Before that, he spent seven years as associate commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education and head of the Office of Special Instructional Services and the Office of Learning Programs Development. "Given the nature of the work that I was doing in Kentucky and working with other states, I've seen that there are many challenges that states and schools need policy guidance on, relative to some of the issues with reauthorization of [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act]," Warlick said. "Certainly this is an exciting opportunity to try to provide some guidance and leadership from this perspective." State-to-Federal Transition To make the switch from overseeing programs for 88,000 students in one state to about 6 million students in 50 states, Warlick says he is relying on relationships he has already established with Education Secretary Richard Riley and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services director Judy Heumann. He also got a bit of advice from his predecessor, Tom Hehir, who left the OSEP post in August to work with the Education Development Center and lecture at Harvard University. Hehir's words of wisdom: Focus on two or three main goals. "It's more important to have a few victories on major issues than to try to spread oneself too thin and not get any victories," Warlick recalled him saying. "Because of Judy and the legacy of Tom Hehir and Secretary Riley, I'd be insane not to take an opportunity to both pick up where Tom left off but also to be a part of this administration with Judy and Secretary Riley, because our philosophical beliefs about what is good for children and families is so compatible," Warlick said. That philosophy is fairly basic, but it can sometimes be lost in the shuffle of regulations and politics."The most important thing," Warlick said, "is improving teaching and learning to have better results for children."
Warlick acknowledged the department must improve its monitoring of state compliance with the law, but he noted changes were already underway before he arrived. As reported last fall, the department launched a new monitoring process last year that is designed to do a better job getting the public involved and providing states support to make changes the department recommends after its initial evaluations. "The key to it is quality monitoring and quality corrective action plans," Warlick said. "It certainly is a very serious issue." "There is a great deal of room for compliance across the states. It's crucial, and this was an important part of the reauthorization of IDEA, that the rights of parents and children must be protected," Warlick said. To that end, he said he is willing to consider a variety of enforcement tactics. Though he will not stop short of withholding federal funding from states that fail to comply with the law, Warlick said that is not the easy solution many observers have suggested. In an informal survey last fall, one-third of Special Education News readers said they believed withholding all education funds is the best way to enforce state compliance. To Warlick, the funding issue is not so simple. "I think that the crucial question should be if a state has a few districts out of compliance in that state, should you take away funding to the whole state?" he said. "Anytime you take away money, you hurt kids. Sometimes, by taking away those dollars, you actually inhibit the states' ability to make the improvements the states need to make." That does not mean the department will rule out that option, Warlick said. "I am not at all opposed to taking away dollars," he said, noting he took money away from schools in Kentucky that showed a long pattern of non-compliance and "proved themselves unwilling or unable to comply." On the flip side, states that establish good track records in major compliance areas ought to qualify for some breaks, Warlick said. For example, he would be willing to consider loosening the monitoring process for those states, if an agreement to do so could be worked out among state special ed. directors, parents, advocacy groups and other stake holders. Heading Off Problems Early Besides state IDEA compliance, Warlick is looking to make his mark on the national special ed. scene by improving early detection and intervention programs. That area, he argues, will have a bearing on many other special ed.-related programs later in the child's school years. "We need to be getting services to infants and families really from the time mothers are leaving the hospital with their babies," he said. In particular, state and local agencies need to identify appropriate services for children in their first few months, and all agencies need to smooth the transition from early childhood services to preschool programs, he said. Those efforts should focus on the development of language and concept understanding in the children and more flexibility among teachers to accept varied means of communication from their students. These efforts could head off many behavioral problems before they start, Warlick argues. "One of the things we have not done a very good job of is providing interventions for children in the area of reading and also for children who are exhibiting initial behavioral difficulties in their early years of school," he said. Fixing the current system of assessing all children, and including students with special needs in those assessments, will also be a priority for the new director. It will not, however, be a simple process. Warlick spent much of his time in Kentucky revamping the state's assessment process and learned that clarifying which accommodations are acceptable -- one of the most common questions among teachers and test administrators -- is only the tip of the iceberg. "States are really having to look at their whole systems," he said. Professional development will be key to including students with disabilities in these tests. General ed. teachers need training to understand the use of adaptations and supports, while special ed. teachers need training to understand the general ed. curricula and how to prepare their students, he noted. "There's going to have to be much more teamwork." In fact, designing a federal plan all states can follow may not be effective, Warlick said. Every state and many local districts have their own large-scale assessments, and they use them for varying purposes, he noted. The progress that has already been made on setting standards for accommodations also varies state by state. "There's not one way that is going to fit every state. We will be looking through various eyes at the sort of policy guidance we need to give states," he said. Public Relations
According to Warlick, such a bill is not needed, because the 1997 IDEA reauthorization gives schools more flexibility than they had before. "Unfortunately, the message of that flexibility hasn't always gotten to the schooling level, to the principals and the classroom teachers," he said. Referring back to his emphasis on early intervention and inclusive education, Warlick said, "the vast majority of those behaviors can be prevented. That's really where our focus needs to be." IDEA's 25th anniversary is an opportunity to renew efforts and positive attitudes toward achieving these goals, Warlick argues. "It's like we have a new baseline that we're starting with," he said. "What we've learned is yes, it's difficult, but yes, it's do-able. And yes, it's in the best interests of children. It's in the best interests of improving teaching and in the best interests of society."8 |
