Advocates for special education say they are excited about an Evanston/Skokie School District 65 draft plan to allow students with learning problems more time in the regular classroom.

The district’s Special Education Steering Committee proposed an early draft of an action plan for special education at the Aug. 11 school board meeting. The steering committee’s plan emphasized collaboration of general and special education as one of its four major goals.

The plan follows last year’s independent evaluation report of District 65’s special education services by Cassandra Cole of Indiana University.

Cole, director of the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, lauded the school district for not letting the report just “sit on a shelf.”

“It’s a wonderful step forward,” Cole said. “District 65 should be commended for that.”

Cole also said she was “thrilled” that the steering committee incorporated her recommendations into the goals.

District 65 currently pulls the special education students out of the classroom and into a learning disability resources room for additional help, said Marian Casey, director of Answers for Special Kids, an organization that provides additional resources for special needs students.

“The dream would be to have the child stay in the room, and have the special education teacher help the general-education teacher instead of pulling the child out of the classroom,” Casey said.

Casey, who also is a member of the steering committee, said the district should increase efforts to foster cooperation between general- and special-education departments within schools.

Valerie Gudgeon, District 65’s director of special services, said the plan was a “huge task.”

“We’re trying to coordinate our efforts together and have the special-education and curriculum departments collaborate efforts,” Gudgeon said. “It’s not going to be done in a year; It’s a three-to-five year plan.”

But Gugdeon said the plan had a legion of supporters to help make the proposed changes a reality.

“I’m real excited about doing this,” Gudgeon said. “I think other people are enthusiastic to work on this and there’s momentum going on.”

The steering committee made up of parents, teachers and administrators has met five times since March 2003 to work on this proposal.

Although the proposal is still in its “preliminary” stages, steering committee members remain optimistic that its goals will allow for greater changes within the district, making much-needed alterations to current policies that no longer pass muster.

“You find a way in because you have a child,” said Cecelia Wallin, a District 65 parent on the steering committee. “I’m in a position that maybe we can change things for other children.”

The plan’s other three goals are pushing for better communication between the school district and parents of children with special needs, improving the accuracy of the referral system and aligning special-education curriculum more closely with district curriculum standards.

Though the steering committee plans on breaking into subcommittees to work on the final report, there is not yet a formal deadline for a final draft, Gudgeon said.