Why Should Delaware Care?
State-funded alternative education programs provide pathways to students placed in these facilities, who may have otherwise been expelled. They deal with the state’s most challenging students, but face stagnant state funding and limited physical space.
Legislators, teachers and administrators have spent much of the last year discussing the impact that verbal outbursts, physical violence and chronic absenteeism are having on Delaware students today, but there is one little-discussed tool that has aided many of the most challenging students: alternative education.
While many of the students who attend these four specialty schools around the state may have been expelled in the past, today they benefit from the programs’ smaller class sizes and direct support.
Several hundred students attend four alternative education schools statewide, and it’s a sum that has risen over the years.
At a recent Student Behavior and School Climate Task Force meeting, some members admitted that they did not fully understand the role of alternative education programs in Delaware’s public school system.
And although these programs work to transition students back to their home districts after completing their programs, limited space and funding could make it difficult for alternative education programs to meet students’ needs in the future.
“Without these programs, school climate in your traditional schools would be much worse, and so the fact that we didn’t have a seat at the table is unfortunate,” New Castle County Consortium Program Administrator Malvine Richard said during the August task force meeting. “That’s why you have so many questions now because there hasn’t been anybody at this table while the discussions have been going on.”
Serving students with varied needs
Delaware has multiple alternative education programs, including the New Castle County Consortium’s Parkway North and Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy and the Sussex County Opportunity Program in Education (SCOPE). In Kent County, districts work with Clarvida, a for-profit behavioral health provider formerly known as Pathways Health.
The New Castle County Consortium consists of two programs: Parkway North, which serves grades six through 12, and Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy, which only serves high school students.
The consortium’s board consists of representatives from each of the public school districts in the county, including Colonial, Christina, Red Clay Consolidated, Appoquinimink, Brandywine and New Castle County Vocational Technical. The districts decide where students will be placed, as they know the difference between the two programs, but they do speak with the programs while making that decision, Richard said.
The Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy allows students to utilize an online curriculum and work at their own pace, whereas Parkway North focuses on classroom settings rather than independent learning to prepare students to return to their home schools.
There are essentially two populations of students attending these programs: students with individualized education programs (IEPs) or disabilities, and students who do not have IEPs.
The three most common types of disabilities that students in the programs may have include learning disabilities, other health impairments — having limited strength resulting in limited alertness due to conditions like ADHD — and emotional disabilities, which can include an inability to maintain relationships with peers or teachers, said Jon Cooper, the president of the New Castle County Consortium and director of health and wellness at the Colonial School District.
The process for transitioning a student from a traditional school or a special education setting in their school to an alternative program has to go through an IEP team meeting and it’s highly regulated, Cooper said.
“Students with disabilities can be essentially assigned to an alternative program for 45 days if they have serious types of offenses related to drugs or weapons or committing serious bodily injury to staff,” Cooper said.
Some of the most common referrals in Sussex County last year came due to sexual harassment, marijuana possession and offensive touching, officials said.
There aren’t regulations for how long a student without an IEP or disabilities should stay in the program. Because a timeframe like 45 days doesn’t allow for the teacher to get to know students, the consortium recommends students stay for no less than half the year.
A transition-focused program
Although districts do want their students to transition back, most know that students attending Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy typically don’t want to return to their school and find success through the program’s learning structure and close relationships with educators and staff.
The academy’s learning style allows students to utilize completely remote or in-person instruction, where teachers can help students complete their online learning at their own pace. The CEO and principal of Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy, Yvonne Barnett, believes some students don’t know their peers have individualized education programs (IEPs) because of their learning style.
“The staff is always working with the students, one on one. They’re always coaching. They’re always giving the students extra wait time,” Barnett said. “They’re always doing things that if you’re a special education student, you’re meeting the needs of your IEP. However, all the other students have no clue that you have a IEP, because we offer those same techniques that bode so well with special ed.”
The programs focus more on social and emotional learning than traditional schools, and students build relationships with mentors through the learning structure and class sizes that are smaller than traditional schools.
Students have access to counseling both during and outside of school, giving them extra time to make relationships with staff and address their needs more adequately than they’d be able to in a standard school setting. Because they see the same staff members every day, students have grown more comfortable to start building those relationships.
Richard added that many students at Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. don’t feel like they belong in their home school district because they don’t have close relationships there.
“In a traditional school, you may see a counselor, but the counselor can only give you 10 minutes a month, maybe. Here, if they need to see a counselor every day, it’s fine,” Richard said. “We know that if we give them those needs, then they can get to their academics, but without relationship building, without giving them what they need, meeting their needs, a need of belonging, many of our students don’t feel like they have a place in the traditional school.”
Social, emotional learning is key
Accountability is one of the first things students face when they step into SCOPE’s Bridgeville or Roxana locations as they’re greeted by accountability-themed bulletin boards. The program is all about “owning it” and making sure that students know what they’re there to work on, said Dionne Keeler, the principal of Sussex County’s alternative program.
During the intake process, students and their families review the program and sign participation contracts as students must meet certain criteria before leaving the program, like passing their classes and having good attendance and positive behavior.
While students are enrolled in the program, they have two days of online learning as the classrooms are multi-level, and teachers lead instruction based on students’ pre-test scores during the other three days.
Aside from the academic pieces of their criteria, students have to focus on areas like social and emotional building — or anger management classes — along with a bully prevention program and an accountability speech.
“I tell [students and parents], you know, everybody gets angry. That’s a normal emotion,” Keeler said. “So even if they’re not being sent to us for fighting or lots of conflicts or problems, then it still is good information to have.”
A large part of the program is counseling, with the counselors leading the social-emotional work and conflict resolution classes. Every morning, students start their day by reciting the SCOPE pledge, which has positive affirmations, and completing a journal entry given by the counselors on topics like nurturing relationships.
Students are released into their home district after meeting the necessary criteria. Although they’re required by the state to collect data on students for 90 days, transition facilitators will continue to check in past that timeline, Keeler said. If a student leaves the program in sixth grade, they’ll continue checking in until their high school graduation.
Space becoming a concern
Although Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. can currently hold 100 students, Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy Principal Yvonne Barnett said space may eventually become a concern as more students are sent to them.
There are a few different scenarios if both of the consortium’s programs reach capacity, Cooper said. Each district has a certain number of slots for the program based on its population, and they can “swap slots” if one district has more needs than another. A district can also accept students back early. They can also find another program elsewhere, or create their own.
Occasionally a program may take students beyond its capacity, but the last option is for students to remain in their district — possibly with extra support.
“There may be some cases where a student who typically would be placed alternatively, but they can’t find the alternative placement because it’s not available, that student might get assigned to a smaller classroom, might have a paraprofessional who’s working with them full time,” Cooper said. “In some cases, students are assigned to a homebound education where they’re not coming to the school. A teacher’s working with them, either in the community, or at their house or on Zoom.”
While SCOPE serves all of Sussex County, its Bridgeville location reaches capacity at 60 students, and Roxana maxes at 50 students because of its limited space. Other students in the county are put on a waitlist when the locations reach capacity, or sometimes a student may be sent back to their school district early to make room for another student.
“[School districts may ask] ‘Are they doing really well? Would you say that you’re comfortable with them coming back three weeks early, or a marking period early?’” Keeler said. “There’s been situations like that, that they would take, possibly a student back early to make room for another student that may need our services immediately.”
Stagnant state funding a challenge
The state’s public alternative education programs are funded through a combination of state funds and local revenues, including those generated by tuition taxes.
Tuition taxes for these programs are collected through a small portion of the tax rate established by a local school board, but aren’t subject to a referendum for increases. The tax is one of the four components of a district’s local tax rate and is applied regardless of whether a family’s child attends an alternative education program or not.
Representatives for alternative programs in each of Delaware’s three counties expressed concerns over funding at the August meeting of the task force, an appointed body created in March whose goal is to recommend ways to address the cause of student misbehavior, its impact on educators’ retention and the effectiveness of current school discipline policies, among other areas of research.
While the task force is made up of government and educational officials, school behavioral specialists and resource officers, it notably lacks someone from the alternative education community.
“We’ve been operating with the exact same amount [of money] since my first year here,” Keeler said, noting that So Sussex County has received $1.1 million from the state each year since 1993. “We’ve been able to do the things that we do on that. The only time that we’ve been able to increase is when we’ve asked our school districts to up their tuition, and I feel like we’ve kind of maxed them out.”
Keeler explained that the Woodbridge School District is SCOPE’s fiscal agent, meaning all of the program’s employees are considered Woodbridge employees, and have state employee health care benefits. SCOPE’s employees are also given a wage increase when Woodbridge’s employees receive a raise, but SCOPE’s employees are paid through the state’s $1.1 million funding and the tuition cost per student, not through Woodbridge.
“We have to provide services for everything, for both of our buildings and our staff, which is like 80% of our budget is spent on salaries and the benefits packages,” Keeler said. “So we’ve got to make that work.”
Programs in New Castle County have also remained at the same funding level, with Y.E.A.R.R.R.N. Academy receiving roughly $1.5 million and Parkway North receiving around $2 million, Richard said.
Teachers at the academy are not part of the state system but are required to have the same qualifications as educators who are part of the system. Most certified educators want to be hired by a traditional school district to make more money through the system, but Y.E.A.R.R.R.N.’s Barnett attracts candidates by providing incentives like part-time hours for retired educators who still want to give back to students.
Although the Student Behavior and School Climate Task Force is working toward recommendations to address concerns like students’ behaviors, members had multiple follow-up questions after the counties’ presentations relating to topics like the programs’ fixed funding rates and the possibility of turning students away.
“People are probably asking, ‘Wait a second, if students are coming there, how does that relate to the district sending money, not sending money?’ So if you can give an all-in explanation of how the money flows on this, that would be helpful,” said State Sen. Bryan Townsend (D-Newark) during the meeting.
Townsend again later asked the county representatives to coordinate and provide a document explaining the funding structures and how the counties may differ, as it would be helpful in “continuing the conversation.”
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