Parents of special education students listen to Providence School Supt. Donnie Evans last night as he explains how proposed changes in class sizes will affect their children.

PROVIDENCE — Parents of special education students expressed their dismay last night over what they described as the lack of communication between families and members of the School Department.

At a forum, the parents also said that they have serious reservations about proposed changes in class size for mild to moderately disabled special education students. The School Department has asked the Rhode Island Department of Education to allow the district to increase the class size for self-contained special education classes from 10 children to 12 in elementary school and from 10 children to 15 in secondary school. This would only apply to those classes where there is both a teacher and a teacher’s assistant, and it would not include students with severe disabilities.

Supt. Donnie Evans explained that the district was moving in this direction anyway, but the current budget crisis forced the department to act sooner than it originally planned. Evans promised that the change in maximum class size would not impede student achievement because he said the most important contribution to a child’s success is the quality of the classroom teacher. The department also intends to provide a lot more training to teachers who work with special education children.

Although last night’s meeting was an attempt to reach out to members of the Local Advisory Committee for Special Education, parents expressed their frustration with the way in which the district communicates with them. Several parents said that they didn’t hear that the meeting had been rescheduled from tonight to last night until the last minute.

“I’m sitting here almost in tears,” said one of the parents, Stephanie Jones Pringle. “The School Department doesn’t understand the struggle of the parent of a special-needs child.”

Several parents wondered how the department could increase the size of special education classes when they aren’t doing a good job with the students they have.

“You’re adding five more children in a situation where half of the class has behavioral problems and you expect test scores to rise?” a parent said. “The children who are good are drowned out by the behavior problems.”

Evans assured parents that he wasn’t satisfied with what he observed in some of the district’s classrooms, but he added that a child with significant behavior issues would be placed in a smaller class.

A couple of parents questioned the district’s commitment to parental engagement because they said it felt like the proposed changes were a done deal.

“You already did this,” said Xiomara Paulino, a member of the Rhode Island Parent Information Network. “Parents had nothing to do with this, yet we are the ones affected by it. This should have been done after listening to parents.”

Evans explained that the department is soliciting feedback from the public and parents in particular, adding that this is the first of three forums on the proposed changes. A community meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Juanita Sanchez complex and the School Board will discuss the proposed variance on Aug. 14.

Evans is also seeking another waiver from the Department of Education. Currently, every school district with more than 10,000 students must hire an assistant special education director for every additional 2,000 students above 10,000. The variance would require an additional special education assistant for every 4,000 students above 10,000.

“We think that’s unfair,” Evans said of the current rule. “We have more special education supervisors than we do for elementary, middle and secondary school combined. Yet special education students spend most of their day in general education classrooms.”

Evans would rather assign those administrators to work in the area of general education.

But parents said that special education assistants are often the only ones who intervene on their behalf with principals and teachers who don’t understand the needs of special education children.

“Teachers need more support,” said Gloria Bussell, who has a 7-year-old son with special needs. “I had to send 12 letters to the district to get help. We need a clear chain of command.”

Because there has been a history of mistrust between parents and the central office, “we come to you ready for a fight,” said Louise Tillinghast.

Evans said he appreciates parents’ frustrations because he spent much of his career trying to “fix” special education, first as a teacher, then as a principal, and later as the person in charge of special education for the district.

“I stand before you as a principal who did it,” he said. “My school had the full range of handicapped students. I was evaluated on how well I did in helping the kids in my building. I’m going to hold every principal responsible. It won’t happen in three days. But I want my principals to be embarrassed to have someone call the district office” with a problem.

lborg@projo.com