2 Residents Tell BOE About Their Special Needs Students’ Problems in District

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – Only two residents spoke during the public comments periods of the July 25 South Orange-Maplewood (SOMA). One told the Board of Education (BOE) about problems her special needs granddaughter had in the district, and the other talked about his son’s current issues.

Vicky Johnson, who also spoke in a 2023 BOE meeting , explained, “I attended three board meetings to express my disgust at horrible neglect by the South Orange-Maplewood school district concerning the lack of educational services for my granddaughter as a minority IEP student.” She continued to say that she was told her granddaughter would have her educational and psychological needs evaluated by the school district, but they never evaluated her.

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She summarized the events that occurred during the 2022 school year, “She was given marijuana brownies by several students while at Columbia and taken to Saint Barnabas hospital. Several students continued to physically and psychologically harass her at school, and no action was taken.” She added, “They continue to fail my granddaughter by not meeting her basic needs for safety and security.”

Johnson reported that she recommended to the district that her granddaughter receive home instruction to escape the “hostile, unsafe, unhealthy environment.” She shared that the home instructor never received any communication about mandated core subjects from the IEP superintendent or the Columbia's teachers. “She was supposed to be transferred to an out- of-district school, but the IEP department never completed the process, and now she's been out of school for over a year and a half.”

Johnson stated that the family requested several meetings with the IEP department superintendent and supervisor without any resolution and then  reached out to Mr. Davis for advice. “Mr. Davis recommended and implemented an action plan that included, number one, enrollment for my granddaughter in the accredited summer school program based on academic and emotional support. Secondly, enrollment in their accredited school for the fall, and she received individual therapy sessions for several months,” commented Johnson. She concluded, “I am recommending the special education department implement new IEP protocols by becoming more proactive and preventing these incidents from occurring again for all our students.”

Superintendent Jason Bing recommended that Johnson speak to SEPAC, the Special Education Parents Advisory Council, and gave her contact information.

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The father who called in is Michael Yerdon. He began by thanking Dr. Kevin Gilbert for responding to his email and also welcomed Bing. “My son, who is a rising first-grader at South Mountain Annex. I also have a rising fourth grader at South Mountain. We are parents in SOMA school district and are ready to express our profound concern about rumored changes to the inclusion of classrooms at the South Mountain Annex.” He continued to read his email, “We're ready to seek confirmation, clarity and intention that we're setting not just our child up, setting every child up for, continued success here. We've recently heard that the intention is to not have a kindergarten inclusion class, and that the planned second inclusion class for the first grade has been reduced from two to one, meaning that the annex can now only support eight of the most vulnerable early learners in the first grade.”

Yerdon said that the SOMA district is rooted in an equitable approach for all children and families, and noted that his son benefited greatly from being a general education student in the kindergarten class at South Mountain last year. They moved to SOMA from Brooklyn with an IEP, but SOMA evaluated his son last fall, and he received a 504 for occupational therapy but didn’t qualify for an inclusion class. “[He] benefited from the care and attention provided in the supporter setting, the season teacher and a wonderful special ed teacher,” he stated.

His son was reclassified last week by the summer team and has an IEP again. His parents are disappointed and concerned that his two children will likely be in separate schools, which complicates transportation, start and end times and more.

He explained, “My wife and I have already made after-school commitments for care and non-refundable deposits and pay, [thinking that] both children will be at the same school. There’s no indication of when we will find out about the final determination of placement. Making any adjustments to the plans is very difficult.”

The district also suggested that their son can go back to South Mountain for second grade after next year. “He’d have to start a new school each year for three years. This is potentially harmful for a child who already struggles with making friends, being flexible and needing routine, and one that gets great comfort from taking the bus daily with his older sister.”

Yerdon also mentioned that any child who's classified as mid-year in kindergarten to first grade at South Mountain would probably need to change schools in order to benefit from the full support they are legally entitled to. “Surely, a school district that has the values that you purport would recognize that these children in these classrooms are the ones who needs the most consistency of routine care and support, as do the parents and the child of these children already navigating additional complexities, coordinating their day-to-day care.” He added, “It strikes us as unsupportive and out of sync with the goals of providing inclusive environment to these children, and to limit the available access to certain schools for children with the greatest needs.”

Yardon pleaded, “Urgently reconsider these decisions for the annex and recognize the hardship this decision places on families and our most vulnerable children.”

Bing responded that the BOE has been discussing that issue. “I can promise that we are working on the work and working on restructuring that department. Every board member on this panel has very similar concerns and has made this issue a priority of this administration, and we are currently working on those issues.”

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