Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lesley and Nick Markesbery were preparing to move to Texas from Florida. As their move inched closer, the private school their son attended in Florida told the couple they were making cuts.
Their son was one of the students asked to leave the school.
He’s bi-racial and a special education student.
“Our son was the longest-tenured student in the class. He was also the only Black student in the class,” Lesley said, her voice cracking with emotion. “They said, ‘We’re reducing headcount. We don’t have a spot for your child.’ Bull—-. You’re choosing to replace him. … It was just a bit more difficult. They were struggling for him to fit into their system.”
After moving to Fort Worth, the family stumbled upon the Jane Justin School.
Located inside the Child Study Center at Cook Children’s, the Jane Justin School serves special education students who struggle in a general education classroom. Data from the school shows the children are performing at or above grade level in standardized testing. If the resources of the school could be combined with the government money public schools receive, it’s possible more special education students could thrive for free.
Students at the school have IQs between 40 and 130, Headmaster Tracie Mann said. The average IQ is about 78. The mean IQ of the population is 100.
The school aims to help raise IQs, but the metrics are different for each student. A child with an IQ of 50 is expected to gain about four and a half months in development in a school year, Mann said. But a child with an IQ around 100 would be expected to gain nine months of development in a school year.
The school tries to gain even more development than expected in a year to close the achievement gap even more, Mann said. The goal is for at least 85% of students to exceed their expected IQ gain.
To meet campus goals, all students have a personalized education plan that teachers develop. They also have a personalized chart that teachers check daily to ensure they’re making the progress they need.
At the same time, special education students in Texas public schools are struggling to succeed. Under federal law, public schools have to accept special education students and accommodate their needs. The government partly funds those needs, but not entirely, school districts have to make up the costs.
The Jane Justin School has small class sizes, teachers specifically trained in special education, tuition and parental involvement. Additionally, it chooses who to accept. Tuition ranges from $17,500 to $19,500 depending on the student. At least half of the families receive financial aid, Mann said.
How does the school operate?
Glynnis and Wes Paterson started noticing their son, John, was struggling around the time he was 4 years old.
John started kindergarten during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it became clear to his parents that virtual learning was not a good option for him. Glynnis said he struggles with classroom etiquette and social challenges.
The couple was able to get a diagnosis — which they prefer to keep private — from a medical professional. Once the Patersons reached out to their local public school for accommodations, Glynnis said, they knew they wouldn’t be satisfied with the service. There was too much red tape in the process. They had to find other options.
Nestled in Cook Children’s are classrooms divided by colors of the rainbow — yellow, green, purple, red and blue. To most people touring, it looks like a fun space for children. To staff at the Jane Justin School, it identifies the progress of students and the kind of instruction they need.
Behind nearly every colorful little detail is endless research and thoughtful experimentation for the teaching and development of the student.
Some rooms have taped off areas on the floor to help students know where to stay during activities. Some have larger tables for group instruction, while others just have space for students to work one-on-one with their teacher.
Admission typically starts with a referral, but it isn’t required. Headmaster Tracie Mann said pediatricians or educational diagnosticians are the most common referrals to the school.
The school then does a screening. Not every child who needs accommodations is a fit for Jane Justin School, Mann said. A child with a minor learning disability would be referred to a different campus — such as the Hill School or Key School. Similarly, the school doesn’t serve non-verbal children, Mann said.
The school serves students with autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, language disorders, anxiety and other learning disorders. Most of the students have a dual diagnosis — meaning more than one disability — and Mann said they all have an individualized education plan.
Families go through an evaluation with the school to discuss the challenges the child is having and the family’s goals for their student, she said. The child also spends time in a classroom so the school can get an understanding of their social skills.
“We just need to make sure that we have the resources to meet the goals the parents have for the child,” Mann said. All those notes are compiled and part of an admissions committee meeting to determine who will get in and who will join the waitlist.
Meeting specific needs
Lesley and Nick Markesbery’s son needed both structure and people who were willing to work with him to meet his needs. He doesn’t thrive well in group instruction because he loses focus, Lesley said. The adaptive curriculum also helps with his confidence. If he’s able to work above grade level in math, he feels successful even if he’s struggling in reading.
He also struggles with understanding picture books, Lesley said. Her son doesn’t always comprehend what’s happening in the pictures, so he has to stop and write a line describing what’s happening.
These accommodations aren’t not just helping their son learn, Nick said, they also are making school more enjoyable. At his old school, the kids would go outside after drop-off, and Nick said he’d see their son go to the fence and watch him leave.
“And he’d give me those eyes like, ‘Please don’t leave me in here,’” Nick said.
Currently, the school has 85 students and is accepting applications for the 2024-25 school year. Each year, about 10 to 12 spots open up at the campus, Mann said. The goal is for the students to eventually return to a general education setting. The campus accepts students from pre-K until they’re 22.
The students in the upper school are older and learning ways to be more independent. There is a mock apartment so they learn how to clean, do laundry, cook and other chores, Mann said. The students also get a budget and grocery shop once a week.
Class sizes at the Jane Justin School range from seven students to 13 students. Classrooms are independent from grades, Mann said. Instead, students receive individualized curriculum regardless of age or grade level.
Students vary in where they’re at, Mann said. One student might be performing on grade level in reading, but be two years behind in math. The school hopes the individual curriculum will help with that.
“Because we don’t do group instruction, we can also accommodate that for every student in the classroom,” Mann said.
The yellow and green rooms are the earliest transition rooms for students, Mann said. The students in those classrooms always get one-on-one teaching. As the students get older and develop more independent skills, they get smaller group instruction.
Earlier classes, like the yellow and green rooms, also have practices like a token system to reward good behavior, Mann said. Eventually, those practices are transitioned out so the students can prepare to return to a different school.
Practices aren’t just put in place at the school. Both the Paterson and Markesbery families have lessons they bring into their home.
For John, a behavior that he struggles with is interruption, Wes said. If he interrupts in class, John gets a strike. Once he gets a certain number of strikes, he loses privileges both at home and in school.
“Not only do they have systems in place to reward the behavior that we’re looking for, but they’re also tracking every time that he has a negative behavior,” Wes said. “Every time we come together for a quarterly review, we have a chart that shows on a daily basis, how many events he had, and then we’re able to layer that on top of that if we made medication changes or if there are other changes in the home, whatever it may be, to really see where we’re having impact and to see that going down over time.”
Can it be replicated in public school?
The people who work in special education classrooms in public schools are compassionate and well-meaning educators, said Mann, the school’s headmaster. But they do not have the resources, finances or support to meet the needs of students.
In Fort Worth ISD, 10.7% of students were enrolled in special education in the 2021-22 school year, which equates to just under 8,000 students. The entire Jane Justin School’s population is just 1% of the Fort Worth ISD special education population.
Mann knows there are several factors contributing to special education barriers in public schools that are outside of the school’s control.
“To be totally fair, we have control over enrollment; they do not, so that’s the other really difficult thing,” Mann said. “They have these self-contained special education classrooms, and they’re trying to meet the needs of all of these students.”
The student-to-teacher ratio in many public special education classrooms do not allow for enough individualized instruction, Nick said.
“The first thing that happens when there’s a neuro-atypical child is, the skill is going to shift where they may be a different age, they may achieve everything, but they may not be able to do it until a different age,” Nick said. “Well, ‘if you don’t fit this one template that we get to have then you have to go to the special ed room’ and then there’s all the stigma.”
Public schools like Fort Worth ISD are experiencing a teacher shortage. Fort Worth ISD identified special education as one of the areas of need for more teachers.
But there are some areas public schools serve families that Jane Justin lacks, too, such as after-school care and transportation.
How to get 504 accommodations
Getting disability accommodations in public schools can be difficult. Read our explainer here to get help.
The Paterson family is willing to work through those barriers to ensure their son has the help he needs.
“Getting an (Individual Education Plan) for your child I think is sometimes really difficult,” Glynnis said. “But then the second battle is ensuring the school is executing it in the public school system. An IEP is well and good and can be perfect and everyone signs it, but then it’s not being followed through.”
Copyright 2023 KERA. To see more, visit KERA. 9(MDA4OTAxNzAzMDEzMjc0MTc2MzA5ZDZlMw004))
