Program has general- and special-ed kids

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Board of Education and the Recreation Department are in their second year of keeping township children together during the summer.

The program, divided into two age groups, provides special-education children with schooling, and the general-education children with activities. And both sets of kids have the opportunity to play together.

Older children meet at Watsessing Elementary School; the younger ones, up to fifth-grade if they have multiple disabilities are at Forest Glen. At one time, the BOE and the township recreation department went their separate ways in the summer.

“We had our own special-needs programs,” Recreation Department Director Michael Sceurman said in a telephone interview. “But the BOE came to us and said some of their special-educations kids were being sent out-of-district.”

Sceurman said the special-education director for the school district, Linda Colucci, came up with a summer program in which the school district’s special-education children would remain in Bloomfield with the special-education children from the township program, along with the general education kids.
“The BOE provides the educational part,” Sceurman said.

He added that a majority of the district special-education teachers remain with their students during the summer.

“It’s win/win,” he said.
In a telephone interview, Colucci said the special-needs children are at Forest Glen, where the Bloomfield Early Childhood Center is located. Except for those with multiple disabilities, who are older, all the children are preschooler, ages 3 to 4.

“We share students,” she said about the program. “The benefit now is that special-needs children are with their same-age peers.”

Colucci said the school district has a about 50 special-education students during the summer, for their extended school year instructions.

Karen Thomany, the special-education supervisor at Forest Glen, said there were 61 extended school year, or ESY students.

Thomany agreed with Sceurman and Colucci and said the benefits of the program are the sharing of staff, facilities and nursing.

In the morning, until 1 p.m., the ESY children receive academic instructions at Forest Glen. Thomany said a child-study team determines if a student is eligible to be ESY. They are eligible if they would regress in language arts, and mathematic skills. Also, an ESY child attends the program for free while a general-education child is charged a fee for recreational activities.

The ESY program is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The township recreation department program is from 9 a.m. until 4 a.m.

At 1 p.m., the special-education child can now play with his general-education peers in the township program.