While educators across the state are familiar with the requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act demanding each school meet Adequate Yearly Progress targets or ultimately face closure, the water gets a little murky when the state's so-called Special Act districts enter the picture.

Statewide, 13 Special Act districts — named for the special acts of the Legislature that created them — educate a unique population of students assigned through a variety of outlets including: the court system, committees on special education referrals and social service placements.

With placements at some of the schools ranging from a few months to well over a year, local leaders are frustrated that the State Education Department wants to use the same School Under Registration Review, or SURR, process used for traditional public schools.

SED puts schools on its SURR list when large numbers of students fail to meet standards in statewide tests, like those required under NCLB to help determine if a school is making Adequate Yearly Progress.

"The population our members in Special Acts serve does not always fit neatly into the methodology used to determine Adequate Yearly Progress," said NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira.

And last fall, the Coalition of Special Act Schools, composed of the districts' superintendents, created a list of proposed alternate performance indicators for submission to State Ed.

"While there has been some discussion on using alternate performance indicators, we want to make sure our members, the people in the classrooms, have a seat at the table," Neira said.

Her concerns have already been realized by the educators in the schools.

"There wasn't any teacher or psychologist input," said Jim Nolan, president of the Mount Pleasant Cottage School Teachers Association in Westchester County.

Look at realities

For educators like Joe Choma, any discussion of student achievement should also include the realities of the conditions in place at special act schools.

A transient student population at Special Act schools is a fact of life not taken into consideration when test time rolls around.

"If we get a student from an Office of Children and Family Services placement, they are only here until a court date. We could have a foster care student come on and their stay is contingent on mom getting an apartment," said Choma, president of the Hawthorne-Cedar Knolls Federation.

"In a community-based district, if you're named SURR it means more funding, for us all we really get is a negative newspaper article," he said.

When the students return to their home district and do well, Choma said, that district gets the credit for acadamic interventions the special act performed.

NCLB buzzwords like AYP and SINI (school in need of improvement) do not take into account the type of students the special schools serve.

Deborah Siegel, president of the Blythedale Teachers union, represents members at Mt. Pleasant-Blythedale, created as a school and hospital combined.

"We deal with kids who suffer extremely severe head injuries. It looks like we have two choices: alternate assessments and state assessments," Siegel said. "We have a lot of kids who are in the gray area."

For now the educators are adding their comments to the list of proposals drafted by the superintendents and awaiting comments and action from State Ed.

"One size doesn't fit all and we're really the round hole they're trying to fit a square peg into," said Choma.

— Clarisse Butler Banks