CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill. – Students with developmental delays in Cahokia Heights are not getting the services that have been outlined in their individualized education programs.
Born with underdeveloped vocal cords, Tiffany Hammond’s son is supposed to get speech therapy at school.
“I notice my son getting more emotional when trying to speak or I can’t understand him sometimes. Coming from someone who did have a speech IEP as a child, it sucks,” she said.
Now, nearly three months into the school year, Hammond says he has had no speech therapy at all. And she is not alone. Hammond’s attorney says he has heard directly from three families and believes there are many more.
Superintendent Curtis McCall Jr., said the district lost its two speech therapists shortly before the school year started.
“We’re already in a teacher shortage, so when you’re talking about its difficult to find a math, a science or a special education teacher, when you have a position that is so specialized such as a speech language pathologist, that makes it even more difficult,” he said.
The district website lists job openings for several positions, including special education teachers, a visually impaired teacher, and a speech language pathologist.
According to information from the Illinois State Board of Education, 19 percent of students in the Cahokia United School District have IEPs, or individualized education programs. Of those, 15 percent have speech or language impairment.
“This is multiple families, kids in different schools, kids with different teachers, none of the families heard anything from anybody from the district,” Attorney Tom Kennedy said.
Kennedy plans to file a complaint with the state board of education. Part of the complaint alleges “parents only learned that speech therapy services were not provided at a parent-teacher conference in late October.”
“We did send letters out, information out to the parents, but again I’m willing to sit down with any parent just to let them know exactly how we proceeded with communication regarding this issue,” McCall said.
McCall says the district is currently forming partnerships with outside agencies to help provide speech therapy. But another mother, Anita Jackson, worries her son is falling too far behind.
“I just want him to thrive like everybody else, and how are they going to help him do that and how are they going to make it up?” she said.
“They shouldn’t have to wait any longer. They shouldn’t have had to wait to begin with,” Hammond said.
McCall says that wait should be over soon.