New law may affect Mississippi special education

In the state of Mississippi and across the country, teachers must be certified in a certain specialization called an endorsement.
To have an endorsement, the teacher must have a master’s degree in education, and while getting the master’s degree, the teacher can choose from several different endorsements. The endorsements are ultimately several hours of class that focus on a specific type of disorder and the teacher learns how to identify, teach and treat those with the disorder.
The problem with these endorsements and getting the certifications is that teachers who have already graduated and received a degree must go back to school to receive the endorsement, said Linda Jones, director of special education for the Lafayette County School District. The public school systems in Mississippi have agreements with several colleges around the state through which the public schools can accumulate what they call “bank hours” to help pay for the teachers to further their educations.
The “bank hours” come as an exchange for allowing student teachers to evaluate classrooms and gain experience.
The university allows teachers to use these hours instead of paying for the classes they are taking. “Bank hours” are given for each hour that a student teacher is teaching or evaluating a classroom around the university. These hours can then be used at the university instead of the teacher having to pay any tuition.
However, the big problem with the situation concerning the emotional disability endorsement classes around the Oxford area is that there aren’t enough classes offered at the University of Mississippi to get an endorsement for teaching children with emotional disabilities, or an EmD endorsement, according to both Jones and Amanda West, a Lafayette County teacher.
This means that teachers who would like to or need to get this endorsement must pay for the classes online out of their own pockets. There are several serious flaws with the lack of teachers qualified to teach these students with special needs.
The Mississippi Legislature recently passed a new bill that may make changes to the special education system in Mississippi.
The legislature created the Joint Legislative and Paraprofessional Education and Mental Health Study Committee to prevent the dissolution of a committee that evaluates the special education classrooms across the state.
Oxford public schools superintendent Brian Harvey said he is excited that the bill has been passed.
“As a state overall, we’re not providing adequate early identification, Head Start and transitions for these kids,” he said.
The committee has been in place for several years. However, the bill extends the committee’s existence and will most likely change the makeup of the committee members. The members will evaluate the current situation of special education students. Yet the committee is only concerned with those children in the public education system considered to have an extreme or serious emotional or behavioral disorder, according to Jones.
Students with an emotional disability are those students who have difficulty building or maintaining emotional interpersonal relationships with peers or teachers, according to the federal guidelines on special education.
These students also exhibit the inability to learn in the capacity of intellectual, sensory or health factors. Some students also exhibit inappropriate behavior or feelings in normal situations. These students may have a general pervasive or depressed mood and may have the tendency to develop physical symptoms, especially fear.
The committee will work to evaluate the current situations in Mississippi’s public schools. The task force members will evaluate the curriculum and the system for identifying these emotional disorders, but most importantly they will evaluate the teachers educating these emotionally disabled students, according to the bill.
Students that could have an emotional disability must see several doctors and specialists, including teachers responsible for several other types of students in order to be officially considered to have an emotional disorder, according to the federal guidelines.
West said she is the only teacher in the Lafayette County school system who is qualified to teach students with emotional disabilities as she had to complete an emergency certification. An emergency certification will allow West to teach students with emotional disabilities for one year while she works to complete her endorsement.
Furthermore, West must take the financial burden upon herself because she cannot use the “bank hours” to complete her endorsement at Ole Miss. West said she is paying for the classes toward her endorsement at Delta State University in an online program.
“I wish it was not so expensive,” she said. “But it is costly for any person to pursue a higher education this day and time.”
West has been working toward her endorsement since May and is expected to complete the required classes in the summer. While she is the only teacher in the Lafayette County School District working toward receiving the EmD endorsement, she said she does not feel too much pressure.
“The plan that University of Southern Mississippi offers allows for one class to be taken each semester, so I do not feel too pressured to complete the endorsement,” West said.
The state of Mississippi has taken several steps toward improving the education system around the state, but the lack of funding and the poverty level in several parts of the state make these improvements difficult. However, this extension is a major stride for the Mississippi school system.
“We’ve taken great strides in our state with early identification and serving children with EmD,” Jones said.
The money, educators say, will be well used.
“Any time you get people together to talk about children, it’s worth it,” Harvey said.