APS Board & Duran Proposing to Dissolve Integration Station

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little lost. Does this boil down to wanting to save IS because it's full time childcare?

For kids with significant disabilities.

But families of non-disabled kids are constantly told that school is not childcare.

This is a nice-to-have program. Going to the neighborhood school will get the job done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS spends a whopping $65,000 per student at Integration Station. We can't afford that if there are more efficient ways to provide the same thing.

Can they provide staff daycare slots in the CPP programs along with place for the SPED students? So staff could pay the tuition rate, but bring their kids for CPP regardless if they are in county or not. This way IS still is happening according to its stated mission, it is just spread out among neighborhood schools.

CPP is more expensive that TCS and covers fewer hours. TCS is daycare hours- 7-6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does APS subsidize TCS?

No, they don't and haven't in almost a decade. It used to be a benefit that APS offered to staff by covering some of the overhead costs like rent and maintenance on the building which resulted in TCS being able to offer lower tuition. TCS is still below the market rate but not nearly as much as it used to be.

[Anonymous]

It’s a tough sell asking K-12 to make sacrifices, but to leave the preschool program alone.

Unless there is actual evidence that IS results in less sped spending K-12 (not just an IS parent saying it “likely” does), it needs to go.

Early childhood sped programs probably make for an easier transition when the child enters K, but these programs aren’t magically going to make the children not need sped services as they get older.

I agree with posters above who are attempting to strategize making CPP better, not insisting that IS continue.