CASE Parent Informational Meeting: ETHS Day School
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ETHS Therapeutic School
 
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Advocacy Alert!  Update on New D202 Day School
District 202 New Public Day School Opening in June 2019
 
District 202 is planning to open its new public day school in June of 2019. The new school will be located in the cluster of buildings at Dempster St. and Hartrey Ave. (near Have Dreams and the Goldfish Swim School) - about 3 blocks from the ETHS campus.
 
CASE is not taking a position "for" or "against" the new public day school.  However, we believe you should be aware of the following:

  • Recently, Dr. Lanee Walls, Director of Special Education at ETHS, sent out a letter regarding the new school (link).  As far as we can tell, the letter was sent to all parents of ETHS students who are currently placed in private therapeutic day schools and some students who are receiving home-bound instruction.
 
Initially when ETHS began planning this school, applying for zoning, and sharing information in public forums, Dr. Lanee Walls, Director of Special Education in D202, said that the school would primarily serve students with emotional disabilities (ED). It now appears that ETHS may be planning to serve a much broader population of students in the day school.

 The following factors could be cause for concern:
  • In terms of criteria for admission, the ETHS special ed administration has told CASE that the day school will be able to accept students with any disabilities and will not selectively exclude certain disability categories. In other words, students with SLD, Autism, emotional disabilities, ADHD, etc. will all be under consideration for placement in the school.
  • Because federal law has a preference for placing students in the "least restrictive environment" (LRE), the District may assert that the public day school will provide an environment less restrictive than the private day schools (e.g. Arlyn, New Hope Academy, Cove School, Hyde Park Day School, Bridgeview/Challenger, Safe Haven, etc.).  

The following factors could make the school appealing:
  • Because of the physical proximity of the new school to ETHS, students will have more opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities at ETHS.
  • Also, when appropriate, it may better support partial-day arrangements where students split their schedule between the two locations (for example, as they transition back to the main campus).
  • Students who attend the ETHS day school will be spared the lengthy bus-rides to distant therapeutic day schools.
The ETHS Day School will be discussed as an option in upcoming IEP meetings - annual reviews, transition meetings, etc. It's important that parents are prepared to participate in these discussions.

Therefore, if you have a high school student, or an incoming 9th grader, who is currently attending a therapeutic school (or who may require therapeutic placement at some time in the near future) or you have a student who is on home-bound instruction - you should pay close attention to this development. Parents of middle school students in therapeutic placements may also want to be aware of what is happening with this new public high school option.

For more information, join us on Thursday, January 24th.  See more above.