Special needs students in five area school corporations should see little, if any, change next year in the services they receive. But the way those services will be delivered will change greatly.

According to Tamra Ummel, director of the North Central Indiana Special Education Cooperative, the NCI administration will decentralize - with each member school district hiring its own special education director.

Ummel said the change is another step in the evolution of NCI, which began in 1972 and includes Warsaw, Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley, Whitko and Bremen school districts. In the early 1990s, the special needs students, who were bused to Warsaw for services, were returned to their home schools and districts. In the mid-1990s, she said, much of the instructional staff was sent to individual school districts as well.

The change was decided in October by NCI's governing board, which is composed of the superintendents of the member school districts.

Under the new structure, "each local school corporation will be able to make decisions about services as close to the kids who need those services as possible," Ummel said. "There's the potential for expanded service plans in each district."

She said the special needs population is growing and now averages approximately 12 percent of the student population, including preschool students.

With local districts now hiring special ed staff, she said, kids who need the services may be more easily identified by having that service right in the schools.

Some services, such as those to students with visual and hearing impairments and occupational and physical therapy, will continue to be jointly operated, Ummel said, because of the low incidence of those disabilities and the highly specialized nature of the staff.

Funding won't be affected, Ummel said, and the 10 staff members at the NCI headquarters building still are undecided as to where they will go. Ummel will remain in Warsaw and continue to be director of special services. The fate of the NCI building, she said, still has not been decided.

The cooperative will continue to exist, she said, but with a unique new structure.

"The name and the membership will stay the same and the vision and mission will still be the same," Ummel said. "It will be more locally driven."

The changes will be effective July 1, she said, so the new structure will be in place in time for the 2003-04 school year.

"This is not an effort to cut staff or services," Ummel said. "From the kids' point of view, nothing will change. ... The solution needed to be solved as close to the kids or as close to the problem as possible. ... We're there to support the people who do the work." [[In-content Ad]]