catalyst-chicago.org

WANTED: High school teachers qualified to work with learning disabled, mentally retarded, hearing and visually impaired, emotionally disturbed, and other special needs students.

START DATE: Yesterday.

Special education teachers constitute the single biggest shortage in Chicago's public schools, and high schools are suffering the most.

Overall, high schools have about one unfilled position per school while elementary schools have one unfilled position for every two schools. Specifically, the district's 93 high schools have 110 vacancies; its 504...

Ten years ago, a school reform group teamed up with a university legal clinic to sue Chicago Public Schools and the state for illegally segregating special education students. Corey H. is one of several children with disabilities named in the lawsuit brought on behalf of all the city's special education students. In 1998, CPS settled the lawsuit before going to trial, agreeing to send more special needs children back to neighborhood schools and into general education classrooms.

Q. What law did the school boards break?

A. The lawsuit charged the city with...

CPS high schools are falling behind elementary schools in complying with federal special education law, state and local school board officials say.

In 1998, a federal court gave the School Board eight years to get schools on track with the law. At the halfway point this year, "It's reasonable to be concerned about the lack of progress at the high schools," says Sharon Soltman, the attorney who sued the district 10 years ago on behalf of special education students.

High schools are more resistant to serving special education students in regular classes, says Christopher Koch...

This fall, 40 percent of the freshmen entering Austin High School on the impoverished far West Side are designated special education students—the highest rate in the city. Further north, Northside College Preparatory High School enrolled only seven disabled students into 9th grade, a mere 3 percent of its freshman class.

It's a stark contrast illustrating a disturbing trend. As the number of disabled students in Chicago's public high schools rose in recent years, they became increasingly segregated in the most troubled schools. The district's efforts to more evenly distribute...