Classmates campaign for Fort Collins special needs boy

Brady Green's friends took the podium one by one, some standing on tiptoes to tell the Poudre School District Board of Education why their fifth grade classmate mattered. 

"He's one of the kindest kids in our grade," proclaimed Owen Armstrong, 10. "Every day, I wake up and I'm looking forward to school because Brady goes there." "He's taught me so many things through the time that I've known him. ... He lights up the room whenever he's around. He helps people when they're down," said Ella Blakeley, 11. "He makes people laugh."

They were on an important mission at that April 12 Poudre School District Board of Education meeting: To share the importance of their friendship with Brady and campaign for him to join them at Blevins Middle School next year.

Brady has Down syndrome, so he was going to be separated from his friends because Webber Middle School has a special program for students with special needs.

A months-long fight for Brady's inclusion at Blevins began when his parents Steve and Tena Green tried to choice Brady into the school. They were told he would have to attend Webber because Blevins didn't have the same resources for students with disabilities.

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At Olander School for Project Based Learning, Tena dropped Brady off at school, watched his friends put their arms around him and saw her son walk happily into the school.

The thought of him losing that camaraderie brought her to tears.

"Every day when I saw him interacting with his friends, I knew I couldn't give up," Tena said. "I knew that wasn't OK."

The emotional testimonies of her son's classmates April 12 and several negotiations with Blevins Middle School administration, along with a promise that Steve and Tena will remain actively involved in their son's academic success, brought the family a happy ending: Brady will attend Blevins next year with his buddies.

But their story remains a window into the struggles of many parents of students with special needs and the journey to inclusion in the traditional classroom.

"Brady accepts everybody," Tena said. "Society needs to accept Brady. ... You just want your child to be included."

Inclusion in PSD

PSD Director of Integrated Services Sarah Belleau told the Coloradoan in an emailed statement that district staff are "strong believers in inclusive practices, doing our best to educate students with and without disabilities together as much as possible."

Students with special needs who qualify under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act often have an Individual Education Plan, or IEP, to delineate any unique needs. More than 2,300 PSD students — including Brady — have an IEP this year.

The Greens were willing to alter Brady's IEP, which schools are legally obligated to meet, to get Brady into Blevins. So far, they will not have to do so and are "just going to see how things go."

Some students with IEPs attend Integrated Learning Supports center-based programs, or ILS programs.

Todd Lambert, assistant superintendent of elementary schools, said all PSD schools can meet nearly all needs for students with IEPs.

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When an IEP cannot be met due to staffing restrictions or specialized needs, students are directed to schools with center-based programs. Some exceptions, like Brady's story, are made on a case by case basis.

ILS programs have special personnel and teachers with special licenses that can serve more severe needs. Lambert said it's fiscally responsible to leverage those resources in central locations in each high school feeder system — regardless where a student lives within that feeder system.

The programs, which include the one Brady would have attended at Webber, are for students with significant support needs, Belleau wrote.

"ILS programs are about creating the best environment for a student so they can be successful," Belleau wrote.

ILS programs exist at the following PSD schools: Wellington, Lincoln, Lesher, Kinard and Webber middle schools; and Poudre, Fort Collins, Fossil Ridge and Rocky Mountain high schools.

Inclusion in the traditional classroom and other school programs is slowly becoming the norm at area schools and across the county, said Julie Chaplain, assistant principal at Fossil Ridge High School.

Chaplain's background is in special education. At Fossil Ridge, she helps organize inclusion efforts, which include unified basketball and flag football teams, integrated drama and integrated physical education classes.

Fossil Ridge was named the 2015 Project Unify School of the year by Colorado Special Olympics due to the school's inclusion efforts.

Students with and without disabilities involved in Fossil's inclusive sports and classes have become more engaged in the school's culture and their own academic success, Chaplain said.

"That's the infectious nature of inclusion," she said. "Breaking down barriers and understanding at a human level that everyone has the same desires: To feel good, to feel connected and to have community." Each student finds purpose and connection.

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Lisa Owsley, an ILS teacher at Poudre High School, said she's seen the same effect at Poudre. Owsley is the assistant coach of the school's unified basketball team.

"It's really changing the way we view all people: For their likes and dislikes and who they are — not what they can or cannot do," Owsley said.

That's why Tena and Steve wanted so badly for Brady to stay connected with his friends at Olander. His social development trumps any potential academic benefits of a specialized program for students with special needs, Tena said.

And his classmates don't seem to recognize Brady's differences — or at least they don't care about them.

"He's no different from us, except for the fact that he has one extra chromosome," Storm Downing, 10, told the PSD Board of Education. "And that doesn't really mean anything."

Follow Sarah Jane Kyle on Twitter @sarahja nekyle or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/reportersarahjane. Keep up with social issues in Northern Colorado by subscribing to the Life Connected newsletter.