MARYSVILLE — The Marysville School District announced Monday it was pausing swimming trips for students in the district, because of concerns over safety and a lack of supervision for young adults with disabilities.
Parents, however, tell a different story. At least five parents of students with disabilities said a staff member notified them on Sept. 20 the district “is cancelling swimming as an approved activity for students with disabilities.”
Melody Plumb has a son in the program. He already has enough credits to graduate, but has stayed for social connection and to learn skills to prepare him for adulthood, Plumb said. He loves the water. It helps him regulate his emotions and calms his anxiety.
“No information was provided to staff or families,” Plumb said in an email. “… Why couldn’t they send something before the swimming was stopped to prepare us?”
On Thursday, Plumb reported the issue to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. In her complaint, she said eight to 12 adults were on deck or in the pool, in addition to lifeguards on duty, during the swimming program.
“The sheer lack of communication to staff and families is astounding,” Plumb wrote in her complaint. “The district has a long track record of keeping parents of special needs kids out of the loop, affecting support and services for these families.”
The Marysville School District has been in a tumultuous state for years due to increasingly severe budget shortfalls. Following two failed levies in 2022, the district is now in deep financial trouble, with a special administrator from the state now overseeing the district’s business practices.
Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, known as the IDEA act, schools must provide a free appropriate public education in conformity with a student’s individualized education program, or IEP, a written statement with services to be provided for children in special education programs.
The IDEA act gave funding for schools to work with special education students ages 18 to 21, with the intent of preparing them for employment or post-secondary education. Often, special education students complete most of their academic requirements by age 18, using the years between 18 and 21 in school to develop work and independent living skills.
It’s unclear how many students participated in the program in Marysville.
The district paused swim activities — held at the Marysville Pilchuck High School pool for years — after safety concerns surfaced last spring about adequate supervision, district spokesperson Jodi Runyon said.
Plumb’s complaint mentioned the school board didn’t discuss any changes to the program this spring, when the district said safety concerns emerged.
Before the district halted the program, a program teacher, paraeducators and pool staff supervised the swimming, according to the district. This supervision was inadequate, Runyon said, because it was not structured like an aquatics program or PE class.
Runyon said the district superintendent, the executive director of secondary schools and a special education director asked schools to create a dedicated course for swimming that would be led by teachers and fully supervised, providing the opportunity for students to earn PE credits.
Runyon did not respond to a list of follow-up questions from The Daily Herald this week.
Eric Christofferson has two children in the 18- to 21-year-old special education program. For the past eight years, he said, they have participated in the swimming activities. During the previous school year, his two children went to the pool daily and went on two or three other field trips per week. Now, he said, they don’t get either. Special education students now spend every day in a classroom, he said.
“It wasn’t until just this last week when they all of a sudden started barfing out different excuses as to why they can’t use this program, when in all these years past, it’s never been a problem,” Christofferson said.
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction said it was first notified of the issue Monday. Spokesperson Katy Payne said the agency has investigated a number of complaints concerning special education in the school district since 2023. One, filed last November, was a systemic complaint, meaning a number of issues were present districtwide regarding special education services and IEP implementation.
That investigation found staff reported students received their special education services at some schools, but not at others.
“In general, parents were not consistently informed about the missing services,” wrote Tania May, assistant superintendent for special education at OSPI, in a report after the investigation.
Payne said multiple complaints against the district resulted in corrective actions, several of which are ongoing. As part of the development of an improvement plan between the state and the district, the district proposed a training schedule, covering topics including special education classroom management, IEPs and other special education topics. The state accepted the plan and is meeting with the district monthly until 2025 to ensure its implementation.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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