She wasn鈥檛 speaking and didn鈥檛 have any friends, and he later found out the teachers would largely leave her in a corner to play alone.
Because of that speech delay, she was ultimately referred to Arlington Public Schools鈥� Integration Station program.
She wasn鈥檛 talking or hitting developmental milestones. But the hope was time as a student in the program, run through a partnership with The Children鈥檚 School, would change that.
Within a few weeks, her vocabulary changed and she started talking about friends. She described playing with other kids.
During a final meeting with the Integration Station team, Dokurno was told she could enter kindergarten without any specialized support.
The partnership offers toddlers with disabilities early intervention and special needs services and allows students to get comfortable and integrated into a general education environment as they prepare for kindergarten.
For the second time in as many years, though, parents are urging Arlington Public Schools not to end it.
鈥淏y doing the early intervention, by identifying what she needed early and delivering that to her in a preschool setting, she鈥檚 able to go into kindergarten just like any other kid,鈥� Dokurno told 海角精品黑料.
Last spring, as part of Arlington Public Schools鈥� proposed budget, the program was slated to be cut. The possibility came after a consulting firm found that about $1 million could be saved by 鈥渆xploring how services of the Integration Station are currently delivered and implementing a new model.鈥�
The program was ultimately funded. But in an email to families in June, The Children鈥檚 School鈥檚 board of directors and executive director said the school district informed them of plans to 鈥減hase out the Integration Station partnership over the next few years.鈥�
The program will remain as-is this fall, the letter said, and one grade will be phased out each year beginning in 2027.
鈥淲hile we are disappointed to hear that APS is not planning to continue the longstanding TCS/IS Partnership, the Children’s School was founded to provide high-quality childcare and early education to the teachers and staff of Arlington Public Schools and we will continue to fulfill that mission,鈥� Children鈥檚 School Executive Director Erin Hindes told 海角精品黑料 in an email.
鈥淲e hope Dr. Dur谩n, Dr. Mann, and the Arlington School Board could extend this gold standard education for the benefit of Arlington students,” the email continued.
An Arlington Public Schools spokeswoman declined to make leadership available for an interview about the future of the program.
In a statement, the division said no immediate program changes will occur and it鈥檚 planning to reconvene the Early Childhood Work Group in late August to review staff鈥檚 recommendations and gather additional feedback.
District staff recently shared a recommendation with the school board for future delivery of early childhood services, it said.
鈥淲e remain committed to transparency, thoughtful planning and continued communication throughout this process and will share updates as additional information becomes available,鈥� the statement said.
The county created a working group to navigate a path forward last year and parent Erin Turner said it recommended one of two possibilities: one would keep the relationship with The Children鈥檚 School and another included a hub model that could have included a relationship with the school. Neither appears to have been picked.
鈥淲hen you have to make really difficult decisions, I think it’s really important that you can look each other in the eye and say, 鈥榃e tried, we did everything we could,鈥� and I just don’t think that’s true here, and I really do believe that our children deserve that,鈥� Turner said.
However, Turner said the goal is a shared one.
鈥淲e all want our students with disabilities and other students in Arlington to have access to a good, quality preschool education that鈥檚 going to set them up for success in kindergarten,鈥� Turner said.
The county, Dokurno said, pays a subsidized tuition for the special education students assigned to The Children鈥檚 School, and 鈥渋t stands out on the bookkeeping and that鈥檚, I think, why they want to close it.鈥�
Dokurno, who was also part of the working group, said it met for several hours monthly, for 10 months.
鈥淚nstead of engaging in good faith and trying to solve the problem, they just had a couple of token parents on a working group that had a predetermined outcome,鈥� Dokurno said.
Because of the impact it has on students like his daughter, Dokurno said Integration Station is 鈥渁 reason for parents to move here, as opposed to moving to Fairfax. If we end the partnership with The Children鈥檚 School, we lose access to those teachers, we lose access to that institutional knowledge, we lose access to the buildings that APS has invested in a lot of cases and I just think it鈥檚 going to set a lot of the kids behind.鈥�
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