State monitoring Flint special education program

FLINT - The state wants the Flint School District to mainstream more special education students into regular education classrooms, but some parents are unhappy with how the district is trying to accomplish that. "Last year, it was more or less his whole day was in one class - one special ed class - and he did so much better," Fatima Halford said of her grandson, Shamar Franklin, 8, who has attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Halford was among 30 to 40 parents or guardians of Flint special education students who attended a meeting Tuesday at the Sarvis Center hosted by state Department of Education officials who are investigating the district's special education programs. This year, Shamar, a second-grader at Anderson Elementary School, spends only 20 percent of his time in a special education classroom, his grandmother said.

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