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Little Eagles' Nest PreschoolSeptember 25, 2003When children with special needs are young, they sometimes require extra help to learn basic skills. There are several preschool programs, private and public, available to parents of special needs children in the Spokane area. But some of those programs are having trouble finding enough money to stay in business. In this “Growing Up Healthy” report, Spokane Public Radio’s Doug Nadvornick visits one preschool in Cheney that’s hoping this isn’t its last year.Doug: Class at the Little Eagles’ Nest preschool on the campus of Eastern Washington University will start on Monday. And the preschool’s director, Professor Marion Moore, is looking forward to the first day. Marion Moore “I don’t schedule anything else, except I do have to teach my classes. I would like to just say, oh, can I just be in the preschool, especially the first day, but then I’m neglecting my university responsibilities.” Doug: About a dozen children between the ages of three and five will attend the Little Eagles’ Nest this fall. Some will be normally-developing children. Some will have special needs. They’ll be joined by a certificated teacher and several adults, including college students who are training to be teachers. For a kid, this a fun place to be. There’s a story circle area. C-D players with headphones. Books of all kinds. And Moore points to the play areas where children explore. Moore “We have three different sensory tables. One is a water table where we put water in it and they have lots of things to do with water. In one of the sensory tables, we have beans, where they can play with, build with, dump with. And, rice. So, we’ve done things like birdseed and some slimy types of goo.” Doug: There’s also an observation room open at all times to parents. Moore says she works closely with parents to develop individual education plans for each student. The Little Eagles’ Nest offers Marion Moore the chance to study learning in an environment that includes normally-developing children and kids who have obstacles. Moore “The challenge is how do you do that well, where all kids make progress at their own individual levels.” Doug: One of Moore’s students for the last two years was Kelli Hollier, a six-year-old with severe autism who came to the preschool with poor speaking skills. Jennifer Hollier “She went to Little Eagles’ Nest in the morning and then she would come home for lunch, and then in the afternoon, she would go to the public school. And then, two days a week, we had speech therapy.” Doug: Kelli’s mom Jennifer says Marion Moore worked with her daughter’s public school preschool teacher to reinforce the lessons Kelli learned at Little Eagles’ Nest. Hollier “So basically she got repetition of the same thing twice a day. Close, I mean, they would have different themes of the day. But basically the same skills they’d be working on with Kelli twice, so it’s like she had double school. And I think that made a big difference in her too.” Doug: The Hollier family recently transferred from Fairchild to an air force base in California, where Jennifer Hollier says she’s struggling to find a similar program in which to enroll Kelli. Betty Fry Williams, a teacher education professor at Whitworth College, says 50 years of research shows early childhood programs like those offered at Little Eagles’ Nest are, in the long run, cost effective. Betty Fry Williams “If we can help remediate disabilities very early on, it is quite likely they’ll be indistinguishable when they become school aged and can go to school with their peers. That saves us a lot of money because we don’t have to provide special services throughout the rest of their lives.” Doug: Williams says school districts aren’t required to provide support for children younger than three, although some, like the Riverside School District, do. Districts are required to offer help for special needs children aged three to five. Williams “We provide services only if the disability is interfering with their learning. So we have to show that they’re not able to be successful in a regular classroom unless they get some special assistance.” Doug: Williams says the federal and state governments rarely, if ever, adequately fund public preschool programs. And with states cutting back on spending, there’s pressure on school districts to direct their money to core academic programs, making the special education programs that aren’t mandated by law vulnerable. Private preschools also struggle for funding. In the case of Little Eagles’ Nest, money from a state grant and, for the last two years, Eastern Washington University, have kept it afloat. But Marion Moore says the state’s tight fiscal situation threatens the preschool’s share of university money. She says she’ll spend time this year writing grants and developing other funding sources, in case the preschool’s public funding is ended. Moore “The biggest pitch I make is the impact we’ve seen we’ve had on kids. We know we can be effective. We have data to show we’re effective. And without the funding, it will be gone.” Doug: Moore’s hoping she can not only find the money to keep the Little Eagles’ Nest open, but also to keep it free of charge for her client families. For “Growing Up Healthy”, I’m Doug Nadvornick. By Doug Nadvornick 
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