For Learning-Handicapped Pupils : Cuts in Preschool Instruction are Restored

Four-day-a-week instruction was restored Tuesday for all preschool children with learning disabilities in the San Diego Unified School District, the result of additional federal money.

The Board of Education’s action eliminated controversy with parents of learning-handicapped children, who had argued vociferously but unsuccessfully in February against reducing instruction to two days for new students entering the special program. The cut last year affected about 100 of the 500 eligible 3- to 5-year-old pupils.

District administrators said adequate funds--totaling $1.1 million--became available because the state is using a new distribution formula for funds. The four-day program is designed to help learning-handicapped preschoolers function more normally by the time they reach kindergarten. The fifth day will be devoted to home visits with parents.

Parents of some children affected last year by the cut were able to obtain added instructional days through state regulations for mediation, which usually resulted in the school district being ordered to increase classroom time.

Teen Pregnancies

In other action Tuesday, the board decided, 4-0, with member Kay Davis absent, to back a national March of Dimes program to develop statistics about the number of teen pregnancies and to work to reduce the number in San Diego. Board member Jim Roache, however, said that subsequent approval of any plan by the umbrella Adolescent Pregnancy Child Watch program could depend on how the issue of birth control information will be presented on school campuses.

A member of the San Diego Coalition for Family Values spoke against the program, claiming that the March of Dimes project is an effort to get birth control information onto school campuses. Two years ago, the board rejected school-based health clinics because of sharp disagreement over the plan’s birth-control aspects.

The board Tuesday also agreed to a new curriculum, to start next fall, for Wilson Middle School in East San Diego. Wilson administrators unveiled the new focus Tuesday, which emphasizes international studies using new teaching methods to improve basic skills. The restructuring of both the curriculum and the instructional process is designed to attract more white students to the campus while at the same time boosting skills of the school’s many Latino and black students, who now lag behind academically.