Disabled day care loses home

Young Chang

Susan Gibson isn’t sure what she’ll do when AbilityFirst, a nonprofit

after-school child-care center for disabled children, closes its doors in

Huntington Beach next month.

Patrick, her 10-year-old son, is autistic and has been going to the

after-school program every weekday for six years.

“If worse comes to worse, I’ll take a leave of absence from work to care

for him,” Gibson said.

The Ocean View School District did not renew AbilityFirst’s year-to-year

lease for the classroom it occupies at the closed Pleasant View school

site on Landau Lane. The lease, which has run for four years so far,

expires June 30. The district plans to take back the space and place a

district-run program for preschoolers with special needs there.

James Tarwater, district superintendent, said it’s not a matter of

throwing anybody out but more an issue of meeting the district’s needs.

The district and AbilityFirst have been looking for a new location since

January, said officials from both parties. But neither side has had much

luck.

“I don’t see any good in being upset with the school district, because

they’re working with us,” said Maggie Agrusa, supervisor for

AbilityFirst. “They’re helping.”

The program’s Pleasant View site serves 21 children -- six are teens and

the others are in elementary or middle school grades. The children suffer

from autism, cerebral palsy or mental retardation. Some are handicapped

with severe medical conditions

AbilityFirst is a well-known and respected agency for disabled children,

said Karen Taylor, communications coordinator for the Regional Center of

Orange County.

Its current location is AbilityFirst’s only one in the area of Huntington

Beach, Fountain Valley and Garden Grove. However, it has sites in Newport

Beach and Anaheim.

For parents such as Gibson, that’s a bit far. And while reliable day care

is hard enough to find, there are not many places disabled children can

go. Day care that only caters to the needs of the disabled are few and

far between.

And for the six high school students at AbilityFirst, there are not many

options.

While state mandates for disabled services have inspired many area

preschools and elementary schools to provide after-school day care that

will accept such students, the same is not true for high schools.

High schools generally don’t provide after-school day care at all, said

Brian Garland, principal at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. He

doesn’t know of any that do.

Beverly McNealy-Hempstead, director of student services, said the

district has not abandoned the center and that they will help in any way

they can.

AbilityFirst has occupied district sites for more than 10 years. Today

the program leasesone classroom in a building containing five other

tenants, said Patricia Young, assistant superintendent of business.

But the other tenants occupy multiple rooms, and the district only

needs one, Tarwater said. The classroom that will replace AbilityFirst

will be an expansion of two existing district preschool classrooms at the

site that serve children with disabilities.

With preschool classrooms and surrounding tenants who also serve

children, officials thought the site would be ideal for another preschool

classroom.

But Gibson said there’s no “rhyme or reason” to the situation.

“From a selfish standpoint, [the parents] are now all without day cares,”

she said. “It seems to me you would make an exception for a program

that’s community-based like this. [The children] can’t go to normal day

cares. If we had normal kids, we’d just put them in the YMCA.”

Tarwater said the disabilities of the children weigh just as much or as

little as all of the other factors the district considered while looking

at the site.

“We do a selection by what is program-specific and what is equitable.

Handicap is just one element,” he said. “I’ve had this program for over

10 years. Someone else can take it now.”

Since January, the search for a new site has yielded one possible option

-- another district, which Young did not want to name, may have space for

AbilityFirst.

But until a decision is made, Gibson doesn’t know what to do.

For Patrick, who has grown to consider the staff and children at

AbilityFirst like family, he is losing something without understanding

what’s happening, Gibson said.

“In his own little world, these types of things matter to him,” she said.