Paula St. Peter of Naperville can face the summer with a sense of relief.
Her daughter, Stephanie, 11, will be able, once again, to attend day camp with the help of an aide from the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association.
Stephanie, who was adopted when she was 4 months old, suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome. But the special recreation group’s help has let her spend three summers in a regular Park District summer camp program along with non-disabled children.
“She tends to run away,” said St. Peter, who described her daughter as hyperactive and lagging mentally behind her peers in 5th grade.
“She does things without (weighing the) consequences,” St. Peter said. “It’s been a tough road, and this camp is the best thing for her and me. She needs to interact with other children.”
The summer camp aide is one example of the benefits that Naperville parents value from the special recreation association, and that recently persuaded the Naperville Park District–the largest member of the cooperative–to decide it would not pull out.
The city was growing large enough to provide such services on its own. But Jane Hodgkinson, director of recreation association, was keenly aware that her organization’s livelihood largely depends on the Naperville Park District, which provides the greatest share of its funding.
Hodgkinson was able to show Naperville park commissioners that the Park District has been getting its money’s worth.
But beyond that, she convinced the commissioners that–despite the national move toward including people with disabilities in mainstream programs–specialized teachers, separate programs and aides still are needed to ease the transition into mainstream recreational programs.
“They need us now more than ever,” Hodgkinson said. “We’re seeing a cycle where inclusion is working for all the kids at younger ages, but not necessarily for adults.”
After reviewing a financial analysis of the 20-year-old special recreation association, park commissioners last week voted unanimously to leave their contract with the association alone.
The Naperville Park District’s $339,000 contribution to the association this year will represent 42 percent of the association’s revenue from taxes, which amounts to a significant portion of the budget, Hodgkinson said. Naperville is one of nine park districts and municipalities participating in the association, and it is the largest, followed by Wheaton, which contributes 16 percent of tax-generated revenue, officials said.
Naperville Park Commissioner Thomas Kruse said that, because the association is poised to spend more than $1 million to buy an administrative building in Carol Stream, he thought it would be wise to question the district’s long-term intentions before committing to new debt.
“The board agreed that we should stay with WDSRA for more than just the financial reasons,” Kruse said, referring to the expertise of association staff and lack of available park facilities. Kruse serves as the park district’s representative on the WDSRA board of directors.
The Park District determined that about 800 Naperville residents participate in the association programs and that duplicating the program offerings would cost the district at least $250,000 more annually.
The analysis also showed that the Park District lacks the facilities to offer certain services, such as a therapeutic pool in which the water temperature is strictly controlled, or a wheelchair-accessible swimming area.
Throughout the county, the association serves more than 4,100 people and offers 750 programs. Besides Naperville, the cooperative includes the city of Warrenville, and the Park Districts of Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Roselle, West Chicago, Wheaton, Winfield and Carol Stream.
Naperville Park Commissioner Chuck Koch, who previously worked for the Park District, said he was not surprised that the district discovered that the money was well-spent with the association. “It was kind of a no-brainer,” he said.
Still, park commissioners had reasons beyond money to question their relationship with the association. They wondered whether integrating disabled children into mainstream programs would be better.
After the Americans With Disabilities Act–which requires all public facilities to be accessible to the disabled–was made federal law in 1990, some people began asking why special services were required at all, Hodgkinson said.
Meanwhile, large school districts, such as Naperville Community Unit School District 203 and Indian Prairie Unit School District 204, opted out of special education cooperatives formed with other communities and began providing all services themselves.
As Naperville grew toward its present population of about 110,000, the districts could afford to staff such programs and wanted better control.
Special recreation associations–formed in the 1970s to allow smaller park districts and municipalities to provide services for the disabled–now appear to be facing some of the same issues, Hodgkinson said.
She said that many people assumed that eventually all people with disabilities would prefer to be integrated into mainstream programs. Instead, she said, she is finding people who want both.
The association’s mission today is to offer some programs just for the disabled, while helping people, such as Stephanie St. Peter, participate in regular park district activities.
“We don’t make any judgments about which is the better setting for each person,” Hodgkinson said. “We think it’s up to the individual and their family about what are the best choices for them.”
