JENNIFER BARRY has been trying to get use of the HandyDART service for her six-year-old son Mathew for years but has been told there is no money in the budget. NORTH Vancouver School District 44 could use more speech pathologists, the district’s special education coordinator told the board Tuesday. | By ROBERT BEYNON: | Contributing Writer “We're a little on the low side,’’ Ilan McEown said after the district’s four speech pathologists gave a half-hour audio-visual pres- entation tothe board. He said little therapy is given to secondary students because the therapists concentrate ‘on helping elementary students. Some students must’ take special education programs in secondary school because their language pro- blems are not adequately dealt with in earlier years, he said. Referring to one grade seven student in a video tape of North Vancouver students that the speech pathologists presented, McEown said: ‘‘He could easily not achieve his potential because of his lan- guage problems.’ But the lack of speech pathologists is not critical, McEown said, and some after-class programs are offered to secondary students with speech impediments. He said some districts offer more therapy services to students than North Vancouver does, but other districts, like Vancouver, offer no therapy, only consultation. The North Vancouver speech pathologists work with 250 stu- dents, only 50 of whom have men- tal dysfunctions. McEown described a _ speech pathologist's work load as the heaviest of any staff position in the district. The school speech pathologists are the only service group respon- sible for working with school age children with speech problems, he added. "The speech therapists grouped the problems into four main areas — articulation, language, fluency and hearing. Language problems are the most common. Friday, March 27, 1987 — North Shore News NEWS photo Stuart Davis B.C. government's OO" SAMEES HILL BUS SERVICE INCREASES REJECTED JENNIFER AND Michael Barry have been waiting for a long time to. get some ser- vice. But they are going to have to be patient. MINE HUNTER niibuting Writer The West Vancouver parents have been trying to get the Han- dyDART bus service to take their handicapped son to a_ special school in Burnaby. But the seven buses that service the North Shore are too busy already, and a B.C. Transit-ap- proved request for two extra buses will not be met because monies needed for the project were not approved in the recent provincial budget. “LT really think we have been treated unfairly,’’ Michael Barry said. ‘‘Two-thirds of the children Seagram’ Five Star Rye. Everything should be so smooth.* at that school are getting the (HandyDART) service.” There are eight North Shore children who attend the school, and they have to depend on car pools, which can be difficult for working parents. These children are an example of the many handicapped people who need the Dial-A-Ride-Transporta- tion system to get to work or school, but cannot get the service, “We have been told, since they didn’t get the extra vehicles, we won't be getting the service,"’ Jen- nifer Barry said. ‘‘We have been trying for three years. It's just like we're banging our heads against a wall.” The funding for the system comes from Custom Transit, a department of B.C. Transit. Bruce Chown, manager of Custom Transit, requested the extra vehi- cles, but the new B.C. budget has ¢ ea anee Ge et |Parents wait for HandyDART feft the cupboard bare. “The budget | have here does not allow for any expansion,” Chown said. ‘There may be some internal changes later in the year, but at this point the budget doesn’t allow it.” B.C. Transit’s budget was cut back half a million dollars to $269.1 million, but Custom Transit kept its $5.5 million portion, The North Shore HandyDART service accounts for half a million dollars out of the Custom = Transit allowance. Manager Duart McLean, for North Shore HandyDART, prom- ised to keep trying for more vehi- cles. “We are very disappointed in the fact that we are not getting any additions to the fleet. It has a much broader effect than it may appear to have,"* McLean said.