Peninsula group removing obstacles for special-needs education

Thursday, October 22, 2009 | by stacey palevsky

Barbara Engler wanted to send her daughter Maya to Sunday school at her synagogue.

But there was just one hurdle. Maya had mild autism.

Engler, of San Mateo, told the synagogue staff that her daughter needed a one-on-one aide to stay on task. But the synagogue couldn’t afford that.

“The only solution we could come up with at the time was if I went to Sunday school with her, but I had already been through Sunday school” and didn’t want to go each week, Engler said. “So Maya was unable to attend. It was very sad.”

It would be several years until anything emerged to meet the Englers’ needs.

Finally, one year ago, the North Peninsula Special Needs Initiative formally launched to ensure that parents with children with special needs wouldn’t endure the same fate as the Englers.

The initiative’s first day of learning, “Opening the Door: Inclusion in All Aspects of Jewish Life,” will take place Nov. 1, and is devoted to improving the quality of and access to special needs education.

About 300 people are expected to attend the daylong conference, including educators, clergy, Jewish community leaders, synagogue board members, lay leaders, parents of children with special needs and potential volunteers of all ages.

It will kick off a series of workshops that will train people to become one-on-one aides for children with special needs to improve access to Jewish education.

“Jewish education is the birthright of every Jew,” said David Waksberg, executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Education, one of the conference’s sponsors. “If kids with learning differences don’t have access to Jewish learning … then they are being denied that birthright.”

The conference is a collaborative effort of five synagogues — ranging from Reform to Orthodox — and five Jewish agencies, all of whom hope the conference ushers in a new era of inclusiveness in Jewish education.

“This is a trailblazing initiative,” Waksberg said. “We’re trying to change the paradigm as a community and create a scenario in which Jewish learning is available to all.”

Lee Manus-McNutt wishes such an initiative existed eight years ago when she retreated from the Jewish community, believing there was no place for her or her family because of her daughter Diana’s mental health.

After several volatile years in a Bay Area Jewish day school, her family was asked to pull her daughter from the school because Diana’s behavior had begun to disrupt her fellow students.

Manus-McNutt enrolled Diana in public school. The girl was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and thanks to help from a range of teachers and programs, she will graduate this spring.

After all these years, Manus-McNutt, who lives in San Mateo, still considers the ordeal “devastating.”

“It felt like the Jewish community had told us that there was no place for us,” Manus-McNutt said.

Upon reading about the North Peninsula Special Needs Initiative, she opted back in. She sees “Opening the Door” as a chance to give other families an opportunity she didn’t have.

Unlike Manus-McNutt, Engler was disheartened but not discouraged by her daughter’s inability to attend Sunday school.

Instead, she and her husband started bringing Maya to synagogue. They explained that Maya has a seizure disorder and sometimes cries out, among other issues.

“It is awkward a little bit, but we just said, ‘Oh well,’ ” Engler said. “Now, everyone knows her, and they don’t mind her different behaviors. Everybody just enjoys her presence. She is spiritual, and people recognize that.”

“Opening the Door” begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1 at Congregation Beth Jacob, 1550 Alameda de las Pulgas, Redwood City. $25. Register online at openingthedoor.eventbrite.com.  Information: Flora Kupferman, (415) 751-6983 ext. 122.