Special-education advisory committee hears practical guidance on cerebral palsy from pediatric therapist

The Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee on June 1 heard a presentation on cerebral palsy from Katie Coover, a board-certified specialist in pediatric physical therapy with Amber Hill Therapies and an adjunct professor at FCC, who described the condition as a lifelong, nonprogressive brain injury with a wide range of severity and needs.

Coover told the committee that “cerebral palsy is not progressive,” and urged early, individualized intervention to reduce later complications. She said clinical assessment, not MRI alone, determines how a child functions and what services are appropriate.

Why it matters: Committee members said the presentation helped clarify what families and schools should expect from physical therapy and how outpatient care can differ from school-based services that must focus on educational access. Members asked how to make schools safer for students who need physical assistance and how to align IEP goals with outpatient goals.

Coover said outpatient therapy uses a medical model for personal goals—pain management, endurance or recreational participation—that can differ from school PT goals tied to access to the classroom. “School has to focus on the educational model and how they are accessing their educational environment,” she said, adding that outpatient therapists can work on broader personal and long-term functional goals.

She reviewed common associated conditions and typical interventions. “Pain is a big one. Intellectual disability is in about half. Seizures can be common. Speech and language issues are very, very common,” Coover said. She also flagged hip dysplasia and balance problems as complications schools should monitor and said adaptive equipment and assistive technology—switches, eye-gaze systems and mobility devices—help many students participate in class.

On staffing and safe handling, Coover said the number of trained staff needed depends on student severity: for a fully dependent student “I would say you need at least 4 or 5” people for lifts, and she advised staff not to lift more than 50 pounds without appropriate equipment or sufficient helpers. She recommended coordination between therapists and classroom or PE staff so students can take part in activities with appropriate preparation and accommodations.

Committee members asked about prevalence and school reporting. Laura, a special-education director with Frederick County Public Schools, said cerebral palsy may not appear as a single special-education eligibility category and could be coded under other health impairment or covered by 504 plans; she said an accurate count of students with CP was “not specified” at the meeting and would require pulling different data fields from FCPS systems.

The presentation included practice-level details: Coover said Amber Hill has six locations and concentrates pediatrics at its Urbana-Monrovia site, and she noted credentialing numbers for perspective: “There’s only 52 of us in the state of Maryland. There’s only 2,274 in the country,” referring to clinicians with her board certification. Committee members used the talk to probe how to train school staff, collect classroom-based data and better coordinate between school and outpatient goals.

The committee did not take formal action based on the presentation. Members said they plan to use the material in outreach and to inform future conversations with FCPS staff about training needs, data collection and family resources.