September 7, 2008
Morris twins sometimes have teachers seeing double
New law gives parents say in classroom placements
By Abbott Koloff
Daily Record
Dorothy Frank, the Chatham woman who fought for a law to allow parents to keep twins together in the classroom, keeps her own twins apart.
She said she wanted to give parents more of a say in their children's education because schools often separate twins and triplets, saying that helps develop separate identities. Advocates for the new law said there are arguments for keeping some twins together.
Frank said Chatham school officials told her last year that, if she insisted, her 5-year-old fraternal twin boys would be kept together in kindergarten but would be separated after that.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do," she said. "I wanted to make sure mine and everyone else's options would be open."
Gov. Jon S. Corzine last week signed a law that makes New Jersey the eighth state to give parents the right to determine the placement of twins -- and a national organization that tracks such laws, twinslaw.org, says similar legislation is being sponsored by legislators in 12 other states.
Several local school officials questioned the need for legislation.
James O'Neill, superintendent of the Chatham school district, said the law takes away discretion from educators trained to deal with such issues.
"It's a ludicrous bill and disparaging of the knowledge that elementary school principals have," O'Neill said.
He said the Chathams district usually has kept twins apart, to help develop their own identities, but added that the district has kept twins together under some circumstances, such as a family emergency that created insecurity for the children.
While the new law, which applies to kindergarten through eighth grade, gives parents the final say, it also allows principals to appeal to the board of education after one marking period if twins in the same classroom cause a disruption. Among the bill's sponsors were state Assemblywoman Alison McHose and state Sen. Steven Oroho, both R-Sussex.
Donna Hilsinger, president of Twins 'N Triplets Mothers of Morris County, said she favors the law because it gives parents a choice. But she added that the issue hasn't come up often in Morris County and that in Parsippany, where she lives, educators asked what she wanted to do about her identical twin girls when they started kindergarten.
"I wanted them separate," she said.
She said it would have been easier to have her 9-year-old twins, Amanda and Karen, together because that would simplify helping them with homework and school projects. But she said their competitiveness would have undone any of the benefits, adding that both girls, now entering the fourth grade, have said they need some time apart.
Karen said last week that she and her sister argued all summer.
"I don't want to argue in the classroom," she said.
Amanda said she sometimes wants to be in the same class with her sister, but not all the time, adding that it would make it more difficult to meet new friends.
"You wouldn't need to talk to other girls," she said.
LeRoy Seitz, Parsippany's superintendent, said his district never has had a dispute over the placement of twins, and has always been able to accommodate parents' wishes.
"I'm not sure why we need a law to address this issue," he said.
Rene Rovtar, superintendent of the Long Hill School district, said twins generally do better apart because that allows them to express their individuality, but added that doesn't apply to every case.
"I think it's something that ought not to have risen to the level of legislation," she said.
Advocates of the law say that while there may be benefits to keeping some twins apart, others do better when kept together in early grades, especially when there's stress in the family.
Jennifer Kovach, an attorney who lives in Franklin in Sussex County, said her 6-year-old fraternal twins, Katie and Jacob, had a rough time last year when her divorce became final and she was recovering from cancer. The Franklin school district put her children in separate classes for kindergarten last year, she said, and her daughter sometimes hid under a desk at school.
Kovach said she suggested to a child study team that the twins be in the same class.
"They were not receptive to that idea," Kovach said, adding that she never made a formal request.
Thomas Turner, Franklin's superintendent, said his district encouraged the separation of twins but added that the new "law trumps policy." He also said the policy always had some flexibility.
"There are exceptions to the rule," he said. "I think parents should have an input."
Kovach said her daughter stopped having problems in school by February and her children are in separate first-grade classes this year. The law would allow her two weeks to request that they be placed together. She said she is waiting to see how they do over the next week.
Gina Coffano, principal of Pequannock's K-5 Stephen J. Gerace School, said she believes parents should have a say because they best understand their children's needs. She also is the mother of 4-year-old triplets and plans to keep them together when they start kindergarten next year in Bergen County. Had the new law not been passed, she said she might have had to argue her point with district officials.
"I think that was true of most districts," she said.
Morris County parents of twins interviewed last week all said they applaud the new law, whether or not they wanted their children in the same class.
Rosemarie Caroll of Hanover said she plans to have her 2-year-old twins together when they start kindergarten but may separate them after that.
"I have it in my mind to separate them so they are not known as "The Twins," she said.
Christina Parente of Parsippany said a lot of people know her 7-year-old fraternal twins, Joseph and Elizabeth, as a set, so she believed it was important for them to go their own ways in school. She said her son's teacher last year expressed surprise when told he was a twin, and her son liked the idea that someone didn't know.
"He was tickled," Parente said. "He said: 'That's so cool.'"
But for other parents, having twins in the same class has made life easier.
Kathy Vita, of Denville, has two sets of twins, and has tried it both ways. The 11-year-olds started together in kindergarten but later were separated. The 9-year-olds started kindergarten apart.
"We were spending hours on homework," Vita said.
She said her older twins didn't always have the same amount of homework when they were in separate third-grade classes two years ago, which made for some jealousy. She said the district agreed when she asked the following year to put them all together.
