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It took six years, but after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling (pdf) today, a family that sued to get the Forest Grove school district to pay for their son's private special education may finally be getting its way.
At issue is whether a student with special needs has to attend his or her public school — and try the special education programs a local district offers — before the district should have to pay for a private option.
What exactly this means for the Oregon family and for the Forest Grove school district is still unclear; U.S. district court now has to sort out the details.
What precedent does this set for school administrators? What about families of students who receive special education? If your child is currently in a special ed program, would you now consider a private option, with the hopes that your local disctrict will pick up the tab?
Note: This will be a shortened show — just 20 minutes — because OPB will air live coverage of President Obama's press conference about Iran and health care starting at 9:20am.
GUESTS:
- Andrea Hungerford: One of the attorneys representing the Forest Grove School District
- Bob Joondeph: Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon
Tagged as: high school · special education
Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan / Flickr / Creative Commons
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Thank you for this clear statement on the real problem.
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This is one of the fundamental problems with the system... everyone looks to someone else to handle the problems they bring along. It is not the school districts fault they would rather invest there money in students that are not disabled esspecially during this recession. I feel for the parents of "special needs" children but, simply put they are responsible for there childs needs and education... If they didn't want to have to take care of it they shouldn't have had it.
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Read the law..
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This logic makes sense at first glance----but, we already pay for other children's educational needs regardless of their capacities. We have advanced classes for people who excel, summer school for kids who don't. We hold kids back and pay for an extra year if they aren't up to snuff (I think---unless that is a thing of the past). We have sports for people who are interested and other somewhat irrelevant classes---to perhaps keep kids interested. We spend extra money to make sure the functional needs of the physically disabled are met. How do we draw a line and say not for this? It seems like there isn't an equitable place to draw it---so we have to provide opportunities to all.
In addition: even if these programs fail to make a difference in the life of the child, isn't the help or hope it gives the parents and family worth something?
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I agree with momoftwo. The idea that some children deserve an adequate education while others should be left behind is inhumane and counter to a healthy society. Compare how much it costs society to jail a person than educate them.
I have brilliant, caring, and wonderful kids who qualify for "special ed" because they have different needs in their education. The question is not "should we educate these children?" but HOW can we best do so?
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Steven I hope you don't mean by putting the words special needs in quotes to imply that they are not legitamate needs.....
I also hope you are not implying that somehow parents choose to have children with disabilities.....
I'm guessing you don't have children, and if you do, I hope you never have to deal with the unforunate situation of having a child that needs special services. It is not an easy row to hoe.
Also, maybe the school district you attended needed to evaluate you a bit when you were going to school, here are your errors in bold:
This is one of the fundamental problems with the system... everyone looks to someone else to handle the problems they bring along. It is not the school districts (district's) fault they would rather invest there (their) money in students that are not disabled esspecially (especially) during this recession. I feel for the parents of "special needs" children but, simply put (missing comma) they are responsible for there (their) childs (child's) needs and education... If they didn't want to have to take care of it (missing comma) they shouldn't have had it.
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I am a parent of a child with special needs who has chosen to send my child to private school instead of public school. We did this because we wanted our child to be in the BEST educational environment for her to succeed to the BEST of her abilities.
The PPS system could not provide her with the same learning environment. I was frustrated with how they would have approached her learning challenges. Thier policy and systematic approach is to provide the fewest amount of supports possible and see if she suceeds. The amount of supports that were to be provided were so inadequate that failure for her was iminent. Imagine what that does to a child's sence of self confidence.
After being a part of early intervention, then going through the kindergarden placement process with much frustration, I am convinced that special education is broken in public schools. Schools routinely do the minimal possible to abide by the law barely giving these wonderful children enough supports. I get that this is a budget issue. The case loads are unbelieveable for the hardworking speech, occupational, and special educational consultants that work so hard with the special ed students. Imagine if you saw a student who has speech and social issues only 4 times per year or is your could work with them 2 times per week. Mostly it is only 4 times per year... that is so ineffective it is pointless. Or imagine if you are a teacher with 4 children with learning challenges in a classroom of 28 with no aid to support these children. These are not embellished stories, they are typical situations. If a parent wanted to help the public schools by providing an aid or additional supports for their child (paying for it themselves) they can not.
This ruling is extremely important to those of us who have children who need help. Children with special needs, learning disorders etc. need to have the same chances in life as all others. If the public system can not or will not provide adequate supports or educational environments, as the law requires, then parents must have other choices to pursue.
Mom of two
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Mom of Two,
Could you tell us who is currently paying for your child's private education? Is PPS involved, or is it completely out of pocket?
Thanks,
Dave
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We pay totally out of pocket for her to attend the school as well as we pay for a speech therapist to work with her for 45 minutes one time per week. It is finanically challenging for us but WELL worth it. We are able to provide my daughter with the best possible learning environment for her. She has only 10 children in her class, is in a structured, mutisensory teaching environment which age blends the students according to thier academic ability. She is thriving and staying at age level academically. We are so proud of her.
We are not pursuing financial support from PSS. The legal challenge for this is so long and "yucky." However, I do appreciate the heartache this family has gone through to get this ruling. It benifits many children who need it.
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I appreciate what you are saying here. The question is how will this ruling actually help special ed kids? Money will be pulled out of public schools to pay for private schools and the kids of socially privileged parents who can work the system will benefit while others are given even fewer supports.
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MomOfTwo says her daughter has only 10 children in her class, etc...
This is good, this is nice, but this is well above the quality of service kids get in public school and you SHOULD be the ones to pay for the premium service.
If you want the public schools to pay for it, join the classes of 30+ kids.
It would probably help your kid, and a lot of others, if those classes of 30+ kids were grouped by interests and abilities so that the teachers can address the whole class at once.
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Districts are being burdened with more responsibilities and fewer and fewer resources with which to meet them. Special Ed teachers, English-Language-Learner teachers, and regular classroom teachers are being run ragged, trying to meet the needs of all our students. Meenwhile the numbers of "sped" kids are ever-increasing as more and more difficulties are recognized as learning disabilities. Pulling the money away from struggling districts into private schools is NOT the answer. We should fund public schools sufficiently so that they are able to meet their responsibilities.
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Instead of more funding Why not support more parent choice in education. A lot of problems including learning disabilities are created just by the kinds of institutions we are putting kids and teachers in.
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okay how about those who have children pay a tax for that child to go to school and those with "sped" children pay a slightly higher tax cause there children need more money to be educated.... and switch to a pay to play situation for sports.. the only people that get a tax break are the people who have children that are above average cause well lets face it those are going to be our leaders in the future
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I personally can't stand to be around kids and I dislike the concept of marriage. But even with my preferences, I realize kids are necessary to keep the human race going. Not to mention, although I will, I was a kid once. Weren't you?
About leaders, I believe they are often not the most intelligent folks, sometimes just the most persistent and dedicated.
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Well, if we lived in a creepy sci-fi semi-fascist society of the future, that would be a great idea..
Luckily, the culture we live in now doesn't purposely punish children and their families for needing special ed services. People with special education needs include John Lennon, George Patton, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, and Whoopi Goldberg. Assuming the "leaders of the future" aren't going to be sped kids is a terrible mistake.
It scares me how the eugenics-folks come out of the walls when this stuff is discussed.
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While it seems that a family should have to give the special ed services at the public school a try before transferring to a private school, I certainly understand the frustration of the family in this lawsuit. I could only get my son's school to test him after threatening to pull him out of school in second grade. He was immediately diagnosed with a learning disability and qualified for services. Two years later, he was diagnosed with ADHD. He had extensive special ed help and private tutoring, and after three years he finally met benchmarks. That, unfortunately, was a signal to the school psychologist that he no longer had his learning difficulties, and she pulled his IEP.
We fought for another year and-a-half and finally put him in private school, but could no longer afford it. My son's high school refused to test him in 9th grade. Acquaintances said, "They'll give him services if he fails enough classes." Sure enough, that is what happened. They agreed to test him again after he failed four classes, and again he qualifies for special ed services.
There is definitely something wrong with the system!
Porcella
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I suggest that the education tax base should be extended to include private schools, they should all be taxed in order to help out in paying for special needs kids.
Private schools have been benefitting from the taxes that the general public pays for education and they ought to start paying their fair share.
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Boo hoo on the parents. They decided not to appeal the school district's original decision. So they decided to send their kid to $5000 a month school. Was this the most cost effective course of action? Why should this kid get so much more capita spent on him as opposed to other kids? The Supreme Court said the parents can sue, but it doesn't mean the school district has to roll over. The school district can set an allowance for situations like this and if the parents decide to exceed the allowance, its on them. I believe in equity especially when so many poor kids are being left out. Most of the parents who would send their kids would be the typical yuppy parents. If you want the best, then you pay for it.
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I agree 100% with you increase taxes on people with children and use that money to make the system better no more refunds for doing the same thing a rabbit does.... reproduce
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Our education laws don't entitle normal public school kids to the best education possible, why shouldn't they be given the best?
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Funding has already been overwhelmingly heavy on the special ed end of education. Will this render public ed. capable only of serving the bottom?
It has been a long time since kids with "special needs" at the top have been served reliably.
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Both of my girls have hearing loss and have bilateral cochlear implants which offers them hearing at a level equivalent to their peers. Here is what PPS offers in their pre-school program.... 8 hours a week of school for their oral program, 20 minutes per month in a pull out (in the corner of the classroom) with a teacher of the deaf for one-on-one speech. The classroom is a self-contained classroom, meaning there is no interaction with their hearing peers. Yet, they are mainstreamed into a regular classroom at 5.
When you visit the classroom you will find children who don't play together and have limited language. And these are kids who wear hearing aids, which means they have residual hearing and should be speaking almost as well as their hearing peers. Also, PPS offers professionals who do not believe my girls can be on par with their hearing peers! They don't believe that in the year 2009, my children can be successful.
My oldest has been with Tucker Maxon School for 3 years. She received her first implant at age 2 and entered into their Early Intervention program. She is in school 5 hours per day, sees a teacher of the deaf daily, speech pathologist 2x per week, and in 3 years, my daughter went from no language to testing on par with her hearing peers! The school has typically hearing children along with deaf/heard of hearing children. This model has been proven to be the best model for all children with hearing loss to learn language. So when my daughters do 'mainstream', they will already know how to communicate, navigate and comprehend the mainstream classroom.
Where would she be with only 8 hours per week of school, in a contained classroom, and professionals who wouldn't believe in her?
Parents with 'normal' children are allowed to choose which school their child attends, and we should be allowed the same for our kids. Tucker Maxon would actually cost less for PPS than if my girls attended public school. The public school system is not giving our kids the education they deserve or the support they need to succeed in school. Public schools are so afraid to work with the private entity, instead they should work together. It would be the best option for everyone, including ODE.
Helen
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I am sorry... I have one more thing to say!
The general public has a tendency to look at just the dollars and cents of things, which is totally understandable.
So here is a breakdown for you to consider:
PPS: $30,000 per year per student
What they offer: 8 hours of school per week in pre-school, 20 minutes per month with a teacher of the deaf. A self-contained classroom with no support for mainstreaming.
Tucker Maxon (private school) $19,000 per year per student
What they offer: 25 hours per week of school in pre-school, 20 minutes per day with a teacher of the deaf, 40minutes per week with a Speech Pathologist, 15 hours per year of Audiology, plus more when needed. Classes of typically hearing children with the chidlren with hearing loss, which prepares them for mainstreaming, and living in the community in general.
Which would you choose for your child?!
Helen
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If PPS is spending $30K and providing crappy service, they are neither trying to be cost-effective nor trying to serve the kids.
This is not surprising. Doesn't this amount to "follow the money"? The people in middle management at the school system are motivated by what? How big a department they run and how big a budget they administer. Do they get paid more if your kids are well served either at Tucker Maxon or at a regional magnet school for kids with hearing problems? Probably not. They get paid more for doing more administration, which helps (y)our kids how?
Public schools in general, and PPS in particular, worry about No Child Left Behind, where the adminstrators are graded on the fraction of the kids who pass the tests. This practically guarantees they put a lot of resources into the kids under 20%-ile, who might be able to be pushed over that line.
An administrator does not get a bonus if a team from their school shows up at a contest. And they don't even get a bonus if their team does really well, say, qualifies for nationals. Guess how much incentive they have to encourage the bright kids to strive.
No one on staff loses any money if a bright kid is bored.
It would cost practically nothing to allow bright and motivated kids to take interesting classes which already exist nearby within the school system, such as a middle-school aged kid taking a history, music, or math class (or all three....whatever they are interested in and good at) at a nearby high school. The school system still gets paid for their seat-time, and the kid gets to learn something. In general, put every kid in classes that are interesting.
Why is it rarely practiced at PPS and too many other systems? Perhaps because it creates more chaos in scheduling, and the administrators who must do the scheduling do not get a bonus if the bright kids learn something. It is so much easier just to group them all by age, regardless of their interests, ambitions, or abilities.
Point-of-fact: parents of normal kids have rather limited ability to choose schools.
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Lets just turn all of our schools into clean power plants so that we have the money to properly fund the education of our young people. This will also create jobs, reduce the cities carbon footprint, and help establish a locally generated clean energy grid.
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Comments are now closed.
This case should send a loud message to school districts and the Hungerfords that they need to work with parents. They disregard their obligations under IDEA, and play hardball with families. They know most families with chidren with disabilities cannot afford to hire an attorney and fight them. Most just give up and go away. Forest Grove on its attorney's advice was too arrogant to accept the initial hearing officer's decision. Instead they will probably ending up spending more than ten times the cost of this child's education on the litigaiton. Shame on them. School districts need to be held accountable for spending this money and treating families poorly. It is time for the educators to learn a lesson! Make decisions for the children, not the administration.