Parents Fight Back Against Propaganda in the Press

I recently posted on Nanette Asimov's article in the San Fransico Chronicle entitled "Extra-Special Education at Public Expense."  This article was an outrage and did an enormous disservice to families of children with special needs everywhere. I am happy to report that parents and have written to the editor in droves to attempt to set the record straight. The following is a small sampling of some of these letters.  Bravo to parents and disability rights organizations like COPAA who have taken the necessary time to fight back against newspaper coverage that acts as an effective propaganda weapon for schools.

Editor, San Francisco Chronicle
Re: “Extra-special education at public expense°

Shame on the Chronicle for violating its journalistic obligation to be accurate, balanced, and responsible. Your harmful “reporting” of the decisions was distorted, misleading, and insensitive to the real issues facing students with disabilities, including failing to mention autism as the qualifying disability in the San Rafael case. Cases are not decided by a standard of  “extra-special” or on mere technicalities, but on significant violations of procedural and substantive rights. Had the school districts put as much effort into offering the necessary programs as into denying educational needs, they would have prevailed. Was your reporter alleging that the Hearing Officers in each case were incompetent?

Your reporter assumes that there is a “troubled state of special education” due solely to families demanding more when asserting rights that Congress provides to counter discrimination and low expectations. These cases are not about insisting on private services, asking for blank checks, attending schools 3000 miles away at public expense, or taking money away from “regular education budgets.” They are about educating children with significant disabilities to permit necessary skills in order to function in the world as independent adults. Districts don’t have to settle and don’t lose cases when following the law.

Kathryn Dobel
Law Office of Kathryn Dobel
Berkeley, CA

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San Francisco Chronicle/Nanette Asimov:
I would be very pleased if you would like to discuss the “other side” of special education costs with me. As a journalist, author and writer as well as the parent of an autistic child, I wrote a book called A Real Boy: A True Story of Autism, Early Intervention and Recovery (Berkley/Penguin 2005). Thanks in part to the funds we received from our local Southern California school district (with the help of an attorney), my son has recovered and now tests above grade level in many subjects, has friends and will likely attend college.

I understand your needs as a journalist and would be pleased to offer you the view from the parental side, which is truly a heartrending story. There are some extreme cases of payment from schools for unneeded services, but actually, they constitute only a small fraction of the students in real need of services. I get emails from families all over the country and I speak to national and California audiences as well. Please do not hesitate to write me via my website at www.christinaadamswriter.com.
Sincerely,
Christina Adams
Author, A Real Boy: A True Story of Autism, Early Intervention and Recovery

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San Francisco Chronicle/Nanette Asimov:
I am shocked and appalled at your article that appeared in today's SF Chronicle.  What upsets me the most is that you did not gather  information that showed the other side of the issue and that it appears you neglected to check your facts before proceeding with this article.  Just who are you getting all of your information from?

You have done a grave mis-service to the parents of special needs students.  Not only  here in California, but throughout the country.

According to the National Council on Disability, an independent agency that advises Congress and the President on disability policy, school districts are using tax dollars to fund "expensive and time-consuming litigation" AGAINST parents:

"Even parents with significant resources are hard-pressed to prevail over local education agencies when these agencies and/or their publicly financed attorneys choose to be recalcitrant."
" Back to School on Civil Rights," published in 2000 by the National Council on Disability)
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/backtoschool_1.html

Ms. Asimov, your article is fraught with legal and factual inaccuracies and fails to mention the numerous cases where parents and/or even teachers have been shut down by the school district for even the most basic of requests.  Your article doesn't even talk about cases where the school district has sued parents, or about the law firms representing the school districts who stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax payer money by stalling and delaying until the cases make it to the hearing stage.. sometimes coming to an "agreement" just before entering the courtroom?  There are numerous cases where certain law firms that routinely represent school districts have been sanctioned by the courts for their actions and misrepresentations and who have driven up the costs of cases that could have been settled quickly and easily before reaching the due process stage.  This article blatantly portrays special ed parents as greedy bullies against the poor school districts.  Let me please assure you, this is not the case.  Obviously the school districts have the means and where with all to fight these cases.. parents rarely revert to  due process until they've exhausted all other means to come to a solution in an amicable way.

Many of the parents who could most credibly speak up about the difference between the public school's offered program and the appropriate program they found, can no longer speak up because of mediation agreements.  I myself  do not know of any parents whose request for appropriate services seemed like asking for a cadillac turned up their nose at a reasonable School District  program.  I know  they exist, but they are a extremely small minority, and obviously are giving the rest of the parents a bad name..  Trust me, parents of special needs children have much better things to do with their time and money than to be filing frivolous lawsuits asking for some of the services alluded to in this article.  The suffering of sped children and the stress on these parents is hidden from the public.  And the situation is distorted by publicity such as in the Chronicle today.

You also fail to mention that special ed has never been adequately funded as required under IDEA, and that is the reason school districts have had to shift funding.The most it was ever funded was at 15% under the Clinton administration.  With the current budget proposals, funding for special ed is being cut.  Nor do you mention that AB3632 services (County Mental Health Services) which should have covered the Residential placement for the Tourette's child who's case you cite, has not been funded for close to 5 years now, which has also shifted the burden to the school districts.  Finally, you fail to mention that the incidence of diagnosed autism cases (according to Department of Developmental Services ) increased significantly during those same years that you suggest that special ed dollars were being hijacked by parents demanding cadillac educations for their children.

The other side needs to be represented, hopefully the Chronicle will make sure that happens.
Sincerely,
Ellen Jannol
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San Francisco Chronicle/Nanette Asimov:
I read with dismay your article regarding the cost of special education.  I have waited a very long time to see an in depth analysis of special education in the local newspapers.  When your paper finally undertakes the subject, the focus is on what I believe is sensationalist journalism instead of a careful, inquiring analysis of the subject.  You focus on the cases sure to raise the ire of the general public who have absolutely no understanding of many of these students consistent failures in an educational system that uses no scientifically based methodologies to teach them.  There are many well meaning school districts and teachers who want to help these children but are burdened by administrative regulations and restrictions.  Recently, I asked the local SELPA, a federal entity, which administers federal funds to the local school districts, if they held the school districts accountable for results, i.e., improved test scores for learning disabled children.  John Namkung, Sonoma County SELPA director responded, There is no legal mandate of authority for SELPAs in  California to hold districts accountable for providing a free appropriate public education(FAPE).  Hundreds of thousands of federal dollars are being given to local school districts for educating learning disabled kids and other children, but they are not held accountable for failing to spend those dollars in a way that educates these children.  My son has had special education services and/or resource person help since 5th grade.  He spent 5th grade in a special education day class, which actually helped him.  By sixth grade, he was mainstreamed in a general education classroom, but continued to receive special education services in math.  He is now in 8th grade, was placed in an Algebra class, even though his math level is at a 4th grade level and he has never been exposed to pre-Algebra.  He was to have received °pull-out°® sessions in math with a resource specialist for approximately 200 minutes per week.

I had to call an IEP in January because, the school had not hired an RSP specialist and the temporary RSP teacher was not doing pullouts.  This went on from August until January.  He never received what his IEP team had agreed that he needed.  My son’s STAR scores have actually gone down since 5th grade, even in subjects he previously was considered "proficient" in.

Your article would have been much more effective if it were more even handed in its presentation.  Like any situation, there will be people who will push the envelope; however, what your article fails to do is show the day to day battles parents go through for their children who they see failing in a system that is not educating them.  Why isn’t the State of California identifying the programs that work to teach these kids and requiring that all school districts implement a model that works?   Why is there no accountability for the federal funds that are spent to show proven results?  Parents seek private schools because the public schools, most of them, are not using innovative, scientifically proven teaching methods to teach their children.  Frequently, there are aides who have no special education credentials baby-sitting their charges instead of remediating them.  I would be happy to talk with you, if your paper ever decides to analyze this subject in a fair and balanced manner.
Donna Gaetano
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San Francisco Chronicle/Nanette Asimov:
We are  wondering how a good reporter and a good paper and can print such a bad story.  It's bad because it fails to be balanced and fails to tell the other sides of a complex and difficult story.

We are parents of two children with disabilities in special education.  There so many families like us.  We know that not every need that a child needs in special education will be met with opposition, but from our experience - and from that of other families we know, it happens.  And it happens far more than it should.  You can talk about the costs to school districts and to the State, but you didn't report on what it is costing us and so many other families.  We pay for so many services that no one will help us, but we also know it is our children's right to have those services.

We don't have the income to fight a battle that will never end it seems.  We look to the future and it seems only bleak - we either give in, and that means giving up on our children, or we try to overcome the barriers.  But that takes time, that takes effort and money we don't have. So we fight back when we can - but we can tell you, more often than not, we - and our children, are losing.  Please tell the other sides of the story.

The Rogan Family
Los Angeles

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San Francisco Chronicle/Nanette Asimov:
I am a single parent with a child with special needs in special education here in the Inland empire area of California.  And while you can write about those examples of children and families that seem extraordinary in terms of what the schools are paying, it is anything but that for so many other families. And if you only knew what it was like to fight not only for your child's rights in what seems to be an endless, endless battle, perhaps you would not have judged those families in the way the article portrayed them.
There is a tremendous shock that families face in trying to get services or help for their child. It is a shock when you find out later that their rights were denied or ignored. So early on families are often given that lesson that you cannot trust what schools tell you, or what local government people will tell you.  I know there are good people in schools and in local government.
But it is so hard for so many people.  It is for my child and me.  You have no idea, based on what I read, what most families go through.  Our problem is not only the obstacles and barriers in front of us for what seems to be everything we need - it is that we face that - and decide to either fight or give up on our children, and if we fight , time is not on our side.
Each moment, each day, each week, each year makes a difference in my child's life in terms of his education and special needs.  What happens then and now makes a profound difference in what will happen next in his life - and in mine.  And that difference will cost him, me, my family - and the State.
I love my child with all of my heart and soul, and I love this country and this state too but what he is - and what I fight for was never talked about in your article.  You have no idea how hard it is .
Sherrie C.

Comments

[Rob]

I came across your blog and want to thank you for all the valuable information. I am a student who is planning on becoming a special education teacher and I look forward to using this blog as one valuable way to keep current on issues. Thank You.

[arlena]

I am a very concerned Parent of a six-year old boy with autism. The schools bully our special needs children through the use of physical and manual restraint because they have the law on their side to back them up. And when a parent trys to shine the spotlight to expose their dirty deeds, they try to turn the blame unto the parent! I wish reporters would portray the parents side of the story in the media.
Children are dying from the use of restraint in our public schools. When will people wake up and relize
that this is a nationwide epidemic?