Special Education Law Blog

Illinois District Brought to Shame by Amanda Windom

The expression is that it takes "two to tango." In this case the two were some dedicated parents and District #203 in Naperville, Illinois over an AAC device known as the Tango.  School District #203 in an act of overt meaness recently denied a six-year-old boy with autism access to his communication device, the Tango.  The District first agreed to supply the Tango and than decided that the child could only have the device if his parents agreed to put him in a summer program that had been deemed inappropriate.  The Hynes family appeared in court pro se, and the school district, represented by its counsel, was literally brought to shame.

The Hynes, in an attempt to enforce their son's rights to access the  Tango, moved in state court for a Temporary Restraining Order.  On June 27, 2007, Mr. Hynes  appeared before Judge Milton Shadur in federal court, responding to the school's efforts to have the case moved to Federal Court.   Judge Shadur decided in favor of the family directing the famous question "Have you no shame?" from the McCarthy hearings, to the district's counsel for trying to remove the Tango from the child. Judge Shadur also stated that the school district was "blackmailing" the parents trying to get them to agree to a program that their "own professionals have not found to be in his best interest".Download JudgeShadurDecision-5.pdf

Later that day the District  sent the family a gag order stating that they would provide the device only after the family agreed to keep quiet about Judge Shadur's decision.  Instead of responding, the Hynes family re-filed the Temporary Restraining Order in State Court.

Students with Special Needs Are Wilted Lettuce and Rotten Tomatoes ? by Daunna Minnich

I have not found much time to post blogs  recently because of IEP season and my impending office move.  My electronic friend and loyal reader and commentator on this blogsite, Daunna Minnich, has come to my rescue with the following blog. She puts a big spotlight on another example of school people publicly sharing  their real feelings about students with special needs, and the truth is not pretty.

Daunna Minnich is a guest author for the blog and a special education advocate in Palo Alto, California.  A former teacher, she is mother of two teenagers with special needs.  She derives a lot of satisfaction from helping parents find their way through the special education maze via an online education forum, which she helps moderate for the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation and via a hotline sponsored by the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) for Special Education in her school district.  Deeply committed to the work of the CAC, which she chaired for three years, Daunna enjoys advocating directly with school board members and administrators, writing articles for the CAC newsletter and organizing monthly parent education programs.  She never has enough time for all the ideas that pop into her head.

Child Missing from School for Hours and No Call to Parents

School personnel always say to parents "why don't you trust us !" Well a prime example of why parents do not trust schools occurred in Baltimore, when a child with special needs eloped from school and went missing for days.  The school did not even have the sense or the decency to call the parents. The parents had requested an aide to be with child because of prior elopement episodes, but were refused.

Will the school personnel be brought up on charges of child endangerment ? Not likely in my direct experience with a case I handled several years ago, where a client-child eloped from school and nearly died in a nearby river. The local State's attorney and Attorney General did not have the backbone to take a stand against school personnel. Until school personnel are made to understand that they have real and meaningful responsibility for student's safety, not to mention an appropriate education, callous and even cruel disregard of parents and students will continue without any real consequence.

Baltimore School Children Still Missing Services

Last year there were a number of articles about the possibility of Baltimore school officials going to jail for failing to provide needed services to students with IEPs under the terms of a 2005 "emergency order". Well of course no one went to jail and now another year has gone by and students are still being short- changed on their IEPs. The excuse is that their are not enough service providers; the same underwhelming excuse that they used last year.

Louis Bohn Elementary School Alleged to have Abused Child with Special Needs

George and Gia McElroy, parents of a grade schooler with a seizure disorder, filed suit against, Louis Bohn Elementary School that is part of Tracy Unified School District, located in San Joaquin County, California for treating their son G.J. like a circus animal. The suit alleges that the school put him on display in a tent in a public area of the school thereby subjecting him to humiliation and ridicule.  The tent apparently was represented to be a sensory calming area and a means of behavioral intervention.

School Districts Say the Darndest Things

It never ceases to amaze me the things that school personnel say at meetings, that parents relate to me, or testify to at hearings, Here are few a choice ones. I will supplement this list as I recall more and I invite readers to post their "darndest statements" in the comments:

Special Needs Students Taking It On the Chinn

 

A school board member in Oregon, Ron Chinn, referred to students with special needs as "slabs -slow,low and belows." While he gave what appeared to be contrite apology, this man needs to resign as several members of the school board have urged.  There is no room on any school board for a person who has such impaired judgemnt to put it mildly.

What could this man been thinking at the time he made such a nasty statement ? He claimed in his apology that he was ill at the time, but still that hardly explains his willingness to share such gratuitious nastiness, especially given his public position. Mr. Chinn may not appreciate that his comments degrade children with special needs throughout the country, and give voice to others who hold low opinions of children who receive special education. Comments such as these should spark a public dialogue on the reasons and the remedies for the negative perceptions of children with special needs.    

Assistance Dog 2, School District 0

Well the story of the assistance dog gaining access to East Meadow, New York High School is far from over. Today marked the family's fourth attempt to have their son, who is hearing impaired, come to school with his assistance dog, Simba. The dog was again turned away.

School District Acts Shamefully in Danville, Pennsylvania

This will be the second posting this week where the school district involved the police to inappropriately address issues involving children with special needs. It appears that their New Year's Resolution was to call the police more frequently and for matters that should be addressed inside the school building. 

Assistance Dog 1 and School District 0

A young child with a hearing impairment attempted to bring his assistance dog to a High School in East Meadow, New York. Apparently, the school and the family have been at odds over this issue for some time. When the parent and her son refused to leave with the dog in tow, the school called the police.

The police to their credit informed the school that there was no law against assistance dogs in school,  and in fact the law states that assistance dogs can not be barred from public buildings. The police to their credit left without slapping two sets of cuffs on Simba, the assistance dog.

Throughout this episode the dog remained calm and behaved impeccably; too bad the same can not be said about the adults involved [the mother admitted that she used vulgar language when she realized the school had called the police].

The lessons we learn from this episode are:
1. Assistance dogs are trained to have better manners than some people;
2. School people too often resort to calling police when something less drastic would seem reasonable;
3. Schools are slow to adapt to the need  for assistance dogs despite the increasing popularity of these dogs for children with a variety of disabilities.