Three quick questions about this law:
a) While FAPE under PL 94-142 addresses the rights of special education kids to an “appropriate public education”, surely a similar statement must exist regarding the rights of ALL students in public education. Where would I find this? (By deductive reasoning, if PL 94-142 protects kids with special needs, then
logically there must be an equal guarantee of “appropriate public education”.)
b) Where would I find PL 94-142? That does not appear to be a standard citation of US Code or CFR. Yet, it was signed into law by Gerald Ford in 1975.
c) Also, do you know of a Supreme Court ruling giving parents the ultimate say regarding their child’s courses in school? It’s the best-kept secret, but you really do not need a teacher’s recommendation. :dubious:
Overall, I am trying to get a Principal and Guidance Dept. off their collective lazy butts. Please help me find the fire power I need to get some action. - Jinx
a) Never heard of such an animal. Regular ed guarentee of “appropriate public education” is just that a free education exists. “Appropriate” isn’t relevant to regular ed.
b) 94.142 has been revised several times. The current regulations governing special education are known as IDEA (The Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act). A good site for this is ideapractices.org. Click on “Regulations” and it will provide you with the regs and a searchable index.
c) Never heard of this, and I’d ask you to clarify, “ultimate say regarding their child’s courses”. With some exceptions (Lovass, ABA), circuit courts have generally ruled that decisions regarding curriculum are made by schools, not parents.
It seems that you are approaching this as an adversarial situation, when it really shouldn’t be that at all. Firepower isn’t what you need – but knowledge is power, and knowledge of the things motivating the people you are dealing with will help you achieve your real goal – the best possible education for your child.
First, know that almost nobody who chooses a career in special education does it for any other reason than because they deeply care about the kids. Regular classroom teaching is hard enough – but to choose to work with those who have special needs, who are most likely to be easily frustrated, emotional, unpredictable, disruptive, troubled, and possibly even abusive or violent is a demonstration of deep compassion for a portion of one’s community that needs it most. Almost all of these people are highly trained, most are highly competent, and all of them want to do what is necessary to help your child succeed. They are also a part of a larger institution (the school district) which has a history of dealing with children with special needs. That history will include successes and mistakes – hopefully very few of the latter.
In my school district, and as I understand the trends for the country as a whole, the past twenty years has seen a sharp increase in both the number of students in special education and the percentage of the district’s population which qualify for special education services. Some of the increase in the percentage is due to better assessment of the kids’ needs, but a portion of the increase is due to what we refer to at my school as “parental hyperinvolvement”. Some parents go to extremes when it comes to wanting the best possible future for their children. One tactic which is increasingly used is to try to qualify a child for special education in order to gain the benefits of the program, such as smaller class sizes, easier modified testing, more lenient evaluation, et cetera, when the child does not really need such services, in hopes that higher grades will improve the child’s college admission chances. It’s still early in the year, but in my classes, I suspect that probably about 20% of the special education kids really don’t need to be in the program. Of course, the kids are growing, and some outgrow the need for special education services – but the ones who shouldn’t be there in the first place clog the system, overwork the staff, and tax the budget. Thus, another thing that motivates the people you are dealing with is the need to be a good gatekeeper to the special education system, in order to better serve the kids who really need it.
Precedent is another thing that the people you are dealing with are mindful of. If a thing is done for one child in a specific situation in one school, which may mean that it must be done for all children in similar situations throughout the entire district for years to come. Many of the policies now in place will be there due to precedents set in the years since 1975 – and many mistakes, some of which have ended careers, have been made in the past 28 years.
So, expect them to be extra careful with the plan for your child’s education. I can tell you that if there has been a Supreme Court decision giving the parents the ultimate say in their child’s courses I have not heard about it, nor did the school district’s lawyer who gave the faculty at my school a one-hour inservice on special education procedures last month, nor did the special education coordinator who gave us another one-hour inservice, nor did anyone in any of the special education conferences for individual students that I have attended, ever seem to have heard of it. I’m sure that this varies from state to state – I have seen similar yet subtly different paperwork from several states on different transfer students – but in Texas the plan for your child’s education would be decided upon at a formal meeting known as an Admission/Review/Dismissal conference, where an Individualized Education Plan will be written, which the school district is legally obligated to follow. Sometimes the IEP will call for evaluation or reevaluation of a child’s current needs, which may include diagnostic tests, psychological tests, medical tests, or other types of evaluation. The IEP is only in effect if everyone at the meeting, which should include a special education representative, your child’s caseworker, at least one of your child’s teachers, at least one parent or guardian, and may include various others involved in your child’s education (psychologists, school nurses, therapists), signs off on the document. If someone doesn’t agree, that usually means another meeting, usually with advocates, administrators, and lawyers. Failure to reach agreement at this level can lead to the courts making the final decision on the plan for the child’s education. In no case will a responsibly run special education department simply let the parents insist on a plan which may set a bad precedent.
One more thing to keep in mind is that if one chooses to take on a school district as an adversary, one chooses to fight against an institution which has vastly more experience than any individual could hope to have in determining the needs of children – experience which will vastly outweigh the judgment of a parent, clouded by parental affection, of a child’s needs in a court of law. In addition, the school district will almost certainly have experienced lawyers on staff, complete with armloads of case law, to oppose the individual – lawyers generously funded by your tax dollars, who are most unlikely to concede. That’s one of the reasons for the increase in home-schooling; the fact that individuals have a very difficult time in bending a school district to their will in courts, and thus decide to remove themselves from the entire system.
But, before you go to that extreme, consider trying to work with the people at the school. This will be best done in person – not on the telephone or by e-mail. Be advised that the people at your child’s school, having ancestors who evolved amongst the predators in the African wilderness the same as everyone else, will react defensively if confronted with a Vicious Attack Parent™, and become much harder to work with. Instead, sit down with them, look them in the eyes, and gently ask them to explain what they want to do with your child and why, and then listen to what they say. They should have clear reasons for their choices, and they should be able to explain them to you. If it doesn’t seem to you that they have a good idea of your child’s abilities, ask what sort of re-evaluation can be done, and how soon. Then, regardless of the answer, ask about the rules for the formal special education conference and how soon one can be held. Use the same sort of gently phrased interrogatives at that meeting – and if you are still not satisfied, then go seek out an advocate or a lawyer, and have them make your case for you. You will have much more success if you get some help with this; the individual parent is fighting way out of his weight class here. Good luck with this – and please let us know how things turn out.
I agree with most of what Earthman said. My understanding of IDEA is that children are to be in the “Least restrictive environment”. That means that a child who is mildly dyslexic should not be isolated into classes with mostly highly impaired children.
However, administrators don’t like to spend lots of money on one kid. Administrators may pressure teachers into not recommending programs that require lots of money. This means that you need to talk to the teacher alone, and promise not to quote them to superiors. The knowledge and information that they have is valuable.
Part of the reason I say this is that I work at a private school that focuses on kids that “learn differently.” Whether that means that socially they had problems or discipline wise or just learning disabled kids. About one-third of our population are IEP transfers, which means that a school district pays us to educate their student.($17,500) Schools really, really hate paying. Parents who got their kids there figured out that our school was the place for their child, and sometimes did have to get nasty with school administrators (there are lawyers that specialize in such cases.) But save that approach until you are sure of what is going on.
WhistlePig says: “Appropriate” isn’t relevant to regular ed.
I beg to differ. Consider this true scenario: A child has no learning disabilities but struggles to keep up with the class in math, for example. The school system cannot simply say “oh well, you know your child will never be able to do math.” No, they must provide alternative or supplemental assistance in helping that child. (This was long before “No Child Left Behind”.)
It is our tax money. Somewhere, it must be defined what a public education shall provide to each and every child. They cannot give up on a child, and this is not a new concept.
As for fighting the school system, quite often it is necessary in the course of human events for one set of parents to claw their way up the educational system’s ladder until satisfaction is delivered. I know, from first hand experience. My family has fought the school system on several issues and won. Granted, it was not an easy battle and often you cannot do it alone (for situations effecting many students). But, it can be done.
When the system is stonewalling the parent, forget the diplomacy. You call out the big-guns and cite law and precedents to them. I will find the case I am thinking of regarding course selection (not the specific curriculum, for clarification). Perhaps it was within my state’s highest courts, I’ll grant you that possibility. I will continue to seek it out, and I’ll let you know what it is that I am thinking of.
Let me try to answer your questions. Of course, brief answers cannot be complete and cover every aspect; but I’ll give you the general gist of it. As I understand it.
With respect to regular students’ rights to a public education, these rights are conferred by each state and its associated laws. (You must check the laws of your own state for the specifics you’re seeking.)
With respect to special-needs students’ rights to a public education, these rights are conferred by the federal government through various laws. For example: Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973; The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990; etc.
State and Federal courts, and even the US Supreme Court, hold that school matters are to be handled by the local school boards. Exceptions are made only when there are violations of constitutional issues (e.g. race, gender, equal protection, church-state relations). Thus, you are not likely to find a precedent of a court ordering a school board to concede to a parents wishes about what to do for his or her child. In fact, just the opposite has been repeatedly upheld: school boards have the ultimate say over what to do with their education programs.
The term “Free and Appropriate Education” (FAPE) and the protections of federal law apply only to special-needs students. Your deduction that there must be a corresponding protection of regular students is erroneous. Regular students typically get whatever is left over after all the special programs have taken all they can get. This may seem unfair, but the regular students don’t have the force of federal legislation to back them up and dictate what they must receive.
As for a law which defines specifically what each student is required to receive, this has been an issue of hot debate for many years, with no hope of resolution in sight.
As for your particular situation, I can only guess what you’re looking for since you were pretty sparse with the details. It sounds like you have a regular student whom you would like to see getting a bit more help with math; but that you’ve been unsuccessful since your student doesn’t qualify for any of the special programs. However, from the scenario you described and the limited information you gave, I would suspect that the student described may, in fact, have a developmental disability but that it is as yet undiscovered. If you were to request an extensive evaluation and a disability were discovered, then your student would qualify for the extra services you’re wanting. On the other hand, if no disability is found but you still want your student to receive extra help with math, then you’re going to have to bite the bullet and bear the cost of hiring a tutor on your own.
I know you’re wanting the school system to provide the extra help, but you could fight for years and still not win; or even if you ultimately did succeed, your student would have fallen so far behind that it would be nearly impossible to catch up. So when the school system doesn’t provide something specific that you want, go elsewhere and get it on your own.