The Sound Of A Closed Door Can Be Deafening

There is something very intriguing about the doors to public education. I don’t know who built the first one, but I am sure that information could be found if one took the time. I have no doubt that the study of the origin and progression of public schools in our country would be a fascinating endeavor . I am also sure the following statement made by a former Teacher of the Year would not go without challenge:

“ The secret of American schooling is that it doesn't teach the way children learn
- nor is it supposed to. Schools were conceived to serve the economy and the social order rather than kids and families -- that is why it is compulsory.”



I throw that out there for others to attack or defend. The premise is why I have chosen it. The fact that even today there is much discussion about whether current influences on public education are self serving and not truly aimed at education is no different than the above premise.

I do know of two major social issues where it took the Federal Court to pry open the doors of public education that were obviously closed for two identifiable groups. One major door opening to the public as a whole was Brown v. Board of Education. Another major door opening to the public as a whole was the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA or the Act). One must read about the many other doors that had to be pried open before these two major doors were forcibly opened.

Since the mid 1990's this writer first learned about the secret that when the teacher's door is closed, it is their realm. In fact it was told to me in that way almost verbatim. The secret was dirty then, and it remains so today.

I have previously asked the question "what rights does a regular education student have to their education." The answer to that question increases in intrigue and difficulty when one compares it to the answer of the question "what rights does a special education student have to their education."

Understanding case laws that have shaped our public education system is a formidable task. Many of the people who work day in and day out may not even know or understand where the pressures come from that effect their daily routine. A door may be physically closed, and a parent may be physically kept out of the classroom, but is that really keeping the parent out of the classroom?


I have chosen a passage from a federal case HONIG, California Superintendent of Public Instruction v. DOE, et al. to make a point:

"Envisioning the IEP as the centerpiece of the statute's education delivery system for disabled children, and aware that schools had all too often denied such children appropriate educations without in any way consulting their parents, Congress repeatedly emphasized throughout the Act the importance and indeed the necessity of parental participation in both the development of the IEP and any subsequent assessments of its effectiveness. See 1400(c), 1401(19), 1412(7), 1415(b)(1)(A), (C), (D), (E), and 1415(b)(2). Accordingly, the Act establishes various procedural safeguards that guarantee parents both an opportunity for meaningful input into all decisions affecting their child's education and the right to seek review of any decisions they think inappropriate. These safeguards include the right to examine all relevant records pertaining to the identification, evaluation and educational placement of their child; prior written notice whenever the responsible educational agency proposes (or refuses) to change the child's placement or program; an opportunity to present complaints concerning any aspect of the local agency's provision of a free appropriate public education; and an opportunity for "an impartial due process hearing" with respect to any such complaints. 1415(b)(1), (2)."

If we examine this part of the statement, does this not "put the parent in the classroom" : "guarantee parents both an opportunity for meaningful input into all decisions affecting their child's education and the right to seek review of any decisions they think inappropriate?"

Big Fat Money

A little Van Halen to jump start the day:

"Some say money is bad for the soul
Bad for the rock, bad for the roll
Bad for the heart , bad for the brain
Bad for the damn near everything oh yeah
It must be good for something"

I have reason to remind the readers of this event from the recent past:

Old news is still bad news

Go to the link and read finding of fact by the State. Not just a complaining parent.

IEP's are contracts for service. A Matrix of Service is filled out based on what was written in the IEP, submitted to the State, and the State sends money to the District based on the funding number.

If the services that are written in the IEP are not provided to the student, there is a multitude of problems. Ethics would be one of them. Destruction of trust from the parents may be one of them. Fraud may be one of them. An appropriate education for the student is so far down the list, it is lost in the fog of war when the parent finally demands some accountability.

Recent dialog on this blog and posts by this blogger on other blogs has dealt with parents and teachers needing to work together.

Some parents want to audiotape their IEP meetings. How many of you get to a point in your life where you want to go the hassle of taping a meeting? One would reasonably assume that the need to tape something is because one has become wary of false assurances, parsing of words, repeated delays, repeated "misunderstandings" and "clarifications" that are far from what was previously stated or written.

Under the current culture, the burden of proof of compliance is left to the parent to somehow prove that not only did a host of people who say they are educators hear what was said and see what is written, but they are not honoring what they said and wrote.

I have been in many, many IEP meetings. I know the game. If an elephant came into the IEP meeting, dropped a load right in the middle of the table, no one could ever prove it if it wasn't written in the IEP form or the conference notes. Even when there are teachers, ESE specialists, related service personnel, principals, directors and parents that see the elephant, moved their papers out of the way of the big dump, and smelled the aroma that stunk up the whole room. If it wasn't written, it didn't happen.

If the system continues to leave it to the parents to enforce compliance, I will continue to mock those who hide behind this strategy. And I am counting the days. To steal a concept from Goader - tick, tick, tick.

Public Administrative Placement vs. Private Profitability

Another isolated incident and broad brush attack. The incident's keep happening and the brush isn't wide enough.

It's all about the money and ignorance on how to educate kids. No wonder the good teachers are leaving the public school system- their hard work is undone by an ignorance.


Click here: The News-Press, news-press.com, Education, Lee’s special ed program fails girl, and family

"Andrea Barrett would wake up at 4:30 every morning. She'd bathe, put on a golf shirt and slacks, and pour herself a bowl of cereal with milk.After breakfast, she'd make lunch, slathering peanut butter and jelly on bread that had the crust cut off.Then, she would wait up to an hour for the bus to come to take her Villas Elementary.
Andrea loved school. It's where her friends were and where she learned basic math, including simple multiplication and division, how to read at a second-grade level, and expanded her American Sign Language vocabulary.Now the 11-year-old south Fort Myers girl has a panic attack at the mere mention of the word school.
Andrea is autistic. She has trouble seeing and can barely hear. She communicates through sign language.

Her outlook on school changed after she was taken out of a class for autistic children and placed in another class all day, without her parents knowing or consenting, in violation of federal law. A Villas employee conceded in the minutes of a meeting held with Andrea's parents that the school was "out of compliance" with her education plan.When the class change happened, Andrea began having serious problems. She withdrew from her family and friends, stopped eating, and no longer bathed, brushed her teeth or dressed herself for school. As a result, her parents, Rebecca and Patrick Barrett, have been unable to hold down full-time jobs. "

****************************************************************

Click here: Business: Private company turns a profit with special education students

"ESA schools offer instruction for students with many kinds of disabilities, from mental retardation to high-functioning autism. One of its rapidly growing programs helps high school special-education graduates who want college degrees.
"The idea was that there are a lot of young adults with learning disabilities, and the expectation wasn't there that they were going to go to college," Claypool said. "And it should have been, because they're often quite bright"

One of those "adversary" groups I talk about

www.standadvocates.org

STAND-Pinellas Accessing Resources Conference
3 Days and counting!!! You have until Sunday, September 16, 2007 to register on-line for $25.00 to attend SPARC 2007!!!!

This is your final chance to be part of one of the best conferences this year! If you pre-register before September 16th, you don’t need to show up until 8:00am! We have folks driving in from Jacksonville, Tallahassee down to Cape Coral and Boynton Beach… this conference is well worth the drive!!!!

Dr. Barbara Bateman (google her name and read about her!!! She is awesome.) will begin at 8:00am, MaryEllen Elia will begin at 8:40am, and the first breakout session begins sharply at 9:00am! Exhibitor hall will be open at 8:00am.

There will be a hot lunch catered by Capogna’s Dugout of Clearwater, while Cindy Bania of Pinellas Co. Schools speaks to the group.

Three more breakout sessions in the afternoon, followed by over 50 door prizes that will be given away that day!!!!! The Exhibitor Hall will be open until 3:00pm!!!

Don’t forget to sign up that morning for a one on one IEP review with STAND Board members and/or Pinellas County Administrators.

Check out the website for who can earn component points, trade days, and CEU’s!!!!! This conference is for families, grandparents, social workers, counselors, teachers, therapists, principals, support coordinators! There will be something for everyone in one place for one day only!!!!

Please forward this e-mail to all your contacts….. after Sunday the 16th, you will be registering at the door that morning beginning at 7:00am for $35.00! Bags, shirts, and lunches will be on a first come – first serve basis. We are only ordering a number of extra lunches… when they are gone, they are gone!!!!

Go to www.standadvocates.org today and register!!!!

Unfair Set Up

Today, I am opening the doors to my "hotel". It will be heaven or it will be hell. I was in another "Special Ed Motel" for 21 years in several different wings. Some times I was treated as a guest, and some times I was treated as a recalcitrant. The constant was me - the variable was how honestly I was "handled".

For this post, I want to expose and explore an inane dichotomy of Special Education. Special Ed has a set of rules(Federal laws) that school personnel and parents are supposed to follow. The disparity in the level of knowledge of these rules (Federal laws) by either party seems to me to a problem that could easily be changed by having a forthright program designed to educate all the true intent of the rules (Federal Laws).

That is not what happens. What does happen is that as long as there is collaboration between teacher and parent, the system works as well as the regular ed system. When this collaboration becomes strained or challenged, the resulting actions of both school personnel and parent leads to what ultimately is an unfair set up for both of them.

The worst scenario is when the parent knows the rules (Federal Laws) and tries to enforce them vs. the school personnel who knows them and chooses to obfuscate them.

This "unfair set up" could be rectified by a sincere effort of an administration.

I think I know why it doesn't happen. I am curious if anyone else knows.


We need to deny that there's anything "special" about being disabled, so we can stop getting "special treatment" instead of justice -John R. Woodward, M.S.W.
http://www.jik.com/ilclang.html#TIME_TO_GET_RID_OF_SPECIAL