[il-talk] Fw: Special ed Lawsuit

[Kelly Pierce]

the full article is pasted below.  The issue is nothing new.  Chicago
Public Schools will do nothing unless forced by the courts or the
federal government, who could cut funding.  the basic advice of
knowing your rights, including required timeframes, still rings true.
With these guys, file formal complaints on the first day they miss
their deadline.

Kelly


Chicago Public Schools Faulted on Assessing Learning Disabilities - NYTimes.com
The New York Times
January 7, 2013

Chicago Faulted on Learning Disabilities
By
MOTOKO RICH

When Rashaan Payne was 2 years old, his pediatrician noticed that he
was not talking at the level of most children his age. After autism
was diagnosed,
Rashaan began receiving speech therapy once a week at his home on the
South Side of Chicago, paid for by the federal and state governments.

When he turned 3 in October, federal law mandated that he leave that
program and be evaluated for services within the Chicago Public
Schools. But while
his mother, Treva Thompson, said she has filed paperwork and
repeatedly called the neighborhood school, Rashaan has yet to be
evaluated. She is worried
that after making progress, her son will lose ground.

“It’s like he’s at a pause now,” said Ms. Thompson, who left her
factory job packing ice cream cones to stay home and take care of
Rashaan. “When you’re
dealing with special-needs children, you need to be consistent with
whatever you’re doing. You can’t do something and then stop in the
middle of it.”

In a complaint filed on Monday with the Illinois State Board of
Education, a nonprofit advocacy group says that thousands of children
are in Rashaan’s
position because the Chicago Public Schools have repeatedly failed to
evaluate children with disabilities and move them into special
education preschool
programs.

Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, states
must provide special education services to 3- and 4-year-olds with
disabilities that
impede their learning even before they are officially enrolled in
school. Usually, local school districts place children in
prekindergarten classes or
send therapists to visit children at home. Under the law, a plan for
services must be in place by a child’s third birthday.

Amy Zimmerman, managing attorney for
Health & Disability Advocates,
which filed the complaint, said parents who apply to have their
children assessed at local schools are often ignored or told to wait
past that deadline.


“Basically it was any excuse in the book to turn kids away,” Ms.
Zimmerman said. “It was probably a lack of understanding that these
kids actually belong
to them. We talked to a lot of special education folks, and they
didn’t even realize they aren’t allowed to say, ‘Come back in three
months.’ ”

Across the country, advocates for people with disabilities said that
preschool children receive a patchwork of services. In New York,
private contractors
provide therapy, but state auditors found that companies have
diverted government funds
 to pay for rent and landscaping for executives, among other improper uses.

In some places, the transition from early intervention to preschool
special education is smooth, but in others, said James Wendorf,
executive director
at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, bureaucratic
problems lead to delays.

“The handoff to schools is difficult even under the best
circumstances,” Mr. Wendorf said. “Are they doing the best they can?
If they are doing the best
they can, their best is not good enough.”

In Chicago, pediatricians and coordinators of Head Start programs who
work with children with learning disabilities said they also were
frustrated at delays
in getting children placed in preschool special education programs.

“If you miss those two years, there are huge gaps in what the child
could have learned and become school ready,” said Dr. Bree Andrews,
director of the
Center for Healthy Families at the University of Chicago.

In a statement, Robyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Public
Schools, said the district has had “an issue in delivering these
services in an adequate
manner and, once identified, it has once again become a top priority
for C.P.S. to ensure the timely delivery of these services.”

She said the district was reviewing its special education operations
and has designated $4.5 million for these services. The district has
already set up
three teams devoted to evaluating preschool-age children, and plans to
set up more, she said.

Beth Swanson, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s deputy for education, said the
mayor “is committed to ensuring that every child in Chicago has access
to early education
programs.” She added that the city had overhauled how it funds early
childhood programs and would focus on improving wait times for special
education evaluations
as well as train staff at city-funded programs to screen preschool children.

Keisha Allen, whose son, Isaac Lampley, turned 3 in July, hopes he
will soon be placed in a preschool special education class. Since a
speech therapist
stopped coming to his home six months ago, she has applied to his
local school and has tried her best to keep Isaac occupied.

She lets him watch children’s programs on Nickelodeon and works on
helping him identify colors and letters of the alphabet.

“I would rather him be in a classroom environment,” Ms. Allen said. “I
think he would learn better if he were around other kids who have the
same disabilities
that he has.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 8, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated Amy Zimmerman’s title at
Health & Disability Advocates. She is the managing attorney there, not
the director.




On 1/8/13, Robert Gardner <rgardner4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> To: ""
>> Thank you Laura for sharing this information.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Laura Gallagher Watkin [mailto:lgwatkin at hdadvocates.org]
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 9:05 AM
>> To: Abrahamson, Matt
>> Subject: Special ed Lawsuit
>>
>> Hi Matt
>>
>>
>>
>> I thought that the SRC would be interested in this NYT article about a
>> lawsuit HDA has filed against the Chicago Public Schools on behalf of
>> children with disabilities.
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/education/chicago-public-schools-faulted-on-assessing-learning-disabilities.html?_r=0
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Laura Gallagher Watkin, J.D.
>>
>> Director, Veteran Programs:
>>
>> Assisting Veterans & Military Families | Warrior 2 Warrior Volunteer Vets
>>
>> | Families of the Fallen
>>
>>
>>
>> Health & Disability Advocates
>>
>> Phone: 312-265-9074 | Fax: 312-348-1239 | TTY: 866-584-8750
>>
>> lgwatkin at hdadvocates.org <mailto:lgwatkin at hdadvocates.org>  |
>> www.hdadvocates.org <http://www.hdadvocates.org/>
>>
>>
>>
>> We're Moving!  On January 14 find us at :
>>
>> 205 W. Randolph, Ste. 510, Chicago IL 60606
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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