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Regulareducation in the US took another direct hit from the Supreme Court today. The Supreme Court ruled that a school district would have to reimburse the parents of a high school student who the parents placed in a boarding school to the tune of $65,000. The school district was found guilty of not providing an adequate education because the student should have been identified as special education.
Special Education is a severely underfunded mandate. That does not mean that school districts aren't forced by law to make up the shortfall from regular education. This mandateis draining the money away from regular education classes.
My friend is the Special Education Director for a large urban school district and his main job; more precisely, his only job, is meeting with parents and lawyers to keep the district out of court where his department would encroach on general fund even more than it does now.
Special Education parents have the right to ask for their children to be educated. But many times I've seen angry people use Special Education to batter a system that they feel is reaffirming their child's learning inadequacies and challenges. Let's face it, parents can be overprotective of a child with a perceived deficiency: and once you piss off mama bear, you'd best head for shelter.
The problem is that special education law has become so pro-parent that school districts are in constant legal motion to fend off lawsuits. There are legal firms dedicated to suing school districts over special education issues and others that specialize in defending schools. These legal firms advertise in large urban school districts where special ed numbers are high and where disenfranchised parents are eager to use special ed take a slap at the most accessible part of government.
I've heard stories of what I consider hideous abuses of the system, such as a parent who sued to have a room in their house remodeled as a classroom so their child could become more comfortable with a classroom environment. The question isn't whether this strategy would work, the question is that with the limited pockets of a school district, how many regular education students went without something elementary to their learning? I'd bet that a regular ed student went without something so the school district could pay for the lawyers who fought and lost the suit, and for the classroom in these people's home, and for the specialist who assessed the child's needs, and for the other specialists who reviewed the other specialists work, and the staff time and on, and on, and on. It's nauseating.
More common are expenses such as 1:1 instructional aides and personal laptop computers and many other legally enforced educational remedies for the needs of special education children as assessed by privately employed "specialists". And don't be fooled by the nonsense that schools don't want to do everything possible to educate these children, it's about the money and theschoosl know they have to educate all the children, not just the special ed students.
The fact is that the government and the courts establish laws and legal precedents without any responsibility to the regular education student who is going without more and more to pay for the legally mandated special education accoutrements. The regular education children also have special needs, but not being identified as special education, there are no lawyers lined up to fight for them.
Special Education has turned into a racket. It started with the right idea, find out what kids need to learn and try to help them achieve no matter what their physical, mental or learning capabilities. But government funding rarely follows in adequate quantities to match the special interest legislation or Supreme Court decisions that mandates like special education are derived from. All we've done is generate a lucrative legal specialty and why should we be surprised when these mandates all come from the work of attorneys in the first place.
Mandates create legal momentum but while legal momentum can make things happen, it rarely pays for them.It's about time that regular education students create a class action lawsuit to demand their fair share of the dwindling educationalpie.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court gave school districts the legal and fiscal short end of the special education stick today. I bet you a year's salary thatthey didn't mandate that the government provide the fundingto pay for therampant private school placements their precedent will create. Got a problem with your child? Send them toboardingschool, the Supreme Court says your school district will be required to pay for it.
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