US Dept of Ed Investigates Louisiana School Board
We’ve had our problems with school districts and at (low) one point took Charlie out of school and homeschooled him for a month back in the fall of 2005. But things were always pretty local. In Louisiana, the St. Landry School Board is being investigated by the US Department of Education. According to WDSU news:
According to a letter from the office of civil rights, the department is investigating whether the board failed to identify Port Barre Elementary School students who need special education services, failed to evaluate students who qualified for services and failed to provide services for the students once they had been identified.
Concerns about the services provided for students with special needs have crossed into the district’s 43-year-old desegregation case.
The complaint originated with Port Barre resident and child advocate Bett Dedon, who contacted U.S. District Court Judge Tucker Melancon, who oversees the desegregation case, about her grandson’s situation at Port Barre Elementary.
Dedon’s grandson has an autism spectrum disorder.
This is what Dedon’s grandson is entitled to according to IDEA 2004, the Individuals with Education Act:
……..a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living.
This is how IDEA describes disability at the very start of the document:
“Disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society. Improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy of ensuring equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities.”
Just to reiterate: All children with disabilities need to have “available to them” an education that is free, appropriate and public and their being disabled—autistic—-”in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society” in any, many, and so many ways.
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, civil rights, education blog, government, idea, legal, louisiana, parents, pdd-nos, school, special education, students, teachersRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Education, Legal Issues, Legislation
1 opinion for US Dept of Ed Investigates Louisiana School Board
Club 166
May 22, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Depending on what happens with this, this is potentially huge.
The court may rule very narrowly, where their decision will only apply to this one district.
On the other hand, this may set a useful precedent for other people that wish to get their districts to step up to the plate and do what they are supposed to be doing.
It’s unfortunate that it took someone personally knowing a judge to get something done, but that is the way these things often go.
Joe
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