Just Isn't Fair

 Just isn’t fair!

My kid took the SAT’s and did the best she could, after all she is in AP classes.  Then my daughter told me that there were all these kids who had all this extra time.  Just isn’t fair.

So what is going on?  Children with a wide variety of disabilities are being allowed the accommodation of extra time on the ACT and SAT tests that measure the chances of students getting into top colleges and/or getting scholarship money.  The accommodations vary and can be time and a half or even double time.  Some accommodations allow the student to take the test in a separate room so he/she has anxiety issues.  The percentage of students having special accommodations has risen to about 7% of test takers.  Doesn’t giving kids with disabilities extra time or other accommodations actually level the playing field so that these students have the same opportunities as students without disabilities?  Well that depends.

Some families are saying that “disabilities” can be purchased from private psychologists who, for a handsome fee, will find that disability which will yield the accommodation.  Some of the tactics include getting a gastroenterologist to support unlimited bathroom breaks.  Another tactic is getting teachers to write letters attesting to the student’s anxiety or other needs for special treatment. Getting the medical tests can cost families from $2,000-$10,000, so they are only available to families with some serious discretionary funds since the tests are not generally covered by insurance.  Colleges don’t know which students got extra time or other accommodations to take those tests.

The accommodations are still meant to level the playing field for students with real life disabilities.  However, now that families with money and access are able to tilt that playing field is that abuse?

Psychologists are saying they get significant push back from families if, after testing, they report they find no evidence of the need for any accommodation on the tests.  It is a strange universe where a student functions really well on psychological testing and the parents are angry at the tester?  Not finishing the SAT or ACT in the allowed time is not a disability.

It just isn’t fair!

History does matter

 History does matter

This past weekend, May 17, 1954, was the 72^nd anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision, Brown v. the Board of Education.   That decision overturned the 1896 decision of Plessy v. Ferugson, which argued that separate could be equal.   Linda Brown was an African American child whose separate school was decidedly not equal to her neighborhood white school.  On that day, the Supreme Court handed down an unanimous decision that separate is decidedly not equal.  The case for Linda Brown was argued by Thurgood Marshal who later became a Supreme Court justice himself and for whom the Baltimore airport is named. A year later, the Court issued another decree saying separate schools should end with all “deliberate speed”.  We know how that goes.

But what does all of that have to do with serving kids with special needs.  Turns out quite a bit.  The Brown decision relied on the 14^th amendment to the US Constitution. One the many things covered by that amendment is the principle that if a state chooses to provide a service to one group of its citizens it must also provide that same service to all citizens in that group.  In the early ‘60’s, the public schools of the various states provided universal education to the plain students in their jurisdictions.  However, those same services were not being provided to children with disabilities.  In fact, these students were actually excluded from school.  Using the principles of both the Brown Decision and the 14^thAmendment, advocates argued that since states were choosing to provide an education for some of its children, those same states must, therefore, provide an education for all of its children.  Out of that advocacy, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was born in 1965, 72 years after the Brown decision.  EHA later became the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).

While many families may still argue that their children are not receiving the most appropriate education for their children, we are no longer arguing whether or not those children may come to school at all. History does matter.  Learn your history and you make a better today and tomorrow.

 

Too Young to Fail

 Too young to fail

 

Guidance from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) says that children should not be removed from a diploma program until the final semester of the senior year.  The purpose of this guidance is to give students every chance possible to earn a high school diploma.  Isn’t that wonderful?  

Well not exactly.  The high school diploma program is supposed to prepare student for career or college.   In fact, the curriculum mainly prepares kids for college.  There isn’t much need for algebra 2 or a high school foreign language unless you are going to college.  And what about science?  Science is interesting but if the student is not going on to college just how much science is useful in high school.

Some school districts are moving kids out of diploma tracking courses very early.  Some as early as elementary school!  Is that horrible?  If you worship at the altar of rigor and academic learning, such behavior is blasphemy. 

However, if you believe as the first educators did, that education should prepare you for your life as an adult; this change makes good sense.  So back in the very olden days, 1700 and 1800’s kids went to school to learn to do what their parents did or what they would do.  There were lots of bad things about that plan because it certainly didn’t lead to kids moving up socio-economically.  

What is the point of modifying academic content to the point that it is accessible to children with significant learning challenges?  Sure, The Tale of Two Cities can be rewritten on the second grade level but when you do that it is no longer the Tale of Two Cities.

Wouldn’t it be a better use of these students’ time to teach about money, internet safety, how the government in a democracy is supposed to work?  Failure to get a high school diploma may not be failure at all. A certificate works much the same as diploma for almost all things.  Maybe it’s just common sense useful education. Wouldn’t it be nice if that’s what we all got.

 

Did you even notice?

 Did you even notice?

Probably not.  Not likely to be on folk’s radar.  Last week, the Secretary for the federal Department of Education announced that she was seeking a way to move the Office of Special Education out of the Department of Education.  Actually she is planning to break up the office and move the pieces and parts to other federal departments.  She has been trying to do this for quite some time and then those pesky child advocates make a fuss and she backs down.

The President is getting annoyed so she is going to try again.  Why does it matter if the Office of Special Ed is no more?  During the 24-25 school year there were 370 hearings at the Maryland State Department of Education regarding the delivery of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).  The vast majority of the cases are decided in favor of the school district.  When families lose they have one of two choices.  They can appeal their case to a federal or state court.  That’s expensive and decisions can take 6-10 months.  During that time the family either pays for the education it wants for their child or the child remains  in the placement that the family found unacceptable.  Another avenue of appeal is the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.  That office is charged with ensuring that the State Departments of Education uphold the letter of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  The cost for that appeal is only time and the cost of a certified letter.

Last year over 9,000 cases involving children with disabilities were filed with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).   The number of lawyers handling these cases at OCR has been reduced by more than half and more terminations are on the way.   Even before the huge reduction in staff, families waited months for a response.  Now with the staff reductions, over 90% of the appeals are dismissed without being heard, in favor of the school district.

Children with disabilities have legally guaranteed rights.  Who is going to enforce those rights?  Think about it, lots of folks disobey the speed limit on the beltway.  How many more would do that if there were no law enforcement?  Without law enforcement there is going to be lots of “speeding” past the rights of children with disabilities.  Might be a good idea to pay a bit more attention to what is happening at the US Department of Education and the Office of Special Education and Rehab Services.

 

Once again, the whipping boy

 Once Again, the Whipping Boy

The Maryland State Department of Education has enlisted the services of the American Institutes for Research (AIRS), Afton Partners, and UPD Consulting to investigate the “true” cost of special education to the local school districts.  At issue is the question of whether State funding for special education should increase.  The kick off to the research is an online questionnaire that takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.  The intro information states that the input of non-public special ed administrators is welcome and encouraged.  Which is odd since none of the questions is designed for non-public input.

The questionnaire is obviously slanted to welcome concerns about the high cost of non-public tuition to the local districts.  This point is particularly interesting since the State reimburses the local districts up to 50% of the cost of the non-public tuition.  The reimbursement level often means it actually costs less for the school district to send a child to a non-public school than it does to serve the child in the public setting.

The requirement of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future that all children have pre-K at no cost to the family also raises the stakes.   State and federal law has required special ed services for kids with disabilities from birth through the age of 20, but those early childhood services have often been some speech or OT.  Full pre-k for kids with disabilities that are identified at a very early age means that the disabilities will be more severe.  

The biggest cost in education is staff salaries.  Once again, the Blueprint is increasing costs. Starting teacher salaries are scheduled to be $60,000 beginning on July 1, 2026.  School districts are struggling to meet that requirement.  Since special ed classes are required to be smaller in size personnel costs will go up.  As will the cost of the co-teaching model that puts a special ed teacher and a general ed teacher in the same classroom.

The results of the study will be interesting.  My bet is the results will show that educating all children regardless of ability level will, once again, be a reason to put the blame on special education.

 

What's the Scam on the treatment of autism?

 What’s the scam on treatment of autism?

Want to make some quick bucks fast?  Seems to be pretty easy.  First step, find some folks who qualify for Medicaid.  Then screen them to see if they have a child (ren) who may be on the autism spectrum. If not, get a quick dx and you are on the way. Now you are in sight of that pot of gold.

Autism treatment is funded by Medicaid.  The treatment does not need to be provided by a licensed professional.   Well the treatment folks are supposed to be qualified professionals but states aren’t checking.  A large chunk of the costs associated with Medicaid are reimbursed to the states by the federal government so states are not incentivized to be all that diligent in checking credentials.  In Minnesota there was a man who set up a fly-by-night autism center claiming to provide 1 on 1 therapy. He allegedly said he worked with medical professionals.  He also employed his teenage relatives with no formal education in the field.  He raked in six million dollars before he was caught.  

Maine Medicaid pays for clinical specialists to work with children with autism in their homes.  Yet when the state inspector general (IG) investigated, she found that roughly half the families who were collecting for the service did not even have a child with the autism diagnosis.  

A center in Colorado billed Medicaid for treatment provided by staff with no professional credentials.   Some of the “treatments” for which Medicaid was billed included playing games, napping, lunch and time at a water park water slide.  Some children received as much as $15,470 per month for the “treatments”.

Fraudsters will always be around to try to game the system, whatever that system is. Parents of kids on the spectrum are looking for help and a possible cure so they are easy victims. One would think that states would realize, it’s all taxpayer dollars, just coming from another pocket and do a better job of monitoring.  Every Medicaid dollar that goes towards a scam is a dollar not available for real help for kids and their families.

 

Most Disabled Kids get the shortest straw

 Most Disabled get the Shortest Straw

Federal and State law require that children with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate education.   When a school district does not have the resources or the skill set to provide that education, it must purchase the education from a Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) approved non-public special education school.  Each year, the MSDE approves the daily tuition rate for those schools down to the very exact cent.

Costs for heating and air have gone up.  Costs for delivery of all things cost more.  Health care costs have risen.  Staff hope for some salary increase to cover the cost of inflation.  Public school budgets are rising between 4-6%.  Inflation this past December was at 2.7%.  It is now 3.3%.  

The Governor who praised himself as the education Governor, has chosen to FREEZE the tuition for non-public special education schools for the 26-27 school year.  These schools serve the most-disabled kids, yet the Governor has chosen to freeze any increase for the cost of their education.

Under Maryland law, the State must maintain fiscal effort for education.  Consequently, every Governor gets to say he has provided more money for education than any other governor.  It’s the law but the governor gets to brag about that.

Not so for the most disabled children that our State serves. Children don't get to attend a non-public special ed school unless the district says it can't provide the appropriate education.   Yet tuition for these kids doesn’t count as education.  Their teachers are not unionized so their teachers get a raise only at the benevolence of the Governor.  This year- not happening.

Long ago I was told that the pigs first to the trough get the most money.  Our kids have significant disabilities.  By the time they get to the trough, most of the food is gone.