Might does not make right

Might Does Not Make Right

We live in a world where people and organizations with more power think they can use that power to assert their will on others.  Simply having the power to do so does not make it right.

For over ten years the District of Columbia public schools and several DC public charter schools have allowed students in non-public special education schools to earn a diploma as a private school student.  This past fall, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) for the District of Columbia has stopped that process. (Don't let it bother you that the "State Superintendent" is without a state)  As a consequence, fourteen students are left to find other placements.

The issue is that OSSE requires that students receiving a high school diploma need to have two years of a foreign language.   The Harbour School does not believe that will benefit these students as they make the transition from high school to the adult world.   As a consequence, OSSE has cancelled its approval of The Harbour School effective June 30, 2109.   They have been unwilling to allow those 14 kids to complete their entitlement to a free and appropriate education at public expense without referring any additional students to the school.   The situation is even more unfortunate since a number of those students are not even earning a diploma.

Where does this decision leave these students and their families?  It leaves them with limited choices. There are two students who are graduating in three weeks and at this time OSSE has yet to make a decision as to what kind of award the students will receive.  Additionally, there are two other students who are scheduled to graduate in June 2020 who can’t possibly earn credit for two years of a foreign language in the one year remaining to them.   Both of these situations have been identified to OSSE and their response is not to respond.   

There is no question but that OSSE has the power to do what they are doing. After all, they have the regulation to fall back on.  They also have the power to modify the implementation of the regulation for those few children who need a few more years to finish their education.  But they are not interested in doing that.  

As a consequence, families have few choices.   They can accept the decision and have their children placed back in the public schools.  (OSSE has forced the closure of two other non-public schools within the District so there are very few non-public options.)   Families can pay privately for the placement but that will also mean figuring out transportation.   Or they can enter into a due process claim in the hopes of either winning or of stringing the process along for enough time for their children to finish.  Under the law, children get to stay in the last approved placement during the pendency of due process.  Or they can file a state complaint with the very wolf who is guarding the chicken house- OSSE.

Does OSSE have the might to do this?   You bet.   Does that make what they are doing right?  Not by a long shot.   And sooner or later the piper will be paid.