Do Kids Deserve Compensation?

 Do kids deserve compensation?

 

During the last year, students have lost so very much in terms of their instruction and social development.  This situation is particularly true for children with disabilities.  Under federal and state law, children with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate education through the school year in which they turn 21.  So far nothing has been done to change that entitlement timeline.  Many kids have suffered academic regression during this long stay at home period.  Others are emotionally impacted.  The usual job training experiences in the community are not happening.  Still the clock will tick and entitlement will end without the learning and the experiences.

Some legislators believe that entitlement should be extended for another year.  There is a bill in the Maryland State Legislature that would extend entitlement for another year for all students with disabilities 17 and older.  The bill has a price tag of just over 40 million dollars.  

There are multiple questions about this bill and the equity of it.  First of all, it will grant a privilege to kids 17 and older with special needs that will not be granted to plain kids 17 and older.   Many of these non-disabled kids have also missed out on their senior year in school and all of the traditions and experiences that go with that.  Students in vocational programs have had virtual machine experiences but that isn’t the real thing.  Would you like to fly in a plane with a pilot who only learned to fly online!?

What about other younger children with disabilities.  They, too, have been shorted in their educational experiences and what are the chances that they are going to be made up?   Not great.

So, what about this bill?  Is it a good one or not?  Depends on how you feel about some help for some students being better than no help for all students, even if the “some” help is unfair to the rest of the kids.

There needs to be a reckoning for all children.  Only a small minority of children have progressed in an appropriate way with distance learning.  All of our kids deserve compensation for what they have endured.  We need to make that happen.