Even the wealthy are suffering

 Even the wealthy are suffering

 

Fairfax County Virginia is one of the wealthiest school districts in the country.  Parents have filed a lawsuit against the County for failing to deliver services to children with special education needs.  Last week a judge ruled in favor of the school district.   A lawyer for the parents said it is their intent to appeal this decision AND file a civil rights complaint with the state attorney general.

The families are saying that in addition to failing to provide special education services, the County has also repeatedly violated the civil rights of the children under the Virginia Human Rights Act.

Parents are not the only ones with concerns about the delivery of special education services in Virginia. The U.S. Office of Education has launched multiple investigations.   In late June the federal ranking for Virginia regarding the compliance with IDEA fell from “meets requirements” to “needs assistance”.   A state that spends more than one year in “needs assistance” will receive intensive intervention from the U.S. Office of Education.

One of the continuing family concerns is the state’s due process hearings which are in place to settle disagreements between families and the school district.  Following a freedom of information request regarding the frequency of families prevailing in such procedures, the plaintiffs learned that between 2010 and July 2021 there were 395 appeals in Northern Virginia.  Out of those 395 cases, the family prevailed in only 3.  The data show that over the whole state of Virginia, out of 847 cases, families won in only 13, a percentage of 1.5 successful challenges.

By comparison, in California parents won 35% of the cases and in neighboring Maryland, parents won 15% of cases. (This number is down dramatically since Maryland now requires the party requesting the change in placement to have the burden of proof.)   The Virginia lawsuit contends that the State has a carefully curated slate of hearing officers who almost always side with the parents.   In Maryland the hearing officers are trained by the State Department of Education so their views are aligned with the State Department’s views.   In Virginia 2/3rds of the hearing officers have never ruled in the parents’ favor.  

Many times, school districts will insist that the failure to deliver services is due to lack of funds.  That is not the case in Virginia.  In Virginia the issue is lack of will not lack of funding.