Do Something!

 Do Something!

 

Yesterday we celebrated Martin Luther King Day.   Many people had the day off.  It is doubtful that they used the day off from work to do anything that honored the work of Dr. King.  Baltimore City even cancelled the parade in his honor and that of the community because of some snow flurries.

Of the many Dr. King quotations, one of my most favorite is:

            “If you can’t fly then run,

            If you can’t run then walk,

            If you can’t walk then crawl

                But whatever you  do

                   Keep moving”

Sadly the vast majority of us sit on the sideline with the expectation that “someone else” will do the deed.  Unfortunately, “someone else” is expecting another “someone else” so very little gets done or what gets done is done by the folks on either extreme.

Almost fifty years ago, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA, 1975)was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ford.  At the signing, President Ford who signed under pressure, made the statement that he doubted its provisions could ever be fulfilled.

For the most part he was wrong.  By far, the vast majority of children with disabilities are being provided a free public education, but is that education appropriate to meet the needs of the individual child-the answer is – sometimes.

EHA was replaced by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which embodied all of the provisions of EHA and added a few extras.  In many ways, IDEA made children with disabilities as special class. But the public is very skilled at “work arounds”. Class size was restricted so that children with learning challenges could get more attention.  Today, the vast majority of children with disabilities are taught in co-taught classes meaning there is a special education trained teacher and a general ed teacher.  But the class size is in the mid-20’s.   IDEA requires that each child have an IEP- an individual learning program.  These plans specify the extent of related services the child will receive.  School districts regularly disregard the amount of service by saying they can’t find occupational or speech therapists or other providers.  No one enforces the IEP, unless the parents do.  When the parents try to enforce the IEP, school districts have highly paid trained attorneys to protect the interests of the school system, not the child’s.  If parents prevail at a due process hearing they get reimbursed for attorney’s fees, but only if they can afford the upfront cost of the long fight and if they prevail.  All of the decisions are supposed to be made by a child’s IEP team consisting of the school system staff and the child’s parents but some school districts hold preliminary meetings to make sure all of the school staff know the party line and stick together.

Today school systems do not have the programming options they had 40 years ago.   Self-contained classes ensured that families knew each other and could compare note and/or have belong to parent organizations.  In numbers there is strength.  We are returning to many of the ploys of old.  Conservative pundits are blaming the budget shortages on providing special ed services for kids as prescribed by law. 

The days of flying to meet the needs of children with disabilities are over.   It’s not even clear if advocates for children with disabilities are even moving anymore.