Maybe he was right after all

 Maybe he was right after all

 

Fifty years ago, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) which has since morphed into the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).  At the signing, which he did only after extreme pressure, Ford said he was signing the legislation but doubted it could ever be accomplished.

For the most part he was wrong.   One of the benefits of IDEA is that families have the right to due process in securing a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for their children.  In 2023, a federal judge ordered New York City public schools to provide the services that various due process hearings had determined they needed to provide.  Almost as soon as the judge’s order was issued, NYC began to miss deadlines.

As of this July, of the 51 steps outlined in the Court order, New York has only implemented 21 of them.  The court order was designed to resolve long standing issues where families waited months or even years for both services or payments as the result of administrative due process hearings.  New York City is so far behind in providing legally required services that last year alone nearly 20,000 cases were filed.  By comparison, in the whole state of  Maryland last school year, 20 cases went to a full due process hearing.  Even after adjusting for population differences, that is still a HUGE difference. The delays mean kids might go without physical therapy, transportation or even tuition for special private schools.   A major issue is that the children grow older each day and failure to provide the needed services in a timely manner may well have a lifelong impact.  Each day of delay is a day lost and an irreplaceable educational opportunity that cannot ever be recaptured. Orders for services such as speech therapy or counseling were implemented on time in just 9.5% of nearly 3,400 cases.  Just 1% of the nearly 5,300 payment orders were fulfilled on time.

The US Office of Education (USOE) is being dismantled bit by bit by the President.  One of the functions of the USOE is to enforce federal laws such as IDEA.  Their job is to monitor state and local jurisdictions to ensure that these laws are being implemented as written.  With the USOE gone, the monitoring and enforcement will be transferred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) which lacks both the skill sets and the people power to enforce these laws.  Enforcement of education laws is not high on the priority list for a DOJ that needs to concentrate on righting the wrongs against the current President.

So maybe President Ford was right after all.  Fifty years later we are still working on the issue.