What's with teachers hitting kids in DC schools?

 What’s with teachers hitting kids in DC schools?

There has been a string of allegations that District of Columbia public schools’ staff have abused kids.  In March, a teacher’s aide pleaded guilty to forcing a child to eat hot sauce as a punishment.  The child is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum.

In May, a parent was not notified when her daughter on the autism spectrum was sexually assaulted by another student.  

In 2024, a parent sued the District when untrained staff were administering her child’s medication.

Parents are suing the district in a case that involved a boy who was open palm smacked in the face by his teacher.   The family was not notified until 2 hours later.  The child’s face was still red from the smack when the dad picked him up AFTER school.  The boy was in kindergarten.  He has difficulty with speech, language and verbalizing.  In April 2024, the boy was tossing a football with a friend during morning before care.  The teacher asked the boy to stop.  When he didn’t, her testimony is that when he didn’t she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around, “causing her hand to hit his face.”  Both another staff person and another student collaborated the boy’s account, that he was flat on smacked in the face with an open palm.  The teacher continued her assignment in both before care and in teaching up until her arrest.  There were two other prior allegations of misconduct by the teacher.  In this instance, the teacher pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree cruelty to children and was sentenced to a year of probation, including anger management classes and a mental health evaluation.

The boy’s family is now suing the school district.  Plaintiffs claim that since the event the boy has been afraid to attend school, expects to be hit by a teacher if he does wrong, and is suffering from anxiety.  The family has said they have proposed a settlement with the school but have not received a response.  The family has also claimed they were totally shut out of the follow-up to the incident and to any disciplinary measures taken by the school.  It is unclear by the court decision if DC public schools has revoked the teacher’s license.  

The family has recently sold their home in Washington DC and moved to Prince George’s County Maryland.  Their son not attends school in Capitol Heights.  They say he still is afraid to go to school.

It should be noted that all of these events were against kids with significant disabilities.  Are these things happening to plain kids?

Washington DC is not that big a school district.  About 51,500 kids attend traditional public schools and the remaining 45k attend public sponsored charter schools.  What’s going on within the culture of DC schools? 

Public Schools are unconstitutional- courts might decide

 Public Schools Unconstitutional??

A court hearing in Nebraska will consider the position of a Columbia University law professor who believes public schools to be unconstitutional.  His position is that the First Amendment guarantees free speech.  Since he believes education is primarily speech, parents should have the right to exercise authority over the speech their children hear in school.   He continues to argue that families must accept the government messaging of public school or pay a steep price to provide a private education for their children.

Parents in Lincoln Nebraska are challenging the State’s combination of compulsory education and public-school-only funding.  Nebraska law requires parents to enroll their children in a “public, private, or parochial” school.  Families may also home-school.   Failure to do so could result in up to 3 months in jail or a $500 fine.

The problem, as these parents see it, is that public funding of around 19k is spent on kids in public schools but not a dime of public money goes to the other options.  Nebraska ranks near the bottom of the 50 states for other than public school choice options.  Parents who opt out of the public school system bear the full cost of the private school they might select.  Both of the families in the lawsuit have withdrawn their children from the public schools because they do not approve of the speech to which their children would be exposed.

The case is based on 3 issues:

Requiring children to attend a government funded school abridges the free -speech rights of the parents.

The same requirement also abridges the Nebraska Constitutions free-speech clause which closely mirrors the federal constitution.

Thirdly, the state may not condition a valuable public benefit on the surrender of a Constitutional right.

The point is that the state requires a compulsory mandate then only funds the one that reflects the government’s point of view.  Their argument is that the government has no compelling interest in funding public education.  The plaintiffs are not challenging the content of any curriculum, they are challenging the process and want the money to follow the child so that parents could direct those funds to any educational system the parents preferred.

The rationale of the plaintiffs totally ignores the stake that the entire society of a democracy has in an educated electorate.  That is the premise behind the funding of free public education, so that the folks who get to vote will be educated sufficiently to make an informed choice.   It is also why folks who have no children, or whose children have long since left public schooling are still taxed to provide for the public schools.   If only those people who had kids in school paid for schools there would be a great deal less money in the system. Another point is that once a child hits 18, they are emancipated and could still be in school.  Do they get to cede their rights to hear whatever speech they choose to their parents?

It will be interesting to see how this theory plays out in the courts.

 

 

The teachers have had it

 The Teachers Have Had it!

The teachers have had it and they are not taking it anymore!   There is a new law in Iowa that goes into effect at the start of this school year.  From now on, if a child is suspended, the classroom teacher has to agree to take that child back into his/her classroom.   If the teacher refuses, the school has to find another space for the child.  That provision is particularly onerous since it was put into place allegedly because of bad behavior on the part of children with special needs.  So where might these kids go?

According to administrators, student behaviors among special ed students mainly violence and aggression are causing teachers to leave their positions.  Two years ago, there were 200 special ed vacancies at the end of the school year.   This past year, there were over 600!   The bad behaviors, according to teachers, are impacting not only teachers but other students who are trying to learn.

One teacher testified before the legislature that one student’s bad behavior can disrupt not only the class but the whole school.  The new law (and it is a law, not just a school regulation) also gives teachers three days of paid leave if they are assaulted by a child.  

It is probably fair to wonder why, if the kids are receiving an education appropriate to their needs as required by federal law, they are having so many behavioral issues.  

That question is probably answered in another requirement of the law-TEACHERS ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE STUDENTS’ IEP.  And we thought that was already a requirement. Hmmm, might be an answer in there somewhere.

Handcuff and sedate- yes it's all legal

 Handcuff and sedate- Yes it's all legal

An emergency petition filed by a teacher or a school staff member could land a child in an ambulance, medically sedated, and handcuffed on his way to an ER.  In fact, the Maryland’s largest school systems have done this to children 1,500 times since 2021.   And if you think that’s a lot, Wicomico County Public Schools, one of the smallest districts in Maryland, was having officers handcuff and take kids to the ER on average of 3 times a week in 2023.  There are approximately 15,000 students in Wicomico County.

Emergency petitions are often filed against kids on the autism spectrum who are not getting the services they need and, therefore, act out.  One seven-year-old student who was diagnosed with autism had an emergency petition filed against him because he was throwing Legos in the classroom and would not stop with a verbal command.  His IEP called for a 1:1.  He didn’t have one.  Law enforcement and a social worker called for police to take him to the ER with an emergency petition.  At the hospital, the physician makes the call whether the child should have an involuntary commitment to a psychiatric treatment facility or go home with a parent.   It is not unusual for panicked kids to become more aggressive when placed in the police car or ambulance.  EMT’s can administer sedation drugs and/or handcuff children.

Maryland does not require the collection of data as to how often these events occur.  But when Baltimore City public schools started tracking the occurrences the number of petitions dropped by 60%.  In Washington County public schools, another small school district in Maryland, roughly half of the children cuffed and taken to the ER by police deputies were 10 or younger.   The youngest a 6-year-old girl.  It takes handcuffs and deputies to calm down little children?!  What scars does this leave?  The 7-year-old was taken to the to see his pediatrician after the event and told his physician that he had to come to the doctor because “I am a bad boy”  AT 7??!!!!

A bill was entered into the Maryland legislature this last session to require that school districts keep data on the number of these events.   It never got out of committee.  Maybe someone should have requested an emergency petition.

Billions later, not much has changed

 Billions later, not much has changed

The State Department of Education released the test scores for the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP).  There was not much joy in Mudville, Blueprint, the mighty Blueprint had struck out.  After spending BILLIONS and projecting that there would be a 10% gain in MCAP test scores over two years, only a 3.3 percent gain was seen in the last two years.   And only 51.5% of the students were proficient in reading while math saw a proficiency rate of only 21.7%.   Proponents of the Blueprint say the problem in there was more work to be done and there now needs to be even more money spent.  Overall the Blueprint is supposed to increase education spending by 5.2 BILLION in the next several years.

For all the investment, the gaps between Black and Hispanic students and white kids have barely budged.  In Prince George’s County, a majority Black district, the English proficiency rate rose less than one percent to 38.9% and the math scores rose to a very sad 13.7% up from 13.1% the previous year.   

So, what’s wrong.   Well first of all a huge chunk of the money is going towards raising starting salaries for teachers, the rising tide will lift other salaries as well.  Problem is you raise the salary of a weak teacher and you get a better paid weak teacher not a better teacher.

Another hunk of the money is going to kindergarten and early childhood education.   Those benefits won’t be seen until the children get older and move up the grade levels.  This year Maryland is sending reading coaches into the schools to improve the teaching of reading.  This tactic was used in Mississippi for Dr. Wright’s original miracle.  MSDE will be asking the ’27 legislature for money to add math coaches.  

And finally, the best method of all when your current measures aren’t showing progress, change the measuring stick. Sure, enough Maryland will be ditching the MCAP tests for a new batch of tests.  Let’s hope these tests can measure better results.

What's the standard for discrimination of kids with disabilities?

 What’s the standard for discrimination of kids with disabilities?

Children with disabilities have The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act to protect them from discrimination.  But what if the bar to succeed with charges of discrimination is so high that it is not likely to be reached.

That was exactly the case with a student in Minnesota with a rare and severe form of epilepsy.  Because most of these seizures occur in the morning, the student requested an afternoon instructional schedule.   The school district said that was too big an accommodation for it to make.  The student sued for discrimination under the ADA and Section 504.  The district court denied the claim.   The Eighth Circuit later supported the lower court, since it believed the family had not proven that the school district acted “in bad faith or gross misjudgment”.   This standard is a higher standard than generally used in discrimination cases.  It is also a very difficult standard for a plaintiff to prove.

Surprisingly, the Supreme Court has now ruled 9-0 that this different, higher standard, could not be applied.   Instead, the Court said that the usual standard “deliberate indifference” needed to be applied as it is in most discrimination cases. This is the second time since 2023 that the Court has unanimously supported the civil rights of children with disabilities.  

The decisions of these two cases are remarkable because the Court has generally been divided on most decisions in recent years.   Advocates for children with disabilities are pleased with the decision.   However, the decision only lowers the standard for redress, it does not decide the case and the child’s family now needs to return to the lower court for redress.

It has been FIFTY years since the fight for kids with disabilities won its first milestone.  Fifty years later battles are still being fought.

 

One tenth of one percent

 One Tenth of one Percent

Baltimore County public schools serve 16,000 children with special needs.  As a result of many concerns expressed by families regarding the quality of those services, the U.S. Department of Education’s Inspector General issued a report that based on their investigation, all is well in Baltimore County.

How did they come to that conclusion?  Of the 16,000 children being served, the Inspector General examined 25 IEP’s. Yes, that is correct, .001 percent.   These were IEPs during the 24-25 school year.  Baltimore County was very pleased with the findings.  Advocates and parent groups not so much. During this same period of time, 53 formal complaints regarding failure to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) were filed by Baltimore County parents with the State Department of Education.  Because of the randomness of the 25 IEP’s selected the report acknowledged that its findings were not representational of the services provided to kids with disabilities in Baltimore County.   Researchers in education say that in order for the findings to be representational of what the system is doing, at least 15% of the children receiving service would need to be included.  

Attorneys who have represented families and children with disabilities were incredulous with the findings.  One attorney said that, at the present time, she herself is representing 50 families whose children are not receiving the services they are required to receive. 

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a nationwide advocacy group for children with disabilities, said last month that the US Department of Education special education oversight has lowered its standards over the last two years.  Onsite special education monitoring has been reduced from 10 states per year to only 1 or 2 in 2025 and 2026.  The organization has said the Department of Ed is no longer doing it core duty to ensure compliance with IDEA.

Parental complaints are filed with the State Department of Education if the local school district is not doing its job.  What if the State Department of Ed doesn’t do its job?  That leaves the foxes in charge of the hen house .

What else should a teacher be expected to do?

 What’s a Teacher to do?

Anne Arundel County Public Schools recently made the decision that for young children who are not yet potty trained, teachers must participate in the training.   Starting this fall, teachers who work with preK and kindergarten age kids will be expected to help children put on underwear, change diapers and pull-ups.  They will also be required to put children on and off the toilet, use a changing table and cleanse the child afterwards.  The school board adopted this policy because of a growing number of children who are coming to school without being potty trained.  In the past, non- disabled children who were not potty trained could be turned away. 

Teaching assistants are saying that they expect this work to fall to them.  But many classrooms do not have assistants.  Teachers have said this activity is not within their sphere of teaching.  The superintendent has said that he understands he may lose educators over this issue.  Children are also coming to school without other basic foundational skills.  There are young children who do not know how to use a fork or a spoon.  Anne Arundel County schools do not know how many children are going to need this assistance. But a national survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that more than half of educators said their students found potty training and independent toilet use more challenging.  Some school districts are even writing curriculum on toileting.

Most districts in Maryland have guidelines for helping teachers deal with accidents, but stop short of full on potty training.   Many teachers are attributing the lack of these skills to the pandemic when families basically stayed within themselves and didn’t expect children meet community standards.  Some of the school districts require parents to come to school if a child is consistently having accidents to help the child clean up. 

Some parents have actually “washed their hands” of the situation (no pun intended) and say they have given up and the school needs to address the issue.  The teachers union is STRONGLY against the policy and acknowledges that many classrooms do not have attached bathrooms.  One teacher wrote to the Board and said, “ any adult who has had to change a standing child with a bowel movement knows how incredibly difficult this can be to do so safely, effectively and with dignity”. In spite of over  50 people showing up at the Board meeting to voice their feelings against the policy, it was passed unanimously.

The question is simply where do the responsibilities of parenting end and where do the responsibilities of teaching begin. How many parenting tasks are going to be passed on to teachers? Teachers are expected to get kids to grade level skills AND potty train.  And people ask why teachers are leaving the profession.

 

Promises made, Still not kept

 Promises Made, And Never Kept

In 1975, President Ford signed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA),   This Act morphed into the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).  In both pieces of legislation, the Federal government was supposed to contribute 40% of the cost for providing these many new services.   Never Happened!  In the early years, the states and local systems received about 6% of the cost.   Recently, that number has risen to almost 10%, still a far cry from the promise made in the legislation.

How much does it really cost to provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to a child with a disability.   Does it matter what the child’s disability is?  Does it matter the intensity of the service the child is receiving.  Basically, we don’t know.  The last review of cost was done twenty-two years ago.  At that time the average cost was $12,639 per pupil.  There was no differentiation as to disability or level of service.  There is also no mention of what it costs to educate a plain child.

During the 2024-25 and 2025-2026 school years, a 5.6 million dollar pilot study was done to attempt to discover what today's costs are.  

The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has requested funds from the Department of Budget and Management to move ahead with the full study during the 2026-27 school year.  The plan is to include 1,500 school districts, and approximately 3000 schools.  Roughly 10,000 children with disabilities will be included, as well as 2,000 plain students.  The expectation is that the results will be available for budget purposes in the 2027-28 school year.  

The Department of Education knows the amount of federal funds districts are receiving.  What it doesn’t know is what is the actual cost of a free and appropriate public education. Given that we don't know the full and actual cost, it is difficult to determine what percentage of the full costs, the feds are paying. Funds for the study were almost eliminated mid-process.  Now it is on again.

Will we learn enough to keep the promise made so many years ago, or just learn more about what we are not doing.

Not in my backyard!

 Developmentally Disabled People Don’t Belong in the Community

The U.S. Department of Justice has taken a new position advising that states have no legal obligation to serve people with disabilities in the community.  This position upends a 27-year old Olmstead Supreme Court decision on the rights of people with disabilities.  That decision found that “states are required to provide community-based treatment for persons with mental disabilities” provided that certain conditions are met.  Both Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act “require states to treat mentally disabled patients in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs”

The new position of the Department of Justice does not and cannot alter the law.  But it will certainly alter the way the federal government enforces those laws.  This decision alters the way the federal government has interpreted these laws for the last 50 years.  This change in policy is consistent with the transfer of the Office Civil Rights under the Department of Education to be moved to the Department of Justice.  Both have the effect of reducing the enforcement of the rights of people with disabilities.  The expectation is that the Justice Department and Health and Human Services will amend their regulations for enforcement of Section 504 and ADA to align with this new interpretation of the law.  States will feel free to return to the old institutionalization of people who are disabled.  

The American Association of People with Disabilities has warned, “the Office of Legal Counsel is incorrect in its interpretation and its assumptions about what Congress intended.  But the fact that their conclusion is unjustified and incorrect doesn’t change the fact that they will seek to use said interpretation to hurt disabled people, lock us away, end our autonomy over our lives, and in many cases, end our lives together”.

The feds can’t change the law. This opinion will change the enforcement of the law. How good are laws that are not enforced?  States would be advised to continue to obey the law.  Folks with disabilities have been put on notice that if the states don’t obey the law, they can’t look to their federal government for redress.

Is college still worth the cost?

 Is college still worth the cost?

In many instances taxpayers are helping to finance the cost of higher education.  The US Department of Education thinks that assistance should only go to students in programs where the degree will lead to a higher salary otherwise the degree is not worth the investment.  Under proposed regulations programs that do not meet earnings benchmarks could lose access to federal loan programs.

This proposal would mean that programs in theology, the arts, museum studies and possibly even teacher ed programs would be at risk.   For that matter, some of the liberal arts programs like psychology, criminal justice and mass communication don’t deliver much in the way of dollars upon graduation either.

In the dark ages the common belief was it made no sense to educate women because they were going to marry, have babies and drop out of the workforce.  The more enlightened folks argued that an educated mom would be a better mom for all those babies.  We know how that argument ended up.

In the early years of higher ed, only the wealthy went to college to study and learn, not to earn.   Those who needed to earn went to trade schools or in the field of education “normal” schools.  Some of that notion may be returning because with higher tuitions, many young people are skipping higher ed and going to trade schools.  They too are examining whether the cost of tuition and debt is worth the economic outcome.  Higher education enrollments are declining.

For decades colleges justified themselves by marketing their programs as the pathway to higher incomes.  

The question before us is that the main reason to support young people in higher education.  Is the value of higher ed measured only in dollar return on the investment.  Is economic value the best measure of educational value?  Do we need a well-educated populace to sustain our democracy?   Like those babies of well-educated moms, are we all better off with more well educated folk even if the dollar return on investment is not that great?

Will anyone notice before it's too late?

 Is anybody there? Does anybody care?

The Trump administration his moving full force to dismantle the US Office of Education.  Now Secretary McMahon is telling folks the new plan will be better.  Advocates for people with disabilities aren’t buying the story.

First of all the Office for Civil Rights within the Education Department is being shut down and shifted to the Department of Justice.  The Department has laid off the attorneys in the Office of Civil Rights.  This year over 9000 complaints have been filed.   Well over 7000 of these were resolved by simply dismissing them.  The Department has also closed 7 of the 12 regional offices.  Families can still complain to their state offices but it is usually the state departments of education against whom the complaints are made.

The law that established the Department of Education says that the Department is responsible for overseeing and funding the education of children with disabilities.  The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) also gives that responsibility to the Department of Education. 

Additionally, McMahon, has moved the program and funding issues regarding children with disabilities to Health and Human Services.  It has taken years for advocates to move the education of kids with disabilities to a psychological and instructional model, not a medical one.  Now moving programs to a department focusing on health is a step backward.  

 No one in the Trump administration has consulted Congress on the changes. Even though many see the moves as a violation of the two major laws.  Even Democrats in Congress are barely noticing.  The thing is very few folks, other than institutional advocates will even pay much attention to these changes which explains why McMahon can get away with it. And, of course, as a good sycophant she has Trumps full support.

Is anybody there?  Does anybody care?   Doesn’t seem so and then it will be too late.

How much is it worth for the cure?

 How much is it worth to cure your child of autism?

How about $436 a minute or $30,500 a day?  Chances are your insurance isn’t going to cover it. Families with children on the autism spectrum are looking for help.  Many times, the places or services that can help have long waiting lists.

There are some national organizations that can provide service right away. You might want to take a second or third look before you buy.  The service is costly and the providers will come right into your home.  Usually, the providers offer immediate service and promise that the service will be at no cost to you because your insurance will cover the cost.  These services are almost always out of network so there is no cap or oversight of the costs. 

One such organization is Perfect Child.  It provides in-home service with a promise that your insurance will cover the service.  The therapy is usually offered by people called behavior technicians.  In many states, these people have little more than a high school diploma.  Their wages are low, roughly around $20 an hour.  And, of course, they need to be supervised by someone with an actual license and whose fees are much higher.  The family pays the hourly rate for both.  One example of the service, a behavioral technician spent 70 minutes with a child working on a puzzle and playing with educational toys.  The insurance company was billed $15,200 for the technician and another $15,300 for the supervision.  A total of $436 a minute.  The insurance company denied the claim.  Ultimately the family was billed $911,400 for services denied by their medical insurance provider.   Perfect Child, the company doing the billing, kept encouraging the family to appeal to their insurance company.  

Insurers ask for proof of service.  Providers say they have sent the proof but nothing arrives.  In some instances, families have been sued by the fraudulent providers for bills for the fraudulent services.

Promising families the sky who are looking to provide the very best for their children are ripe for picking. These fraudulent services make promises that are very appealing. The "cure rate" of these organizations is very low and when the insurance isn't paid, no plan of care is offered. How much is it worth to cure your child of autism?

And now for the latest in classroom management

 There are better ways to quiet a class

A federal lawsuit was just filed.  The suit alleges that a teacher of children with significant cognitive disabilities gave her class over-the-counter melatonin.  A whistleblower at Maiden Choice Elementary school in Baltimore County alerted a parent that the teacher and her aides were giving the kids melatonin, an OTC hormone that is designed to promote sleep. Significantly disabled students were noticed with heads down on their desks sleeping!!  At this point no criminal charges have been filed.  Initially, the parent was told that the accused teacher was placed on leave and that “no further actions were taken”.   Since that time, the County has said the teacher no longer works for Baltimore County schools.  It is unclear whether the teacher was terminated by the County or resigned herself.

The suit was first filed in State court but because the basis of the suit is the 14^th amendment to the US Constitution, the case was transferred to federal court.  The lawsuit is against the teacher, the school principal, and Baltimore County Public Schools.  The lawsuit does say that Baltimore County investigated the situation but does not say what the result of that investigation was.  Staff at Maiden Choice are mandated by law to report any suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services.  It is not clear if any staff made such a report.

Baltimore County is arguing that the family has no claim against the principal or the County schools because they never engaged in the behavior for which the teacher is accused.  The other question is whether the teacher’s actions were a crime.  Baltimore County State’s Attorney has indicated he is not sure what charges may apply for any criminal behavior on the part of the teacher based on what he knew about the case.  The police department is also saying it was not aware of the alleged incidents.  Since the alleged behavior on the part of the teacher happened in 2024, the statue of limitation would have expired.  

With all of the concerns, and with no one taking responsibility, the overriding question is “didn’t anyone notice a class of sleeping children in the middle of the day”.  There are better ways to quiet a class.  Is it too much to expect someone noticing?

Just Isn't Fair

 Just isn’t fair!

My kid took the SAT’s and did the best she could, after all she is in AP classes.  Then my daughter told me that there were all these kids who had all this extra time.  Just isn’t fair.

So what is going on?  Children with a wide variety of disabilities are being allowed the accommodation of extra time on the ACT and SAT tests that measure the chances of students getting into top colleges and/or getting scholarship money.  The accommodations vary and can be time and a half or even double time.  Some accommodations allow the student to take the test in a separate room so he/she has anxiety issues.  The percentage of students having special accommodations has risen to about 7% of test takers.  Doesn’t giving kids with disabilities extra time or other accommodations actually level the playing field so that these students have the same opportunities as students without disabilities?  Well that depends.

Some families are saying that “disabilities” can be purchased from private psychologists who, for a handsome fee, will find that disability which will yield the accommodation.  Some of the tactics include getting a gastroenterologist to support unlimited bathroom breaks.  Another tactic is getting teachers to write letters attesting to the student’s anxiety or other needs for special treatment. Getting the medical tests can cost families from $2,000-$10,000, so they are only available to families with some serious discretionary funds since the tests are not generally covered by insurance.  Colleges don’t know which students got extra time or other accommodations to take those tests.

The accommodations are still meant to level the playing field for students with real life disabilities.  However, now that families with money and access are able to tilt that playing field is that abuse?

Psychologists are saying they get significant push back from families if, after testing, they report they find no evidence of the need for any accommodation on the tests.  It is a strange universe where a student functions really well on psychological testing and the parents are angry at the tester?  Not finishing the SAT or ACT in the allowed time is not a disability.

It just isn’t fair!

History does matter

 History does matter

This past weekend, May 17, 1954, was the 72^nd anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision, Brown v. the Board of Education.   That decision overturned the 1896 decision of Plessy v. Ferugson, which argued that separate could be equal.   Linda Brown was an African American child whose separate school was decidedly not equal to her neighborhood white school.  On that day, the Supreme Court handed down an unanimous decision that separate is decidedly not equal.  The case for Linda Brown was argued by Thurgood Marshal who later became a Supreme Court justice himself and for whom the Baltimore airport is named. A year later, the Court issued another decree saying separate schools should end with all “deliberate speed”.  We know how that goes.

But what does all of that have to do with serving kids with special needs.  Turns out quite a bit.  The Brown decision relied on the 14^th amendment to the US Constitution. One the many things covered by that amendment is the principle that if a state chooses to provide a service to one group of its citizens it must also provide that same service to all citizens in that group.  In the early ‘60’s, the public schools of the various states provided universal education to the plain students in their jurisdictions.  However, those same services were not being provided to children with disabilities.  In fact, these students were actually excluded from school.  Using the principles of both the Brown Decision and the 14^thAmendment, advocates argued that since states were choosing to provide an education for some of its children, those same states must, therefore, provide an education for all of its children.  Out of that advocacy, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was born in 1965, 72 years after the Brown decision.  EHA later became the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).

While many families may still argue that their children are not receiving the most appropriate education for their children, we are no longer arguing whether or not those children may come to school at all. History does matter.  Learn your history and you make a better today and tomorrow.

 

Too Young to Fail

 Too young to fail

 

Guidance from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) says that children should not be removed from a diploma program until the final semester of the senior year.  The purpose of this guidance is to give students every chance possible to earn a high school diploma.  Isn’t that wonderful?  

Well not exactly.  The high school diploma program is supposed to prepare student for career or college.   In fact, the curriculum mainly prepares kids for college.  There isn’t much need for algebra 2 or a high school foreign language unless you are going to college.  And what about science?  Science is interesting but if the student is not going on to college just how much science is useful in high school.

Some school districts are moving kids out of diploma tracking courses very early.  Some as early as elementary school!  Is that horrible?  If you worship at the altar of rigor and academic learning, such behavior is blasphemy. 

However, if you believe as the first educators did, that education should prepare you for your life as an adult; this change makes good sense.  So back in the very olden days, 1700 and 1800’s kids went to school to learn to do what their parents did or what they would do.  There were lots of bad things about that plan because it certainly didn’t lead to kids moving up socio-economically.  

What is the point of modifying academic content to the point that it is accessible to children with significant learning challenges?  Sure, The Tale of Two Cities can be rewritten on the second grade level but when you do that it is no longer the Tale of Two Cities.

Wouldn’t it be a better use of these students’ time to teach about money, internet safety, how the government in a democracy is supposed to work?  Failure to get a high school diploma may not be failure at all. A certificate works much the same as diploma for almost all things.  Maybe it’s just common sense useful education. Wouldn’t it be nice if that’s what we all got.

 

Did you even notice?

 Did you even notice?

Probably not.  Not likely to be on folk’s radar.  Last week, the Secretary for the federal Department of Education announced that she was seeking a way to move the Office of Special Education out of the Department of Education.  Actually she is planning to break up the office and move the pieces and parts to other federal departments.  She has been trying to do this for quite some time and then those pesky child advocates make a fuss and she backs down.

The President is getting annoyed so she is going to try again.  Why does it matter if the Office of Special Ed is no more?  During the 24-25 school year there were 370 hearings at the Maryland State Department of Education regarding the delivery of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).  The vast majority of the cases are decided in favor of the school district.  When families lose they have one of two choices.  They can appeal their case to a federal or state court.  That’s expensive and decisions can take 6-10 months.  During that time the family either pays for the education it wants for their child or the child remains  in the placement that the family found unacceptable.  Another avenue of appeal is the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.  That office is charged with ensuring that the State Departments of Education uphold the letter of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  The cost for that appeal is only time and the cost of a certified letter.

Last year over 9,000 cases involving children with disabilities were filed with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).   The number of lawyers handling these cases at OCR has been reduced by more than half and more terminations are on the way.   Even before the huge reduction in staff, families waited months for a response.  Now with the staff reductions, over 90% of the appeals are dismissed without being heard, in favor of the school district.

Children with disabilities have legally guaranteed rights.  Who is going to enforce those rights?  Think about it, lots of folks disobey the speed limit on the beltway.  How many more would do that if there were no law enforcement?  Without law enforcement there is going to be lots of “speeding” past the rights of children with disabilities.  Might be a good idea to pay a bit more attention to what is happening at the US Department of Education and the Office of Special Education and Rehab Services.

 

Once again, the whipping boy

 Once Again, the Whipping Boy

The Maryland State Department of Education has enlisted the services of the American Institutes for Research (AIRS), Afton Partners, and UPD Consulting to investigate the “true” cost of special education to the local school districts.  At issue is the question of whether State funding for special education should increase.  The kick off to the research is an online questionnaire that takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.  The intro information states that the input of non-public special ed administrators is welcome and encouraged.  Which is odd since none of the questions is designed for non-public input.

The questionnaire is obviously slanted to welcome concerns about the high cost of non-public tuition to the local districts.  This point is particularly interesting since the State reimburses the local districts up to 50% of the cost of the non-public tuition.  The reimbursement level often means it actually costs less for the school district to send a child to a non-public school than it does to serve the child in the public setting.

The requirement of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future that all children have pre-K at no cost to the family also raises the stakes.   State and federal law has required special ed services for kids with disabilities from birth through the age of 20, but those early childhood services have often been some speech or OT.  Full pre-k for kids with disabilities that are identified at a very early age means that the disabilities will be more severe.  

The biggest cost in education is staff salaries.  Once again, the Blueprint is increasing costs. Starting teacher salaries are scheduled to be $60,000 beginning on July 1, 2026.  School districts are struggling to meet that requirement.  Since special ed classes are required to be smaller in size personnel costs will go up.  As will the cost of the co-teaching model that puts a special ed teacher and a general ed teacher in the same classroom.

The results of the study will be interesting.  My bet is the results will show that educating all children regardless of ability level will, once again, be a reason to put the blame on special education.

 

What's the Scam on the treatment of autism?

 What’s the scam on treatment of autism?

Want to make some quick bucks fast?  Seems to be pretty easy.  First step, find some folks who qualify for Medicaid.  Then screen them to see if they have a child (ren) who may be on the autism spectrum. If not, get a quick dx and you are on the way. Now you are in sight of that pot of gold.

Autism treatment is funded by Medicaid.  The treatment does not need to be provided by a licensed professional.   Well the treatment folks are supposed to be qualified professionals but states aren’t checking.  A large chunk of the costs associated with Medicaid are reimbursed to the states by the federal government so states are not incentivized to be all that diligent in checking credentials.  In Minnesota there was a man who set up a fly-by-night autism center claiming to provide 1 on 1 therapy. He allegedly said he worked with medical professionals.  He also employed his teenage relatives with no formal education in the field.  He raked in six million dollars before he was caught.  

Maine Medicaid pays for clinical specialists to work with children with autism in their homes.  Yet when the state inspector general (IG) investigated, she found that roughly half the families who were collecting for the service did not even have a child with the autism diagnosis.  

A center in Colorado billed Medicaid for treatment provided by staff with no professional credentials.   Some of the “treatments” for which Medicaid was billed included playing games, napping, lunch and time at a water park water slide.  Some children received as much as $15,470 per month for the “treatments”.

Fraudsters will always be around to try to game the system, whatever that system is. Parents of kids on the spectrum are looking for help and a possible cure so they are easy victims. One would think that states would realize, it’s all taxpayer dollars, just coming from another pocket and do a better job of monitoring.  Every Medicaid dollar that goes towards a scam is a dollar not available for real help for kids and their families.

 

Most Disabled Kids get the shortest straw

 Most Disabled get the Shortest Straw

Federal and State law require that children with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate education.   When a school district does not have the resources or the skill set to provide that education, it must purchase the education from a Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) approved non-public special education school.  Each year, the MSDE approves the daily tuition rate for those schools down to the very exact cent.

Costs for heating and air have gone up.  Costs for delivery of all things cost more.  Health care costs have risen.  Staff hope for some salary increase to cover the cost of inflation.  Public school budgets are rising between 4-6%.  Inflation this past December was at 2.7%.  It is now 3.3%.  

The Governor who praised himself as the education Governor, has chosen to FREEZE the tuition for non-public special education schools for the 26-27 school year.  These schools serve the most-disabled kids, yet the Governor has chosen to freeze any increase for the cost of their education.

Under Maryland law, the State must maintain fiscal effort for education.  Consequently, every Governor gets to say he has provided more money for education than any other governor.  It’s the law but the governor gets to brag about that.

Not so for the most disabled children that our State serves. Children don't get to attend a non-public special ed school unless the district says it can't provide the appropriate education.   Yet tuition for these kids doesn’t count as education.  Their teachers are not unionized so their teachers get a raise only at the benevolence of the Governor.  This year- not happening.

Long ago I was told that the pigs first to the trough get the most money.  Our kids have significant disabilities.  By the time they get to the trough, most of the food is gone.

Mississippi Miracle coming to MD

 Mississippi Miracle not so Miraculous

 

Remember the Mississippi Miracle of 2013? Through this heavily invested Science of Reading program, Mississippi 4^th graders moved from 49^th in the nation to the top 10!  The program included coaches in the public schools and every elementary school being on board.  Mississippi is notoriously a poor state.  If Mississippi could achieve this miracle why couldn’t other states.  Indeed, many other southern states jumped on Board.

Cathy Wright was the Mississippi State Superintendent at the time.   Now she is the State Superintendent in Maryland and seeks to repeat the miracle here.  She is pushing for funding.

The Miracle requires that ALL elementary teachers teach reading via the Science of Reading, a program that leans heavily into phonics.  It also employs coaches to go into classrooms to make sure teachers are “doing it correctly”.  Additionally, children who are not successful are required to repeat the 3^rdgrade. In Maryland, parents will have an option of children going onto 4th grade with additional tutoring and summer school.  Not clear what happens if the Science of Reading still isn't working. 

The big question is:  Is reading the art of translating the written letters on paper into sounds that make up words?  Or is reading the art of getting meaning and comprehension from those words.  

Turns out the Miracle may not be so miraculous after all.  Everyone has heard the aphorism, “First we learn to read; then we read to learn.”  Turns out the Science of Reading is not so great on the second part.  While it was wonderful that 4^th grade scores rose; 8^th grade scores did not.  In fact, the scores of 8^th graders in 2021 were actually slightly lower than 8^th grade scores before the Miracle.

Then there is also the Miracle by Manipulation.  Since 3^rd graders who didn’t make the grade, stayed in the 3^rd grade, the 4^th graders who were measured were the successful kids.  The others had been left behind in more ways than one.

Dr. Wright is hard at work convincing the State Board and the legislature that she can transport that Miracle to Maryland.  Hope someone is looking to see just how long lasting that Miracle is.

Are schools safe for kids?

 And you thought school was safe?

An aide in the DC public schools has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge for putting hot sauce in the mouth of a nine-year old non-verbal child on the autism spectrum because “he deserved it”.  Under an agreement, the D.C. Superior Court judge could dismiss the charge if Davis stays out of trouble and completes community service before her July 22 court sentencing.  If that happens her record will be cleansed and there will be no record of her having committed the behavior.

A teacher who saw the behavior reported it to the principal who reported the situation to Child Protective Services.  At the present time the District refuses to report on the employment status of the aide.  There is no record of her having been terminated or disciplined.  If her court record is expunged she will be free of any indication that this behavior occurred.

The incident comes in the wake of a broader investigation into the delivery of special education services by DC public schools.  The investigation began last year before the demolition of U.S Office of Education by the current administration.  So there is no update on where the investigation is heading.

The incident happened on September 11.  The mother’s attorney has informed the District of the mother’s intent to sue if the two sides cannot negotiate a settlement to the family’s civil battery claim.

The school has said it has offered “support” to the child and the family, although it is not clear exactly what that support is.  The mom has previously reported her child had come home with scratches and bruises in recent weeks.   The school told her that “probably” happened on the bus ride but there was no investigation.  Six months later, the child is still refusing to go to school and the District has not transferred him to another school.

With a clean record, no District discipline, one cannot help but wonder where the perpetrator will show up next. Just how badly do we need aides in schools?

What causes autism? Tylenol?

 Who speaks for autism?

RFK Jr has overhauled the federal autism panel.   Its job is to look at science and make recommendations for the treatment and prevention of autism.  Kennedy Jr. fired all of the members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)and appointed his own Committee.  Of the twenty-one members of the Committee, none has ever served before.  The new committee is made up of folks who have linked autism to vaccines or have advocated for treatments that lack evidence.  None of the members has any prominence within the scientific community.  They will be making recommendations for all of us.

The Autism Science Foundation and the Coalition of Autism Scientists, groups making up more than 300 researchers in the field are behind an effort to establish an Independent Autism Coordinating Committee (I-ACC).  The I-ACC will be modeled after the federal IACC, bringing together scientific experts and stakeholders in the community to create a strategic plan for autism research to guide non-governmental research funders.  Meetings will be held on the same schedule as the IACC so that the new group can responds quickly to any recommendations that are not backed by science.  The new 12-member group includes former directors of the National Institute of Mental Health and past chairs of the federal IACC.  All respected scientists, respected by their peers.

The first meeting of the newly formed group will be on March 19, the same day as the federal IACC.  Looks like the public is in for dueling notions on the causes and prevention of autism.  

One thing we can be fairly sure of is that none of it has anything to do with Tylenol.

 

Easy Does it

 Easy Does it

Your child got an A in a course?  No big deal.  In the last three decades the ease of getting an A has, well, gotten easier.  A failing grade has become far less common.

One would think that better grades means higher achievement.  Sorry, that isn’t so.  Student achievement on tests like the ACT and the NAEP has gone down as school grades have gone up.

Maybe it’s not so bad that grades are going up.  Boosting a kid’s self-concept is a good thing.  Not so, says a study that is co-authored by researchers from the University of Maryland and Harvard Grad School of Education.  Students who experienced more lenient grading were less likely to do well in subsequent courses, were less likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college.   Over the course of their lifetimes, they earned less money.

The researchers examined students  in both Maryland and Los Angeles.  The Los Angeles cohort provided data on almost a million students.  The population was about 70% Hispanic and failing grades were common.  The Maryland cohort included 250,000 of a more racially diverse population.  Graduation rates exceeded 90%

Researchers examined students whose teachers were lenient graders.  The lenient graders were defined as teachers who gave high grades to students but whose students did poorly on standardized tests.  

Examination of the outcomes for these students showed that in both cohorts showed no upside and actually damaged student chances of future success, even into the workplace.

The study does not answer the question of why grade inflation hurts kids, it just reports the data.  But one can imagine that students who get high grades that were not earned learn that they do not need to work hard to achieve success.  And as they haven’t learned the skill sets necessary to achieve in subsequent coursework.  Future course grades will deflate any confidence that A grade offered.  

It’s really easy to blame teachers on this one.  But digging deeper researchers found that teachers felt strong pressure from administrators to offer “equitable grading”.  This policy forbids zeros, allows for unlimited retakes and eliminates penalties for late work.

While it’s true that low grades are hardly inspiring for kids; this early evidence suggests inflated grades are doing them any favor either.  

Next time your kid comes home with an A, check it out.

Leftover Kids

 Leftover Kids

 

What do you do with kids for whom parents can’t care?  And then what do you do with them if no one else wants them either?  They are just leftover kids.  Folks fight for kids to be born, but after they are here it’s another story.

This past year, four foster kids under five were sent to live in a hotel, no one could care for them. This past November, the practice of housing kids in hotels while the Department of Human Services (DHS) looked for a bed was stopped after a teenaged girl committed suicide.  Kids stay in psychiatric hospitals for months after they are well enough to leave, but they have no place to go.  Seventy-five percent of foster children are STILL not  in a permanent placement after a year.  Children tend to be moved every 161 days!  Only 24% of children in foster care arrive in a permanent placement within a year. And we wonder why they have attachment disorders.  

The percentage of kids in out-of-home placements increased by 7.5% year over year 2024-2025.  There is a big push to reunite children with biological families.  In 2025, 13% of those children who were reunited, were once again removed from the family.  It isn’t clear how many more of those children would have been removed yet again if there were places to put them.

Legislative hearings are examining how the billions of dollars spent on these services are spent.  Over 70% of those dollars are federal dollars, and as we have seen these dollars can be cut on the whim of the President.  Where is Maryland’s commitment to these children?

The members of the legislature are looking at all those dollars.  Not a single child was brought to testify before the august body. These are kids' lives that are being impacted.  They are more than just dollar signs.  Sometime, we need to begin to realize that these dollars are children’s lives.  And ultimately, our lives as well, as these kids reach 18 and are dropped into the community ill-prepared for life as adults.  But that’s what happens when you are just a leftover kid.

 

 

Tell me again-why college?

 Tell me again why college?

Maryland has launched a big push for college and career readiness.  They really mean college readiness.  That’s easy to see by the courses they require to get a diploma for all students. For many kids with disabilities, traditional academic degrees are not an option.  The number of eighteen year olds in our country is way down.  Colleges and universities need to make their budgets work so they have started offering “ego” degrees.  Your kid gets to go to a big name school, buy the sweatshirt, live in the dorms and you get to pay the full tuition and get bragging rights to say your kid is away at the “University of Big Name”.  The students learn “life skills”, get to  live in the dorms with a counselor and complain about the dining hall food, just like their contemporaries.  When they finish the two-year program they leave with a certificate which will qualify them to do what?

Some students with disabilities can do the traditional academic work.  They can spend 4-5 years studying for an undergraduate degree in psychology, criminal justice, creative writing or maybe family and consumer sciences.  If they complete the program, they will graduate with a bachelor’s degree and a chunk of student debt.  And they will be qualified to do exactly which job?

Then there is the real world.  Over 70% of US households hire people to do construction and maintenance work in their homes.  There is a huge shortage of such workers.  In our economy where there is shortage, high prices follow.  Back in the 1800’s, when disease linked to sanitation was on the rise, plumbers were honored as high or higher than physicians.  Have you hired a plumber recently? They are still among the highest paid trades.  

In the 1900’s tradespeople were so proud of their work that they often signed their names.  In the early 20^th century, vocational education teachers needed 5 years in the trade and a 90-hour course in how to teach kids.  Then big push academics switched the expectations to require a bachelor’s degree and the entire program became less hands on and more eyes on books.  

There is a huge shortage of skilled trades people.  Did I mention shortages drive up wages?  Instead of algebra 2, we should require personal finance and financial business skills and maybe young adults wouldn’t be so easy to fleece.  We should be teaching written communication skills in an era when we communicate  in code by text.  And most of all, we should be teaching the trades.  Contractors are begging for trained staff.  Homeowners are always on the search for a dependable skilled home maintenance person.  Rewards start easily in the upper five figures and no student debt.

Tell me again why we all need to go to college?

Put your money where your values are!

 Put your money where your values are!

Maryland has a 1.4 billion dollar deficit.  So, some programs will need to be cut.  And, even with the deficit, some programs are getting an increase.  Currently there are 4,000 adults with disabilities who qualify for adult services but who are not receiving those services because there is no money.  If there are so many people waiting for service, why is the Governor proposing to cut the funds for those services even more. 

 In the budget presented to the legislature, the Governor is proposing a cut of 150 million to disability services. Currently it appears that the most significant cuts will be for those individuals with the most severe disabilities.  In the 2025 budget, Governor Moore proposed a 200 million dollar cut, but advocates were able to convince the legislature to restore about 97% of those cuts.  However, the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) lost a rate increase for providers.  These are individuals who care for the most vulnerable in our population.  We all get very angry when there is a case of a person with disabilities not receiving the attention and care he/she needs and becomes injured.  Everyone jumps and shouts, including members of the legislature, about how awful it is. It is all well and good after the injury to complain about the agency not doing its job.  But what is the job of the legislature to provide the funds to secure the appropriate adequately paid staff.

Support for DDA funding is bipartisan but Republicans are also using the full funding of DDA as a reason to cut the funding for the Blueprint for Education.  The Governor also wants to increase the per pupil state aide to school districts from around $9,500 per student to around $11,500 per student to help compensate school districts for the loss of funds due to decreased enrollment.  If schools are dealing with fewer kids, why do they need more money? And why is DDA with a waiting list that is YEARS long being cut when they have MORE people needing service?  And if members of the legislature all agree that serving these very vulnerable citizens is a top priority, how does that value align with cutting funds? Perhaps they talk big but need to put the money where they say their values are.