Regarding our Mar. 24 item on demands for accommodation of special-ed students, which has touched off a considerable discussion in comments, Warren Meyer at Coyote Blog makes the important point that special ed represents one of the few sectors in which the legal system has shown itself to be open to parental demands for school choice — unfortunately in a way that is far more expensive than ordinary school choice programs, since the amount of money that “follows the child” is left dangerously open-ended. Call it “school choice for legally savvy parents” (Mar. 29).
School choice, the special-ed way
Regarding our Mar. 24 item on demands for accommodation of special-ed students, which has touched off a considerable discussion in comments, Warren Meyer at Coyote Blog makes the important point that special ed represents one of the few sectors in which the legal system has shown itself to be open to parental demands for school […]
5 Comments
Since comments on the previous thread are now closed:
“The transportation alone to the sped school is $33,000. That’s (min) one highly-trained teacher already, for the cost of one kid’s van ride.”
Um, no, in a few areas of the country, that would cover THE SALARY (and non-salary costs today are usually about equal to the salary) of a straight-out-of-school teacher (bachelor’s degree). Most places, it wouldn’t even do that.
In short, as I said, running such a program is much more expensive than most people realize.
I have a son is special education. The school system selection process for their select high schools automatically eliminated him being considered. This in spite of the fact their own testing and teachers though one of the select schools would be best for him. Well I had to threaten due process hearing to get them to revisit the issue. Aside from their own lawyers saying their process violated the law, I was able to get my child into the school his teachers recommended in the first place. So dont always point fingers at the parents.
I do have to agree some of what you are saying in this posting is true.
Deoxy my friend, I appreciate your perspective on this — but I assure you, I know of what I speak, because these are numbers that I have openly discussed with the director of sped in my community. I know what my son’s sped coordinator makes — and she’s a very talented professional. It is what it is.
As a former “sped” school kid who didn’t belong there —but my LDs were undiagnosed by the school system …who were completely incompetent. Mind you, this is/was a highly funded upper-class educational system, that still retains many of the systemic failures that i faced in my high school years. Before sending me to a sped school they put me in sped classes. Where I had to reread the same books that i had read for leisure in middle school. This time, aloud in class, with PICTURES covering most pages, and text displayed in a senior-friendly 16 point font. Most of the kids in my classes spent half the day in vo-tech – learning mechanic skills. Needless to say, that didn’t last long. I was shuffled to an in district “sped” school maintained in a house (now closed) for kids that needed more attention than sped classes provided (this when i protested having to read far below my level). The indistrict school offered a bevy of curious peers…. the ex-gang members, the kleptomaniacs with a propensity to tattoo themselves (permanently) afterschool with hearts and flowers on their hands… I was allowed to leave when the metal head tried to tattoo “satan” into my arm with a wood burner during woodshop… I could go on, but if you’ve not been through the experience of the ineptitute of the public school system in dealing with students with learning disabilities you’ve got no right to comment. What next criticizing schools who install ramps for handicap students?!
Teri,
Sorry you had to go through that, but that’s just plain old incompetence, and it’s available at any price.
The objection here is the blank check given to people willing to work the system.
Those are different problems. Dealing with and commnting on one of them does not negate the need to deal with the other.