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When
the school doors open this year, 8-year-old Reid
Tutwiler will be where he hasn’t been on any
other opening day: in a public school where he is
making educational progress.
As
a child with autism, Reid has some special
challenges, and you’d think a compassionate
school system would make certain he gets the
education he needs.
But
to obtain educational services that work for him,
Reid’s parents had to conduct their own
research, challenge his placement by Henrico
County Public Schools, withdraw him and place him
in a private school where he made rapid and
significant progress, sue the school system to pay
for the services they should have provided in the
first place, go through a “due process
hearing” in which a Hearing Officer found that
the school system had not provided their child
with an appropriate education, and finally endure
defending themselves when the Henrico County
School Board refused to accept the Hearing
Officer’s decision and took the parents to court
at a taxpayer cost of hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
Reid
is one of the lucky ones. Not only did the trial
judge find that Henrico public schools tried to
force him into a program where he would not make
any more than minimal educational progress, but
Reid’s parents are two of the few who could jump
over the hurdles put in front of them. Most simply
give up or drop out of the system.
Not
only do parents face a battery of lawyers and
school system experts, but the courts have ruled
that a school official who lies under oath before
a Hearing Officer cannot be prosecuted for
perjury.
A
Senate subcommittee composed of state Senators
Benjamin Lambert, D-Richmond, Harry Blevins,
R-Chesapeake, and Frank Ruff, R-Clarksville, now
has an opportunity to level the playing field.
The
subcommittee soon will be considering a bill
patroned by Sen. Walter Stosch, R-Henrico, bill to
provide Tuition Assistance Grants of up to $10,000
a year for students with disabilities. Under the
bill, if a disabled student is not making
progress, a small portion of the taxpayer money
already being spent could be redirected to an
alternative licensed private placement, at the
parents’ choice.
Groups
like the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA)
have blocked the bill so far with claims that the
proposal would drain local school budgets and
force school systems to pay for huge private
tuitions.
Legislators
understandably do not want to destabilize local
school systems. But a look at what they are being
told demonstrates the difference between reality
and myth.
The
bill would drain school systems of funding. It
would not. According to Virginia Department of
Education reports, the average annual per pupil
cost for a Special Education student is well in
excess of $17,000. For some students, costs reach
nearly $30,000 per year. Taxpayers – and
legislators – are being asked to believe that a
$10,000-per-child tuition assistance grant will
cost more than the current $17,000 per child cost.
If
it were really about money, why did the VSBA also
reject a proposed grant of only $2,400 per pupil,
well below current costs?
New
local funds will be required to pay for a
student’s total tuition. Not true. Federal
regulations specifically state that local school
divisions are not required to pay for tuition if
“the parents elected to place the child in a
private school.” The Stosch bill simply helps
parents pay the bills and reduces school system
costs. It does not pay the entire bill.
Parents
of special education students already have
alternatives. Yes, but the odds are stacked
against parents. As we’ve seen from the Henrico
School Board case, parents challenge a school
system decision on an extraordinarily uneven
playing field in which school systems deal from a
position of absolute strength. When parents do
challenge a decision, it often ends up costing
school systems more in legal costs than in doing
the right thing in the first place. The Stosch
bill gives parents another option – creating an
easy way for both sides to avoid extended and
expensive legal battles.
School
systems will have to use federal funds for private
school students. The Stosch bill doesn’t
affect federal funding and certainly doesn’t add
additional requirements.
Parents
putting their children in private schools will
flood school systems with “due process”
complaints. Not possible. Under current law,
parents can use a “due process” complaint to
seek public funding of a private placement, but
the Stosch bill avoids this complicated and
expensive process – thereby reducing the number
of “due process” complaints.
The
bill violates federal law. Not true. Similar
laws already exist in other states.
The
reality is this: By and large, parents are
satisfied with the strong efforts made by the
public education system. Stosch’s bill aims
specifically at those who are not able to receive
an education in a system built on “one size fits
all.” Some students need an individualized
education and their parents deserve a chance to
provide it.
In
fact, more than 2,400 Virginia children are
already in private placements. The difference
between current practice and this proposal is that
Stosch would empower parents to make decisions
about their children. Current practice limits that
decision to local School Boards, and at full cost
– often more than $50,000 per child per year.
By
giving parents the right to choose alternatives
costing taxpayers a fraction of what they are
already paying for education – capping the
grants at $10,000 per child vs. an average $17,000
per student currently spent – the Stosch bill
saves taxpayer funds.
It
helps end divisive conflicts between parents and
school systems by giving parents another option.
And it provides an additional educational
alternative for children whose special needs
already give them greater challenges in life than
they deserve.
--
August 28, 2006
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