In a message dated 11/19/2001 11:35:26 AM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> In her last
> session as a state rep and chair of the House ed ctte, Rep. Becky Kelso...
> was able to shift financial burden for some district attorney costs to the
state...[as well as] administrative costs associated with due process
> hearings--transcripts, hearing rooms, administrative law judge fees, etc.
>
Thank you for sharing.
It is comforting to know that the legislature didn't adopt a bill proposed by
former Rep Kelso that would have stuck parents with the administrative costs
and the district's legal fees if the district prevailed in a due process
hearing, and that the legislature repealed the part of the law which
reimburses the district for some of its legal expenses.
It was also pointed out to me (by a lawyer on the list) that a parent's
attorney can get the district to pay for the parent's cost of legal
representation at the due process hearing if the parent prevails.
Kathy Kosnoff also noted that"...It is not unheard of for districts to spend
hundred of thousands of dollars on attorney costs fighting parents..."
The district routinely denies special education services if there is some
question about a child's eligibility for services, especially in cases where
the state doesn't reimburse the district for mandated services.
It has been my experience, and that of many other parents I've had contact
with through the NAACP, parents union and my campaign for the school board,
that the district administers a set of tests that assess instructional
effectiveness (academic achievement and cognitive ability). This is done to
determine if the district can bill the state for the services it would have
to provide. However, the district doesn't routinely screen for common
learning disorders.
The districts approach to the issue of special Ed services affects how
teachers evaluate the problems that their kids are having. There may be such
a thing as a teacher who does too good a job of individualized educational
planning, as far as the district is concerned. Why, if the teacher documents
a problem that points to a possible learning disability, the district could
get stuck with the cost of doing an evaluation, and of providing services.
The district is probably wasting a lot more money than it saves, especially
title one and compensatory money, by failing to accurately diagnose and solve
the problems that the schools can solve through educational interventions. A
lot of the kids who fall behind are labeled as low-ability learners. Too
many of the children who are allowed to fall behind end up being diagnosed as
having a behavioral-emotional disorders (the district can collect on that.
Doug Mann
Doug Mann for School Board web site:
<http://educationright.tripod.com
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