The Department of Education is proposing a major change in our special education regulations. If the proposed change is adopted, it would permit parents to pull their kids out of special education programs just by saying so. “I want my child removed from special ed.” That would do it. No ARD meeting necessary. No third-party review.
This is a bad idea.
It is a bad idea because what the parent wants is not always what is best for the child. Our laws recognize this reality. Parental rights, when it comes to education, are limited. Parents have a constitutionally protected right to put their kids in private schools, but they do not have the legal right to dictate what their children learn, what they are exposed to in school, or how the teacher operates in the classroom. Educational decisions about what is best for kids are traditionally left to the teachers and administrators who are trained to make those decisions.
But this proposed regulation turns that on its head.
The regulations we have had in place for a long time provide a “checks and balances” system that serves kids well. If the parent wants the child removed from special education services, the parent would request an ARD meeting where the matter would be discussed. Many times–probably most of the time, in fact–the ARD Committee will accommodate this request. But there are times when removal from special education services is short sighted and harmful to the student. In those cases, the ARD Committee can refuse the request. The parent can then file a complaint with T.E.A., seek mediation or a due process hearing to deal with this issue.
That way a neutral third-party gets involved and the dispute can be resolved in the best interests of the student.
Those of you who are clients of the Walsh, Anderson law firm will soon receive an email alert with more information about this issue. For all interested readers, we encourage you to take a look at the changes proposed to 34 CFR 300.300, as set out in the Federal Register on May 13, 2008. Get involved in this important issue.
This is an interesting representation in that it assumes the public educators are doing what’s “best” for the child and parents are not. Isn’t it the position as well as the common argument of your firm that the schools have absolutely no obligation to do what’s best, nor to even ensure a child makes progress at all, and that they must merely provide an open door to education?
Sure seems the best interests are better left to the parents under those circumstances.
Comment by Shrinking Violet — July 13, 2008 @ 11:12 am
Encouraging and supporting due process as a means to resolve differences only benefits the law firms. The view expressed in this blog is an entertaining representation in that it assumes the public educators are doing what’s ‘best’ for the child and parents are not.
This strikes me as laughably contradictory. Isn’t it the position and legal strategy of your firm to argue that the schools have absolutely no obligation to do what’s best, nor to even ensure a child makes progress at all, and that our public schools must merely provide an open door to education and nothing more?
Sure seems the interests and these kinds of decisions are much better left to the parents under those circumstances. You might want to drop that argument if you expect anyone to buy into slick positions like these. It sure doesn’t do your clients any favors by undermining trust in our public education system.
Comment by lawdaddy — July 13, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
School educators are not always experts in determining what is truly in the best interest of students. Many times their decisions are based on keeping kids in Special Education for the sole reasons of fear that the child will “fail” a more rigorous state assessment if they are moved to regualar education and will then bring down test scores for the school and/or the school doesn’t want to “stress” out the regular ed teachers by placing the Special Ed student into a regular classroom so they keep them in a lower level instructional and segregated classe without regard that many of these kids could and should be more appropriately placed in all regualar setting. When the parents try to get their child more appropriately placed some educators have resorted to fabricating “data”, rehearsing prepared statements before an ARD and encouraging other teachers who will be in the ARD to say what the school wants to the detriment of the student, conspiring to encourage other older students to bully a younger special ed child to the point that the parents eventually withdraw their child from school so that the ARD meeting that the parent had wanted to have in order to move the son back into regular classes doesn’t take place to “blackballing” teachers who refuse to engage in these and other deceptive practices. I know because I was a Special Ed teacher who was threatened and harrassed because I advocated for the student and parents. Let parents take their child out of special education. They have an ingredient that gives them an edge that educators don’t have – and that is the one whose blood line is closet usually cares more for that person. Every life matters.
Comment by Every Life Matters — August 21, 2008 @ 4:47 am