MAKING THE GRADE - Special Education Ruling

"Is this Supreme Court ruling a game changer for special education?" PBS NewsHour 3/28/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously in favor of providing more educational opportunities for students with disabilities, a move that could set the bar higher for more than six million students.  Lisa Stark of Education Week joins John Yang to discuss the court's ruling and what it means for the classroom.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now, a Supreme Court ruling that could have a significant impact on special education in schools around the U.S.

John Yang is back with that story for our weekly education segment, Making the Grade.

JOHN YANG (NewsHour):  Amid all of the big news last week, this stunning ruling may have been overlooked.

The court unanimously ruled that schools must give students with disabilities the chance to make meaningful and appropriately ambitious progress.  That could set the bar higher for more than six million students nationwide.

Lisa Stark of our partner Education Week has been covering this story and joins me now.

Lisa, thanks for being here.

LISA STARK, Education Week:  Thanks, John.

JOHN YANG:  What was this case about?

LISA STARK:  Well, the heart of this case is really, what educational benefit do schools need to provide to these students.

It's a case out of Colorado, involved a boy named Drew.  He has autism.  The case was filed when he was 10.  He's now 17.  His parents pulled him out of the fourth grade in the Douglas County Public Schools — that's right outside Denver — because they were concerned.

His behavior was deteriorating.  And they also felt that he wasn't really getting any educational benefit, as required by law.  They put him in a private school for autistic kids, and then they sued the district.

And they said, look, if you're not providing the appropriate education, you need to pay for this private school.

Well, the lower courts all ruled against the family.  And, in fact, the 10th Circuit ruled, the appeals court ruled that school district only had to provide something that was merely more than de minimis, in other words, a very trivial benefit to the child.

The Supreme Court, as you indicated, totally rejected that.  It was a unanimous decision.  The court ruled 8-0 that, in fact, education programs must be appropriately ambitious, in light of each child's circumstance, and they must be challenged.  The kids have to have challenging objectives.

SPECIAL ED - More Inclusive Schools, Good/Bad?

"LA schools grow more inclusive, but at what cost?" PBS NewsHour 3/1/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Los Angeles school system has come far in the last ten years, especially in terms of inclusivity.  In 2003, only 54 percent of LA's disabled students were taught alongside their nondisabled peers; today, it’s more than 90 percent.  But some parents worry that general education schools won’t provide the specialized attention their children require.  John Tulenko of Education Week reports.

JOHN TULENKO (NewsHour):  In Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school system, it took a class-action lawsuit filed in 1993 to bring attention to the failures in special education.

Teachers weren’t trained, records weren’t kept, and thousands of students were not receiving services.

Sharyn Howell, the district’s special education director, says progress has been made.

SHARYN HOWELL, Special Education Director, LA Unified School District:  I think we have come a long ways.  Even at that point in time in LAUSD and in other school districts, special education was still thought of as this was a very separate group of students and most of them were in segregated classes someplace.

JOHN TULENKO:  But not anymore.  Today, many of the problems have been resolved, especially when it comes to inclusion.  In 2003, about half of all students with disabilities were taught alongside their non-disabled peers for the majority of the day.  Now it’s 90 percent for students with learning or speech and language disabilities.

For other special education students, there’s still a ways to go.  Seventeen-year-old Leo Villegas, who has Down syndrome, spends most of his day in a separate classroom.  But even that’s beginning to change.

ROSIE VILLEGAS, Parent:  I want Leo to be included in the community.  I don’t want Leo to be segregated all the time.  I mean, come on.

JOHN TULENKO:  Rosie Villegas is Leo’s mother.

ROSIE VILLEGAS:  I want other students or other people to see Leo and accept Leo the way he is, even if it doesn’t work, to try.

JOHN TULENKO:  At his mother’s insistence, Leo is in a few general education classes like economics, but not without support.

Monet Gothard is with Leo all day, helping with his behavior and class work.

MONET GOTHARD, Behavior Intervention Therapist:  I was reading a story to him, and then he was answering reading comprehension questions.

Humm.... Off topic comment:  I wonder if Republicans need a Behavior Intervention Therapist?