Since the first American public school was founded in Boston in 1663, this nation has recognized and respected the educational rights of children.
Nevertheless, it took well over three hundred (300) years before American law extended similar educational rights to children with disabilities.
Within our own generation, various state laws designed to exclude disabled children from public schools were abrogated by federal courts in 1972. Then, in 1975, the Education for Handicapped Children Act (EHCA) established the right of all children with disabilities to receive a free public school education in an integrated environment.
In 1990, the same year the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law, the EHCA was amended and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
On the 35th Anniversary of the EHCA and 20th Anniversary of the IDEA, I celebrate the gains made. I must also observe, however, that the battle continues and remains an almost a day-by-day struggle to enforce the law and protect the educational rights promised to children with disabilities.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Broken Promises
FACT: Ohio has 1,839,683 public school students, of whom 246,605 receive special education services (13.4%) and
FACT: Ohio will receive $437,736,052 in IDEA Part B funds under the Recovery Act. These funds are in addition to the $435,055,616 the state will also receive as its regular FY09 IDEA Part B federal allotment. All Recovery Act funds must be spent by Sept. 30, 2011.
http://ideamoneywatch.com/states/oh/?page_id=2
Changes made to Ohio law in 2009, purportedly to provide school districts with more “flexibility”, now permit districts to divert money intended for the education of children with disabilities into other general education and district purposes. As Jennifer Smith Richard, Columbus Dispatch (January 2010), observed:
Ohio school districts are spending money meant for disabled students to stabilize their shaky budgets, and the state has made it easier for them to do so. Statewide, schools are receiving an extra $438 million in federal stimulus money just for special education. For most districts, the influx has doubled the federal dollars they received for special education.. . . vulnerable students are being cheated as the money is redirected, and . . . Ohio has taken the most extreme approach of any state that has paved the way for schools to use the money elsewhere. [Now] Districts don't have to meet the federal progress goal to divert funds anymore, nor do they have to prove that special-needs students are being educated in the "least restrictive environment," which often means in regular classrooms. (Emphasis added)
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/24/specialmoney.html?sid=101
For years we have heard perennial complaints about special education being a drain on resources needed to educate typical students. Now it seems, with stimulus funds dramatically increasing special education funding, the Department of Education and school districts in Ohio have discovered and/or devised a way to tap into the resources intended to fulfill the promise of the IDEA to children with disabilities. Economic stimulus funding, in most cases, practically doubles the regular FY 2010 allocation of IDEA Part-B funds for special education. It is no accident that recent legal maneuvering and tweaking of the ODE rules and regulations has now opened the door for practically every school district in the state of Ohio to redirect at least half of their stimulus funds from special education to meet other needs in regular education or the general fund.
What kind of money are we talking about? In Northwest Ohio, for example, the numbers look like this:
District IRN District Name Total IDEA Part-B ARRA Allocation + Non-public Proportionate Share + Regular FY10 IDEA Allocation
048207 Anthony Wayne Local SD $ 882,340.46 $751,451.15
047589 Liberty Center Local SD $ 235,254.78 $205,026.16
044909 Toledo City SD $ 8,694,671.86 $ 40,366.87 $7,660,222.48
044602 Oregon City SD $ 828,082.06 $724,726.60
046813 Perkins Local SD $ 490,877.19 $433,936.16
045583 Perrysburg Ex.Village SD $ 889,435.66 $ 15,535.99 $765,851.49
044743 Sandusky City SD $ 1,066,085.11 $ 65,700.59 $947,359.09
050690 Lake Local SD $351,040.46 $3,250.37 $303,712.09
048215 Ottawa Hills Local SD $ 248,460.08 $ 91,058.21 $212,894.52
048231 Washington Local SD $ 1,684,576.88 $ 276,014.23 $1,465,072.83
049577 Woodmore Local Local SD $ 276,014.23 $241,417.32
044875 Sylvania City SD $ 1,829,924.43 $ 121,759.68 $1,610,744.77
FACT: Ohio will receive $437,736,052 in IDEA Part B funds under the Recovery Act. These funds are in addition to the $435,055,616 the state will also receive as its regular FY09 IDEA Part B federal allotment. All Recovery Act funds must be spent by Sept. 30, 2011.
http://ideamoneywatch.com/states/oh/?page_id=2
Changes made to Ohio law in 2009, purportedly to provide school districts with more “flexibility”, now permit districts to divert money intended for the education of children with disabilities into other general education and district purposes. As Jennifer Smith Richard, Columbus Dispatch (January 2010), observed:
Ohio school districts are spending money meant for disabled students to stabilize their shaky budgets, and the state has made it easier for them to do so. Statewide, schools are receiving an extra $438 million in federal stimulus money just for special education. For most districts, the influx has doubled the federal dollars they received for special education.. . . vulnerable students are being cheated as the money is redirected, and . . . Ohio has taken the most extreme approach of any state that has paved the way for schools to use the money elsewhere. [Now] Districts don't have to meet the federal progress goal to divert funds anymore, nor do they have to prove that special-needs students are being educated in the "least restrictive environment," which often means in regular classrooms. (Emphasis added)
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/24/specialmoney.html?sid=101
For years we have heard perennial complaints about special education being a drain on resources needed to educate typical students. Now it seems, with stimulus funds dramatically increasing special education funding, the Department of Education and school districts in Ohio have discovered and/or devised a way to tap into the resources intended to fulfill the promise of the IDEA to children with disabilities. Economic stimulus funding, in most cases, practically doubles the regular FY 2010 allocation of IDEA Part-B funds for special education. It is no accident that recent legal maneuvering and tweaking of the ODE rules and regulations has now opened the door for practically every school district in the state of Ohio to redirect at least half of their stimulus funds from special education to meet other needs in regular education or the general fund.
What kind of money are we talking about? In Northwest Ohio, for example, the numbers look like this:
District IRN District Name Total IDEA Part-B ARRA Allocation + Non-public Proportionate Share + Regular FY10 IDEA Allocation
048207 Anthony Wayne Local SD $ 882,340.46 $751,451.15
047589 Liberty Center Local SD $ 235,254.78 $205,026.16
044909 Toledo City SD $ 8,694,671.86 $ 40,366.87 $7,660,222.48
044602 Oregon City SD $ 828,082.06 $724,726.60
046813 Perkins Local SD $ 490,877.19 $433,936.16
045583 Perrysburg Ex.Village SD $ 889,435.66 $ 15,535.99 $765,851.49
044743 Sandusky City SD $ 1,066,085.11 $ 65,700.59 $947,359.09
050690 Lake Local SD $351,040.46 $3,250.37 $303,712.09
048215 Ottawa Hills Local SD $ 248,460.08 $ 91,058.21 $212,894.52
048231 Washington Local SD $ 1,684,576.88 $ 276,014.23 $1,465,072.83
049577 Woodmore Local Local SD $ 276,014.23 $241,417.32
044875 Sylvania City SD $ 1,829,924.43 $ 121,759.68 $1,610,744.77
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