By Ellenmorris Tiegerman, PhD
Dr. Ellenmorris Tiegerman is the Founder and Executive Director of the School for Language and Communication Development (SLCD) in Glen Cove and Professor Emeritus at the Derner Institute for Advanced Psychology Studies at Adelphi University. She can be reached at 516-609-2000 and www.slcd.org.
You think the “Kremlin” is only in the old Soviet Union? Maybe you also think that the facts below come from a John Grisham novel? Well, the State Education Department is alive and well in Albany and no these events are not part of a novel. Parents of students with disabilities are representative of a minority population of children (i.e., 7%) with a majority of these children coming from racially, linguistically and culturally diverse families in New York. These families are supposed to be protected by Federal Law which provides procedural protections to ensure that children with disabilities are given a free and appropriate public education. But what if parents do not have the financial resources to enforce the law and access their rights? What if parents do not speak English or are themselves physically or emotionally challenged? The point is that parents are vulnerable and at a serious disadvantage when it comes to fighting with a state agency. How many parents can actually spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting in Federal Court for years about the services their child needs? Very few and that is why the problems below have gone on for so long.
You have a child with autism and he needs a specific program with intensive services. You go to your school district’s committee on special education meeting and your district agrees that the program is appropriate and generates an IEP (individualized educational plan) for your child. The school district sends the placement information to the State Education and the placement is denied. What can you do as the parent? What can your school district do? What should the special education school do? Everyone has a choice of action here. But decisions always lead to consequences. Let’s say hypothetically that the special education school decides that it will not turn you and your child out, what can happen?
Firstly, the State Education Department can get in touch with its Reimbursement Unit to stop payment for the education of this child and all of the other students attending. Why? To make an example of the school and put it “out of business.” Once reimbursement to the school is terminated, teachers cannot be paid, supplies cannot be ordered and the mortgage/rent cannot be paid. By the time the school has a chance to hire an attorney and go to court, the financial damage to the program has already been done.
Secondly, the State Education Department can send a letter to all school districts within the local and surrounding communities directing them to remove any children they have in the special education program and place them in other programs. If children are doing well and have made tremendous progress, it does not matter. If parents do not want to remove their children, it does not matter. If school districts do not want to remove their students, it does not matter.
Thirdly, the State Education Department can send emails to school districts without the knowledge of parents that children in the future are not to be sent to that specific special education school. What are school districts going to do? Do you think that a state agency using secret tactics might not find a way to turn on a school district? If parents are not privy to any correspondence between the state agency and their school district, how would they know what was happening? Parents of students with disabilities are supposed to participate at their meetings with professionals as equal partners. School district committees are supposed to function autonomously and independently. Committees are not supposed to be influenced by outside political or economic pressures as they decide about a child’s “appropriate placement.” So how can a state agency actually do these things and get away with it? Who is going to stop it? You?
