John Wills Lloyd picked up a story I missed, on learning disabilities and the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). I'm going to post the whole story below, because I don't know if the Manteca Bulletin has a good archive policy.
To be sure, education is unequal in this country (and this state) in many ways. Aside from funding and teacher expertise, another big one is how learning disabilities are addressed and remediated.
Are schools failing some kids?
This week’s strands of “Pomp and Circumstance” are striking a sour note with Karen Amore.
She’s among a small, but growing contingent of Manteca Unified parents of special education students who believes the state exit exam requirement for a diploma is unfair as the school system has inadequately addressed the learning disabilities needs of their children.
Commentary: Manteca Unified School District is a k-12 district with about 23,700 students and 14 schools, in San Joaquin County, CA.
The debate over court rulings and appeals on whether the senior exit exam will determine whether high school seniors receive their diplomas has left 60 Manteca Unified School District students with a certificate of completion instead of their diplomas.
Commentary: Manteca Unified has Calla Continuation (enrollment 230), East Side Union High (1600), Manteca Community Day (7-12, enrollment 79), Manteca High (1,771), Sierra High (2,041) , and Weston Ranch High School (1,094). That means there's about 1,630 seniors. Thus about 3.7% of the seniors are getting a "certificate of completion" instead of a diploma.
Some of those students are learning disabled whose parents say have fallen through the cracks of the education system.
“They are trying to hold children and parents accountable for the school’s failure,” said Stacy Ingraffia whose 13-year-old son, Vinny, suffers from dyslexia.
There are two major levels of special education available. One is known as RSP which is a daily 90 minute tutorial program, and is difficult to qualify for. The second option is called a 504 which is a contract signed by the administration and the student’s family that allows for individualized circumstances for kids with learning disabilities such as longer test taking times.
Uhhm, the reporter has some things confused here. Special education services are controlled by two federal laws: one being the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), . Students falling under IDEA regulations must have an "Individual Education Plan" (IEP). It may or may not include special tutoring/classes/pull-out time; it may or may not include accomodations such as extended time for testing. The other federal legislation is The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which established the "504" aspect of educational services for individuals with disabilities. RSP probably stands for "Resource Specialist Program" --scroll down to the bottom for a description of a neighboring school district's RSP program.
About 504: The following is from an essay, called An Overview of Section 504, by David M. Richards, Attorney at Law (you can download a copy from the webside, Council of Educators for Students With Disabilities.)
In 1973 when the Rehabilitation Act was passed, little was being done on a federal level to encourage participation and equal access to federally funded programs by the disabled. While largely geared toward providing job opportunities and training to disabled adults, the Act also addressed, though very discreetly, the failure of the public schools to educate disabled students. The single paragraph we now refer to as §504 of the Rehabilitation Act provided that
“No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 706(8) of this title, shall, solely by reason of her or his handicap, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the United States Postal Service....” —29 U.S.C. § 794(a) (1973).
In §504, the focus is on non-discrimination. As applied to the schools, the language broadly prohibits the denial of public education participation, or enjoyment of the benefits offered by public school programs because of a child’s disability. To encourage compliance, Congress did not create an additional source of federal funding, but instead, conditioned future receipt of federal funds on the district’s compliance with the new requirements.
The San Joaquin Office of Education (SJOE) has a multi-layered special education program for kids with physical and mental handicaps. This does not address the issue, however, of students with average to above-average mental ability (IQ) who also have attentional difficulties or information-processing problems such as specific learning disabilities (example, reading, sometimes called dyslexia)
The problem that parents like Stacy Ingraffia have with this system is that most schools do not test for learning disabilities. They instead require that students get screened by a medical doctor which can be both expensive and fruitless, if the doctor doesn’t specialize in learning disability assessment.
I am trying to find some sources on Manteca Unified's requirements for IDEA and 504, so far without success. The reporter is correct, though: most physicians lack the training to do the sorts of testing needed to discover student's neurological deficits.
“Teachers are not trained to recognize learning disabilities,” said Karen Amore, whose son Nathan has dyslexia and has suffered from depression. “They don’t even try and if you don’t have the money, you get left behind.”
Parents like Amore and Ingraffia who are fighting for their children to get the attention and tools they need to succeed, are quick to point out that their children’s IQs are high, they just have difficulty perceiving information in traditional ways.
“It’s a one size fits all education, and our kids are different,” said Amore. “Our children are being overlooked. They’re not being cared for or provided for in the school system. We’re not against the system in place, it just doesn’t apply to us.”
Amore’s son, Nathan, attempted traditional schooling at Manteca High and East Union High, but became so depressed at his inability to succeed because he wasn’t getting the proper help, that he was pulled out of traditional schooling by his doctor to complete an independent program at Lindbergh Adult Education.
He was extremely successful in the independent program, achieving a B average. However, despite hours of studying, Nathan missed passing the newly required high school exit exam by one point. He passed the English portion with flying colors, and received 349 points on the math portion when he needed 350 to pass.
When Nathan walked across the stage for the Lindbergh graduation ceremony Wednesday evening, he was handed not a diploma, but a certificate of completion because of the state ruling.
Karen believes that her son did not get the assistance he needed in the classroom, which is ultimately why she believes he did not get his diploma.
“At this time, the state has said we can’t give out diplomas without the exit exam. They’ll have another chance,” explained Linda Wheeler of Lindbergh Adult Education. “Adult students have as many chances as they need, up to twice a year until they pass it. A certificate of completion just means that they’ve completed everything but not the test.”
Amore is extremely disappointed that her son did not receive his diploma. She strongly believes that the exit exam should not have bearing on students’ ability to graduate with a diploma.
Amore is also concerned about her 13-year-old niece, Edna Romero, who has ADD. Amore, Romero’s legal guardian, says that she is afraid that she will have to fight the same battles that she did with Nathan for Edna to get the help that she needs to succeed.
“We want our educators to teach our kids how to function with their disability so that they can succeed later on in life,” said Amore.
Amore’s fight is made all the more difficult because few parents are willing to make noise about their kids’ disability for fear that their children will be picked on in school. Embarrassment has been a significant factor that has prevented parents from banding together to fight for their children.
Amore and Ingraffia are attempting to get together with other parents of learning disabled students to pool resources, knowledge and support.
“If there’s one message we could tell everyone, it is that our teachers, our educators, are not able to educate our children because they have learning disabilities,” said Amore. “These children have high IQ’s. It’s not a problem of intellect, it’s a problem of ability.”
For more information, call Karen Amore (209) 823-5568 or email Amore at karenamorewso5@yahoo.com or Stacy Ingraffia at sissydee@msn.com.
Wait a minute. I kept digging. What about Senate Bill SB 517? Wouldn't that have covered Nathan?
Governor Signs Bill Exempting Students with Disabilities in the Class of 2006 from CA High School Exit Exam
January 30, 2006
Senate Bill SB 517, sponsored by Senator Gloria Romero, was signed into law today by Governor Schwarzenegger, allowing thousands of students with disabilities in the high school class of 2006 who meet all other graduation requirements to graduate regardless of whether they pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). The bill was a collaborative effort in response to a long-standing class action lawsuit on behalf of special education students in California. Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit law center in Berkeley, filed the underlying class action lawsuit, Chapman v. California Department of Education in Alameda County Superior Court, in 2002, challenging the CAHSEE as an invalid and discriminatory exam as applied to students with disabilities. The certified class consists of all students with disabilities throughout the state who must take the CAHSEE to receive a high school diploma. The defendants are the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
"We commend the governor and the legislature for taking action to protect students with disabilities," said Melissa Kasnitz, managing attorney at Disability Rights Advocates and counsel for the plaintiffs. "Now students with disabilities in the class of 2006 won't have to worry about being denied a high school diploma this spring, and instead can focus on planning for their futures."
In August 2005, the parties reached an interim settlement in the case, in which defendants agreed to support legislation to prevent students with disabilities in the class of 2006 who met all other graduation requirements form being denied diplomas due to the exit exam. The parties reached this settlement after an independent panel of experts estimated that the CAHSEE graduation penalty would result in the denial of high school diplomas for nearly 25,000 students with disabilities who were otherwise on track to graduate with their class, the panel concluded, that the state had failed to adequately prepare students with disabilities for the Exit Exam. However, SB 586 was vetoed by the governor on October 8, 2005, forcing the parties to seek alternatives. Prior to the introduction of SB 517, the bill that was just signed, plaintiffs had filed a motion in court asking the judge to prevent the state from denying diplomas to current seniors. After that motion was presented to the court, the parties to the lawsuit worked with the state policymakers to promote the legislative alternative adopted today.
"The CAHSEE has been devastating and demoralizing to my daughter because it was designed for students without learning disabilities," said Rebecca Serafin of the South Bay region. Her daughter, Amanda, is a student with a learning disability in the class of 2006, has a 3.17 GPA, and has met every other graduation requirement except passing one section of the CAHSEE. "Now my family doesn't have to split up and move to another state so that my daughter can graduate from high school."
"It was urgent for students in the class of 2006 with disabilities to know whether they would receive their diplomas as they began their final semester," said Roger Heller, staff attorney at Disability Rights Advocates and counsel for the plaintiffs. "Now, the state has responded in a way that ensures thousands of students with disabilities in the Class of 2006 are not unfairly punished."
The CAHSEE consists of two sections, English Language Arts and Mathematics, and students must pass both in order to graduate with a high school diploma. Recently released data from the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), which issues annual reports on the CAHSEE, found that only one-third of this year's seniors with disabilities have passed both portions of the CAHSEE. HumRRO also concluded that half of special education teachers do not think their students are ready for the CAHSEE.
Here is the language from one of the k-8 schools, Lincoln, in the district:
At Lincoln School, our classroom teachers conduct a needs assessment of their students and, when appropriate, make modifications and accommodations within the classroom. Students with poor school progress are referred to the Student Study Team, a multi-disciplinary committee of teachers and administrators, to develop an intervention plan. Other resources and psychological assessments may be implemented. Students with a learning disability or circumstance that interferes with learning but who do not qualify for Special Education, have a 504 plan implemented to support their learning.
The policy of the Manteca Unified School District is that special education students receive support services necessary to help them learn in the regular program. In keeping with federal and state laws and policies, students with exceptional needs are always placed in the least restrictive environment. There is a great amount of coordination between the special education teachers and the regular classroom teachers to assure mainstreaming is meeting the students’ needs. As a guiding principle for maintaining the quality of the instructional program and supporting each student’s participation in the total curriculum, the school leadership team believes that all students, parents, and staff members have the basic right to be treated equitably, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or disability.
The Manteca School District has been sued in the past over access to services:
The Office For Civil Rights in California has specifically ruled that schools must convene a team of assessors to make a determination regarding eligibility under Section 504 for children with disorders such as ADD and obsessive compulsive disorder even if the children do not qualify for special education. [Manteca Unified School District, 30 IDELR 544, 1998.]
I wondered about the extent to which the reporter checked this story before it was published. I found some of the points (e.g., going to a physician for identification of LD) surprising, given the legal obligations that the local education agency carries. Perhaps the LEA needs to do a better job of informing parents about their rights.
Posted by: John Lloyd | Monday, May 29, 2006 at 07:40 AM
Other resources I sent to Karen Amore:
The Council of Educators for Students with Disabilities is an organization of over 4,000 members from all over the United States.
http://www.504idea.org/about_us.html
This is a group in Texas, but they have some great, easy-to-understand resources on IDEA and Section 504.
Wrightslaw, http://www.wrightslaw.com/
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Disability Rights Advocates, http://www.dralegal.org/
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Learning Disablilities Online (ldonline) http://www.ldonline.org/
Who can diagnose LD/ADD/ADHD? http://www.ldonline.org/article/6027
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Protection and Advocacy, Inc.
http://www.pai-ca.org/Pubs/540801.htm
http://www.pai-ca.org/Pubs/512701.htm RE: Special Education Rights and Responsibilities for Children with Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD/ADHD)
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A number of the private schools in the San Francisco bay area have school based programs often called "Learning Differences Networks".
*"Learning Differences - a term used to describe a range and variety of learning challenges that children confront, which include identified Learning Disabilities (LD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)." ( www.schwablearning.org )
The Parents Education Network (PEN) is a consortium of parents of kids with LDs and ADD/ADHD, mostly at private schools.
Here's more from the PEN website
http://www.parentseducationnetwork.org/
There are lots of resources out there. I hope your group of parents can make good use of them.
Posted by: liz | Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 04:16 PM
More.
http://www.ldanatl.org/
Learning Disabilities Association of America
Posted by: liz | Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 04:33 PM