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| School District and Department of Education Pay $6.7 Million For Failing to Educate Autistic Boy |
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On August 10, 2005 , the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California approved a settlement in the case of Porter v. Board of Trustees of Manhattan Beach Unified Sch'l Dist., et al. (Case No. CV 00-08402 GAF). In this case, the school district and the California Department of Education (CDE) have agreed to pay more than $6.7 million to a special education student and his parents for failing to appropriately educate the student for longer than five years. This settlement reportedly represents a record payment in a special education case.
In January 1999, the student's parents requested a due process hearing claiming that Manhattan Beach USD had failed to provide their child with a "free appropriate public education." Despite not being represented by counsel, the family prevailed in the due process proceeding. In June 1999, the California Special Education Hearing Office ("SEHO") issued a decision finding that Manhattan Beach USD had failed to provide the student with appropriate reading and language instruction and socialization interventions. The District was ordered to provide compensatory education to the student during the 1999-2000 school year, but did not comply with the SEHO decision.
In August 2000, the parents sued the school district and the CDE in U.S. District Court seeking to enforce the SEHO decision. The judge to whom the case was then assigned dismissed it on the ground that the parents had to first exhaust administrative remedies by filing a compliance complaint with the CDE.
In December 2000, the parents appealed the dismissal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and at the same time filed a compliance complaint with the CDE. The CDE issued a Compliance Report in March 2001 finding that the school district had not complied with the SEHO decision and ordering both compliance with that decision and additional compensatory education. The school district did not comply with the corrective actions set forth in CDE's Compliance Report.
In October 2002, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the lawsuit and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings. Porter v. Board of Trustees of Manhattan Beach Unified School District et al., 307 F. 3d 1064 (9th Cir. 2002), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1194, 123 S. Ct. 1303, 154 L. Ed. 2nd 1029 (2003). The parents amended their complaint claiming that the CDE not only failed to take appropriate steps to force the school district to comply with the SEHO decision, but also failed to take appropriate steps to ensure that the district complied with the CDE's corrective actions.
In a December 2004 order on a motion for summary judgment, District Court Judge Feess made findings that the school district appeared to endeavor to use the power it had over the student's education as a means of retaliating against the parents for their criticisms of, and challenges to, the district. Judge Feess also found that although it was true that the school district repeatedly flouted the State's authority by failing to comply with two state agency orders, it was only successful in doing so because of the CDE's inattention.
Under the approved settlement agreement, the school district and the CDE were ordered to set aside approximately $1.1 million to pay for the education of the student at the direction of a special master.
The approved settlement states that the failure to provide services required by federal and state law resulted in permanent damage to the student's academic, physical and social/emotional well-being, and impaired his ability to function at the level at which he could have reasonably been expected to function..
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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| Study confirms Effectiveness of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) in treating autistic children |
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On August 7, 2003, at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, the results of a study by Ohio State University researchers were presented. The study examined the effect of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) of at least one year on autistic children between the ages of 4 and 8 who were also classified as moderately mentally retarded (pre-treatment IQ scores below 51).
After the ABA/EIBI treatment, all eight autistic children enrolled in the study had IQ scores over 70. Six of the eight children were assessed after treatment has having average IQ scores (at least 85) and one child showed a post-treatment IQ score of 114.
In addition to improved IQ scores, seven of the eight autistic children made significant gains in adaptive behavior, such that they were considered ready for mainstream school placement.
Language skills were reported to remain a problem for at least four of the children enrolled in the study. Only one of the eight children was reported as showing emotional or behavioral problems after treatment that were at a level well above normal.
In summary, this study confirms the effectiveness of ABA/EIBI treatment for autistic children between the ages of 4 and 8. Additional information on this study can be found at www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/autism3.htm.
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Parents Take On School Districts
With Legal Challenges |
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By Charles Adamson for the Californian |
Parents know more than they used to about special education laws and that knowledge is costing Kern County school districts millions.
With the availability of information on the Internet and the growth of support and advocacy groups, parents of special education children are learning what they are entitled to under the law.
For one thing, a parent unhappy with a child's education can file for a hearing, a court-like proceeding with a hearing officer from Sacramento who issues a verdict that can include requiring public school districts to invest more money in a child and sometimes place the student in a private school.
When a district loses a hearing it is required to pay parents' legal expenses, in some cases more than $100,000.
Parents do win in 70 percent of the hearings in Kern County, said Stacy Inman, a lawyer with Schools Legal Service, a nonprofit group of lawyers in the county's Superintendent of Schools office building downtown. The service represents all but two of the 47 Kern school districts.
KHSD Director of Special Education Steve Moyer said administrators want parents to come to them before contacting lawyers.
"I think the foremost thing is to work at the local level, before feelings get hurt and problems start," Moyer said.
In 1998 Inman was the only lawyer working full time on special education cases with Schools Legal Service. Now, because of the increased number of hearings and parent disputes, there are three full-time lawyers who work exclusively on special education cases.
Likewise in the private sector, before 2000 there was just one local attorney who specialized in representing special education children and their parents. Now there are at least four in Kern County and many cases are being filed by Los Angeles-area attorneys.
Inman estimated her office will fight 100 Kern County special education cases this school year.
"Some (attorneys) are creating a need in town and some people are filling a need," Inman said. "If you have more lawyers, they try to generate more business for themselves."
Bakersfield attorney Donnalee Huffman said school districts are getting sued because they aren't doing what they're supposed to do under the law. She's a private attorney who represents children and parents in special education cases.
"Parents have the right to get the proper education for their child," Huffman said. "(School districts) seem to think they're bombarded by us. They're not. This is the first time this county has had private representation."
She said she won't take a case she doesn't think is a sure win and still has more clients than she has time to represent."We don't file due process hearings haphazardly," Huffman said.
Inman said the majority of hearings are on autism. In a recent case, the Kern High School District lost a hearing and was required to pay more than $100,000 for the parents' legal fees, plus its own legal expenses of ab out $70,000. The district also must pay for the student's placement in Valley Achievement Center, a private school costing $30,000 or more
annually.
Teresa Farmer's teen-age autistic son Bradley has been in Valley Achievement four of the last five years.
Farmer said the Kern High School District agreed to place him there this year, but she had to fight Panama-Buena Vista Union School District for several years through multiple hearings to keep him there while he was in that school district.
"They felt the public system would meet his needs. We proved that they weren't meeting his needs, not providing him a free appropriate education," Farmer said.
She said Bradley, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, is very difficult to deal with. When he was in the public school system he often tore pictures down from walls, punched himself in the head and was unable speak or understand language.
"For me Bradley wasn't making any progress in the public system. ... I was sitting there thinking one day that if he doesn't make any progress he is going to grow up and not have any quality of life," Farmer said. "I decided I was going to try to get the services that would help him." Since being in a private school, his social behavior has calmed and he can understand simple language.
The cost of educating an autistic child in Valley Achievement is about
$10,000 more annually than in public schools, according to school officials. Inman said parents often want the very best for their children when that is not always financially practical for school districts. "Should a district do what's best for every child? No," Inman said. "They should provide what is appropriate." Farmer said the only appropriate place for her child was Valley Achievement.
"Challenging districts doesn't make you popular, but when I'm old and< sitting in a rocking chair I'll ask myself, 'did I do everything I could for my son?'" she said. "God and Brad are the only ones I have to answer to."
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Waiting for her voice
The Daily Pilot
Sunday, April 20, 2003 |
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By Lolita Harper |
Her big brown eyes tell her story. They gleam when she is laughing. They glare when she is angry. They tear up when she is sad.
Sahar Barkzay's eyes articulate her emotions because her autism stifles other forms of communication.
Thursday, the 6-year-old's eyes were saying she was in pain. Her gaze would dart from floor to ceiling fluttering her long lashes with each movement, as she grabbed her left ear with both hands.
"I don't think she is feeling very well," mother Marina Barkzay said. "I think she has an earache. Of course she is not able to tell me this but I see her touching her ear." Earaches are common for Sahar and many autistic children, as are severe allergies, gastrointestinal problems and seizures. Marina Barkzay said she would take her daughter to the doctor that evening—a common outing for the mother-daughter pair because of the autism and Sahar's compromised immune system.
The Barkzay family immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan. Marina came from Kabul and her husband from Kandahar. Shortly after Marina joined her husband in America, Sahar was born.
Four years later, they learned their daughter was autistic.
For the first 11 months of her life, Sahar developed like any other child. Her first word was spoken then but the rest never followed. Barkzay said she started to recognize a lack of development and talked to a pediatrician.
"I was sure it was serious," she said. "I just knew something wasn't right."
Although the mother had her instincts, pediatricians were reluctant to diagnose Sahar. They said she was a happy, energetic, healthy little girl and Barkzay should not worry.
FINDING SOMETHING WRONG
At the prompting of friends and child behavioral professionals, Barkzay took Sahar to a specialist when she was 4. It was then she was diagnosed as autistic.
"It was very hard at the beginning, Barkzay said. "I had waited so long and I could have been helping her before."
Jack Anthony, an attorney who represents the family pro bono and works with them to get the proper services needed from the public school system, said early intervention is always the most effective. Studies show if children begin to receive treatment before age 3, they are more likely to "recover," Anthony said.
Anthony placed no blame on the parents for a lack of early intervention. He said medical professionals are generally reluctant to make a diagnosis because they either haven't spent enough time with the child to recognize the symptoms or they are not equipped to take on the responsibility that comes with making such a determination.
"As long as parents keep hearing positive things from medical professionals, they believe them because they want to," Anthony said. "A parent doesn't want to believe anything is wrong with their child."
LONG DAYS, LITTLE REST
Today, to provide Sahar with what she needs, Marina Barkzay works tirelessly, to accommodate her daughter, while her husband works long hours to keep the family above water.
Barkzay's day begins at 6 a.m. She wakes Sahar to bathe her, dress her and feed her before the school bus arrives at 7.
"Some mornings it is just so hard because she just doesn't want to get dressed or she doesn't want to eat", she said. "She will just stand there. She likes to dress up but she likes to do it on her own time—not on my schedule.”
Barkzay sends her daughter off to school and then gets herself ready for work. She often cooks in the morning so lunch will be ready when Sahar returns home from school. She then leaves for her job with the Orange County Department of Education, where she works half days.
"I have to work half days because I have not found anyone who can take care of her," Barkzay said. "It is hard enough for me to take care of her."
Barkzay comes home for lunch and lies down for a moment's rest because she is usually "really, really tired," she said.
At 12:25 p.m. the school bus returns Sahar and the duo eat lunch together.
"On a really good day we go to the park," Barkzay said. "Outside she is OK, but it is not always possible."
Other days the two go shopping, run errands, visit friends or pay bills—all of which are extremely difficult tasks with an autistic child in tow, Barkzay said.
"She must go everywhere with me, if I leave her with someone, she does not do well," she said.
After the outing the two return for a daily dose of music, writing and other educational activities until about 4 p.m.
"And then I get back to cooking," Barkzay said.
A LOVE OF MUSIC
Thursday Sahar lay lifeless on the, leather couch but did not fully abandon her musical time and crooned soft, melodic moans as she cradled her ear.
The small family lives in a modest one-bedroom apartment off Fairview Road in Costa Mesa. The living room is surprisingly clean considering it doubles as the playroom for a young child. The floor was decorated with ornate rugs and the walls were adorned with family pictures. On a side table sat a mold of Sahar's tiny hand and on the bottom shelf of the facing bookcase were the child's musical playthings.
"She loves music," Marina said, grabbing for the medium-sized bongo drum, noise makers and a keyboard. "This is what we usually do in the afternoon when she is feeling well. I can tell she is in pain because she never passes up the chance to make music."
She is really so smart, Barkzay says, as if she needed to convince anyone in the room.
"Most things I know she understands and she is really, really good," she said.
One afternoon, Sahar dressed up three times within an hour and put on her mother's shoes and beautiful dresses. Barkzay laughed because she saw how easy it was for Sahar to dress herself when she wanted to and couldn't help contrast it with the usual, conflict-laden, morning routine.
Other times the 6-year-old will prop open the fridge, pull out some eggs, get out a pan and make herself a snack, Barkzay said.
Sahar loves eggs."She likes to be independent," the mother said of her daughter.
AN ADVOCATE ON HER SIDE.
But as much as Sahar can accomplish, she is so far behind and it is a daily struggle to improve upon her communication, and behavior skills.
That is where Anthony comes in.
Anthony will represent Sahar during a formal meeting with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, in which the Barkzay family will request additional services. Anthony said Sahar is displaying disturbing behaviors while at school that disrupt learning for the entire classroom. Her communication skills are lacking and she will grab crayons, toys or food from the hand of
her peers.
Anthony and Jessica Pastil, the clinical director of Autism Spectrum Consultants, believe Sahar would benefit greatly from an individual aid in the classroom, as well as continued speech and occupational therapy.
“We are going to appear before the district, and ask them to voluntarily provide the services we strongly believe Sahar needs,” Anthony said.
Representatives from the school district could not be reached Friday. Anthony stressed the two are not at odds with each other and said the local district is one of the most compliant in the county.
Services provided by the school will not be enough to push Sahar toward recovery, Pastil says. Many parents of autistic children are well aware that it is a very costly process to provide the hours of special programs, both in the home and out, and to find the right doctors, clinicians and therapists. This is all in addition to the sheer time it takes to care for and love and share lasting memories with an autistic child.
SUPPORT FROM THE. COMMUNITY
For a family with a tight budget, those frills are few and far between. If not for the donated services of Anthony and Pastil, the Barkzays would simply go without.
"It is definitely hard," Barkzay said. "It is really, really hard."
In honor of National Autism Awareness Month, which both the cities of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach recognized with proclamations, area parents of autistic children have formed a fund for Sahar. Councilman Gary Monahan, who is also the father of an autistic son, has volunteered his business as campaign headquarters. (Not an unfamiliar title for the popular Irish pub.)
"People have appreciated that the Barkzays don't have the funds," said Anthony, who first was introduced to the Afghani family through his wife, Christina. "I know and appreciate the need of the family."
“Sahar needs medicine, special diet foods and speech and behavioral therapy,” Christina Anthony said. “The family is poor but very proud and college educated,” she said.
"With these she has a chance of a productive life," she said. "Without them she is destined for a lifetime of care, given inhome or in an institution."
Barkzay realizes the long-term benefits of such specialized services but as she sits and strokes her daughter's thick, dark hair on a gloomy Thursday afternoon, her plea is much simpler
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"I just want her to be able to talk to me," Barkzay said.
FYI
Those wishing to contribute to the Sahar Barkzay Fund can send donations to:
Sahar Barkzay, C/O Skosh Monahan's, 2000 Newport Boulevard, Costa Mesa, CA 92627 or call (949) 548-0099.
• LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and covers culture and the arts. She, may be reached at (949) 574-4275 or by e-mail at
lolita.harper@latimes.com.
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Jumping the gun on kindergarten
It can be a disaster to send children to school
before they are ready.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; April 6, 2002 |
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by Peggy Constantine |
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2002 All rights reserved)
Today's kindergarten is yesterday's first grade. If your 4- or 5- year-old child is not ready to write sentences and begin reading, give that child a year to develop before starting school. The Gesell Institute of Child Development calls this "the gift of time," and that's exactly what it is. To send children to kindergarten before they are ready spells disaster in the new educational climate.
When I began teaching in 1979, there was no curriculum guide for kindergarten. I taught my students how to write their first and last names, and we learned the numbers 1 to 10, alphabet letters and sounds. Eventually, I would have a group of five or six who were ready for reading.
Here is my kindergarten room today: There is a number line made of adding machine tape that stretches along the ceiling. We write a number on the number line each day, beginning with "1" on the first day. There is a huge celebration for "100 Day." It's hoped that my students will learn to count to 100 with this incentive.
Students learn about place values. They are expected to be able to write numbers 1 to 30 when they leave kindergarten, as well as to interpret graphs. Toward the end of the year, we will learn how to add and subtract.
Then we do the "Daily News," an interactive writing exercise. Children report their "news," which I write with the help of the class. We look for words such as "a," "and" and "the," which students take turns circling. We listen for beginning, middle and ending sounds of words, and practice spelling.
Most of my students love the Daily News and they are active participants. But there are those who are simply not developmentally ready for this. During small-group writing time, they don't understand for many months what I want them to do. And as they notice that other children do understand, they begin to think there is something wrong with them. There isn't. They're just not ready to be there.
These are the same children who find guided reading groups difficult. These children try to read, but it is difficult for them to sound out unknown words because they are still not secure in their knowledge of alphabet letters and sounds.
It's hard for parents to take a stand and keep their child at home or in preschool for an extra year. Family and friends question the wisdom of giving a child an extra year to develop when the Legislature says it's time for them to go. I once had a student named James who struggled with everything we did. He had a late birthday, and he just wasn't ready. His parents decided to give him another year in kindergarten. But then, James' mother changed her mind and sent him on to first grade because, she said, "the grandparents aren't happy." James was the one who paid for this decision. He became a behavior problem in the middle grades and was eventually retained in fourth or fifth grade. How much easier it would have been for James had he "been retained" at home one more year before going to school.
What many parents don't know is that school standards have been raised so drastically that even children who are ready for the new curriculum find it challenging. Chronological readiness is not the same as developmental readiness. Ask yourself if your child has the social and emotional maturity and the small motor (hand) development to succeed in today's accelerated kindergarten program. If not, give him or her that precious gift of time. Then watch that youngster grow and learn with joy, rather than stress. It is never a mistake to wait.
Credit: Peggy Constantine teaches kindergarten at Tomas Rivera Elementary
School in Riverside
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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More Than Enough.
Stoppage is a special word that the parents
of autistic kids understand all too well.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.;
Apr 27, 2003 |
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By C. Adams |
(Copyright The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2003. All rights reserved.)
Birth has a special vocabulary. My early pregnancy featured graceful words such as conception and quickening. Three years after having my son, though, I learned a new reproductive word--stoppage. It means deciding not to have more children after your living child is diagnosed with autism.
My attorney husband and I were eager for a child, maybe two, the classic boy and girl set. After winning a stressful trial, he came home to pack for our trip to the mountains. I remember the day, a Friday in January, lying on the bed near a half-filled suitcase. About the time we began to climb the misty mountain road, egg embraced sperm and our son was conceived.
A precocious blond baby with big blue eyes, he spoke at 9 months ("dog" and "necklace"). Tall at 18 months, he happily recited the alphabet. Then he turned hyperactive. We were too busy chasing him to notice how his speech became echoes, how he played with water and lights and cried with terror at the vacuum cleaner's roar.
When he was nearly 3, after three miserable weeks, his first preschool's director said, "Sorry, he's autistic," and threw us out.
We didn't believe it. The speech therapists I called said it was impossible: He's sociable and talks too much. After the teacher at his new school mentioned that he resembled her autistic nephew, in a panic we called our niece, who teaches autistic children. She said she'd known a month earlier. "So it's true," I said. "I'm the mother of an autistic child."
These words horrify me now with their self-absorption. But they were my attempt to realize the truth, to place myself in an awful new universe.
Autism, a once-rare neurological disorder, is alarmingly common these days. There are 10 boys and two girls in our neighborhood who are autistic. L.A.-based Cure Autism Now quotes federal estimates that one of every 250 U.S. children are autistic. In California, the rate (excluding milder forms such as Asperger's syndrome) has jumped to 10 new diagnoses per day. No one knows why; one theory is that genetically susceptible children are pushed into the disorder by vaccinations, diet or heavy antibiotics. Others simply emerge autistic into the world.
Autism is a black hole, capable of crushing personality, reason and affection. It has no known cause or cure. Forty percent of afflicted children never speak, while about 25% display average to advanced intelligence and language, but possess poor social skills and are
considered odd.
Slowly, the signs became evident to us. Frustration or noise made my son bang his head or bite. He and I became a colorful pair, his head with its blue-yellow bruises, my arms purple with bite marks. His fear of vacuum cleaners changed to obsession. After the diagnosis, our bright little boy started walking in circles, flapping his hands like a broken-winged dove. Watching his small shoes trace a tightening O on the kitchen floor hurt more than his deepest bite.
Our neighbors with autistic children told us what to do. We removed wheat and dairy products from his diet and sought school district funding for 40 hours per week of behavioral modification therapy. Soon, three therapists came to our home each day, in shifts. They sat our son at a small table and helped him perform tasks while offering play breaks and rewards. There were far-flung doctors, blood tests, medications and three hours a week of speech therapy. In between were depressing books and phone calls to veteran families.
But within 18 months he became the loving, curious child who'd vanished for a time. At 5, he's a happy, singing boy who can lie to cover his mischief (a cognitive milestone). Speech tests reveal high scores and superior reasoning. His only real differences are stubbornness, clumsy social skills, a variable attention span and a fondness for mechanical equipment. To outsiders who know his label, we are unlucky, but in our parallel universe we are among the fortunate.
At the park, strangers ask, "Is he your only one?" Yes, I say, he's like five kids. Or I tell them I have no local family help. But truthfully, I can't handle another child. A kid with autism bears innumerable price tags. Therapies, diets and battles with schools add to the high emotional costs. But it's worth it. Compassion is the painful gift my son has given me.
For some parents, this becomes a soul-opening experience they could not have gained otherwise. For others, depression, divorce, bankruptcy, even suicide ensue. Most of us eventually adjust and soldier on.
Even so, few have additional children after a diagnosis, because we fear a possible genetic risk. My friend with three autistic boys would have stopped had she known, although she's happy she didn't (two have recovered). Stoppage is the rule, not the exception.
I look wistfully at small girls, with their pink dresses and steady talk, but I love my son. He climbs into our bed, shouting "There you are, Mom!" with wild delight. He brushes my hair and paints my toenails. He hugs me so hard it chokes me.
"Am I going to love you for the rest of my life?" he asks me, grinning, and throws himself on my lap.
This devotion makes me cling to him, revel in our hyperkinetic attachment. It makes me think I could have another baby, a girl with our blue eyes. But then I feel the fear. Not only of an autistic child, but a regular child whose abilities might dim my vision of my son. So I hold onto the words of the experts, who say he may lose his diagnosis, work, marry, even have children. Grandchildren would be a great solution to stoppage.
I know a woman whose son has completely recovered. She is pregnant. We other mothers shake our heads at her hubris. She didn't even sperm-spin for a girl, we whisper with awe (autistic boys outnumber girls 4 to 1). I once rode to an autism-mom party with her. The other women in the SUV pumped her about her child, sighing at her success.
"I was just determined he wasn't going to stay autistic," she said.
I was amazed that she would say such a thing to equally driven mothers whose sons can barely function after the same treatments. Then again, only a supremely self-assured woman would tempt the fates again.
When my son turned 4, we went to the Salvation Army church of his baby-sitter, who put him onstage to throw a dollar for each year of his life into a basket.
"How old are you?" asked the pastor before a packed Santa Ana congregation. Answer, I pleaded soundlessly from the back of the room.
"I'm 4 years old," he said.
"And we thank God for your birthday!" she chuckled into the microphone, as everyone watched him, the lone blond boy amid the knot of dark-eyed Latino children. Later, as the brass band played a birthday song, he danced. The pastor spoke in Spanish, and the room roared with laughter.
"He may not speak Spanish," my baby-sitter translated, "but he sure can dance."
I do not believe in God, but I thank him for my son anyway. I am grateful for everything that I once took for granted, because the world is full of children who cannot live the lives their parents had planned. After everything we have been through, he is more than I ever hoped for. In the face of what lies ahead, he is more than enough.
Credit: C. Adams is writing a book about her son, who recently passed a kindergarten-readiness test
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Kudos for Column on Disabilities
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.;
Apr 29, 2001 |
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By C. Adams |
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2001 all Rights reserved)
Re "For Developmental Treatment, Let's End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' " Orange County Voices, April 22:
C. Adams' commentary about how difficult it is for parents to learn about and get educational services for a developmentally disabled child matches the experience of my wife and me in getting services for our autistic son and that of many other parents we have spoken to. The primary reason, as Adams says, is the money.
When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, it authorized grants to states for the funding of 40% of the cost of special education. The best it has done to date is 8%, and it has left it to the states and local agencies to pick up the slack. Not surprisingly, the regional centers and the school districts are disinclined to advertise the services they are obligated to give but may have difficulty delivering with their current funding.
Special education services are designed to help people with disabilities develop to their greatest potential with independence as the goal. We can prepare them now to get jobs and become productive members of society, or we can shortchange them and increase their demands on social services and the welfare rolls when they become adults. Our society has the choice of paying now or paying forever.
Parents of children with disabilities have no alternative to fighting the regional centers and school districts for the rights of their children. These children need early intervention or they will be left behind. They do not have the time to wait for funding that was promised by Congress a generation ago but has yet to be delivered.
DENNIS PISZKIEWICZ, Laguna Beach
Kudos for Column on Disabilities
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.;
Apr 29, 2001
Re "For Developmental Treatment, Let's End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' " Orange County Voices, April 22:
Bravo to The Times and C. Adams. Your column had me screaming "Right on! Amen, sister!" in my kitchen last weekend. I appreciate the author's candid interpretation of "services" not necessarily provided to special education kids and their families in Southern California.
For the people who think "This is not my problem": It is. Your tax dollars are going to administration and the red tape behind not providing children services.
What this means to you is that your tax bill will increase servicing young children to senior citizens with autism and other related disorders if we do not clean up this mess soon. We should spend our tax dollars in helping these families, not hindering their needs, so these children one day can be responsible tax-paying citizens, not burdens to our communities. Early intervention is key. For some reason, the Regional Center and school districts are not hearing this message. Help us get this message across.
As a parent of a beautiful autistic child who struggles five to 10 hours a week with the Regional Center and my school district, I look forward to your continuing support.
LISA ACKERMAN, Huntington Beach
Kudos for Column on Disabilities
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.;
Apr 29, 2001
Re "For Developmental Treatment, Let's End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' " Orange County Voices, April 22:
Our 5-year-old son with autism began a program at a local school 14 months ago, after we begged for help from the school district. We were told that since he was in a 20-hour-per-week special education preschool class with an hour of speech therapy, he didn't need additional help. Albeit, he couldn't answer the question "What is your name?" and was nearly 5 at the time. Their own evaluations indicated he tested last out of 100 children his age in nearly all areas of verbal communication.
After eventually being awarded a 10-hour-per-week program at a school site, some improvement was noted. But it was not until we initiated a letter campaign to the school district that his program came home. His progress since is remarkable. He is completing kindergarten in a regular classroom, and his school recommended regular first grade in September.
If a child destined for a life of special education has made this much progress in only eight months of home programming, why does it have to be an incredible battle with school districts in the first place? The success of his home program will save the county thousands of dollars over his lifetime, and he now has a chance of making an important contribution to our community. We have personally experienced the district's "Don't tell" parents policy. If it weren't for the gracious help of other parents, our son would not have the opportunities for success now available to him.
STEVE AND MELANIE SMITH, Laguna Niguel
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Let's End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
An autistic boy's mother says therapy at home is the best path, but parents must fight for funding due them.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.;
Apr 22, 2001 |
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By C. Admas |
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2001 all Rights reserved)
It's 2:30 at my house, and Jonah's third therapist has arrived. Jonah, my blond 3-year-old son, sits tearfully in her lap with a book. Her no-nonsense approach has chopped his tantrum off at the roots
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For autistic children like Jonah, this home visit is part of "behavioral intervention" therapy. At this hour, dozens of therapists are whizzing up to houses like mine, teaching autistic children how to look into someone's eyes, speak, play and learn. There are three boys like Jonah within three blocks of us.
Autism is a neurological disorder that causes social isolation, strange behaviors and odd or absent speech. Home programs like Jonah's are based on a landmark 1987 UCLA study in which one-on-one home therapy helped 47% of treated children achieve normal IQs and enter regular classrooms. The remaining children also made progress.
In the no-cause, no-cure world of autism, it is the only method clinically proven to significantly improve a child's outcome. Orange County families whose children are diagnosed with autism, Asperger's syndrome or pervasive developmental disorder turn for help to the Regional Center of Orange County, a county agency funded by state and federal money.
The agency is responsible for helping young children with autism, including paying for home programs if needed. When the child is 3 or older, public school districts assume educational costs (including home programs), while the agency continues to provide other services.
It is the state and federal mandate of the Regional Center and school districts to help autistic children. Why, then, do these "savior agencies" almost never tell parents about home programs, according to most Orange County parents who have autistic children? Money, of course.
Parents are in the position of having to lobby one or both of these providers to authorize and pay for home programs. These programs fall under the unwritten "Don't ask, don't tell" policy of the agency and school districts. If parents don't ask about programs, they aren't told they exist. Even most parents who beg for a program, says special education attorney Shelli Lewis of Corona, are routinely denied funding if they don't
fight for it.
Home programs are expensive. Programs like Jonah's are run by private agencies such as the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, or CARD. These are paid for by districts or the Regional Center, and consist of 30 to 40 hours per week of treatment. The cost ranges from $40,000 to $100,000 annually. Yet home programs, which should start by age 3, can gradually taper off after three to five years and help avoid a potential lifetime care cost of $2 million to $3 million per child. Plus, state and federal dollars are available to help offset costs.
But parents and educators say the Regional Center drags its feet with meetings and evaluations until the child turns 3 and their home program responsibility ends. The center says it knows it hasn't supported programs as well as it might and is looking for ways to improve, but argues it has made progress.
Once the child turns 3, school districts typically offer kids 15 hours a week in a special education class and two hours of speech therapy, even for kids who can't speak, scream for hours or panic at the sound of a vacuum cleaner.
Many confused families can't afford a lawyer and simply give up. To its credit, the Regional Center says it intends to increase home program support. And some school districts offer in-house versions of home therapy. But a previous UCLA study found that school-based skills don't cross over well to the outside world, while home-based learning does. And low therapist wages compromise district program quality.
Once a home program is approved, work begins. Someone must stay home to run the program, and that means devastated parents must sometimes mortgage homes, quit jobs or move. However, to most, it is worth the cost.
To help families, the Regional Center and school districts should:
First: Tell the truth. Sorting truth from routine lies ("We don't pay for that") becomes part of a parent's life. Second: Inform all parents of home programs and other recognized therapies. Third: Work with, not against, parents and service providers. Fourth: Authorize funding for treatments, including home programs, within 30 days of declaring a child eligible for services. Fifth: Fund a job list where parents and therapists can make contact.
Six amazing months into our CARD program, Jonah is getting better. The boy who never asked a question looks at me nightly and begs, "Mommy, will you sleep with me?" He gives "shots," using his stubby finger for a needle, and says, "I'm berry berry happy!"
I only wish RCOC and school districts would give every child the same fighting chance.
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Judgment in favor of disabled student affirmed |
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On July 11, 2003, the California Court of Appeal (5th District) affirmed a $2.4 million dollar verdict in favor of a 15-year-old mentally retarded student who had been sexually assaulted while at school. A jury found that the school had failed to adequately supervise students who were allowed onto the school grounds during the early morning hours before school began. As a result, the plaintiff in the case was sodomized by another boy who lured the plaintiff into a restroom.
On appeal, the school district contended that it did not have a duty to protect the disabled student from what it characterized as an unforeseeable sexual assault because it was not aware that the other boy had a propensity to be sexually aggressive toward other students. The court of appeal rejected this argument and distinguished this case from other cases where private homeowners were held not liable for sexual abuse that occurred in a private residence. The court held that a school has “well-established statutory duties mandating supervision for the protection of the students.” The court held that the school had a duty to protect the disabled boy from a sexual assault on the school grounds. M.W v Panama Buena Vista Union School District (2003) 11 Cal.App.4th 508
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Parent Compensated as ABA therapist for own child |
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A United States District Court judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that a parent can be compensated under market rates for providing Lovaas-type ABA (applied behavior analysis) treatment to the parent’s own child under limited circumstances. The court determined that circumstances warranting such compensation are demonstrated when: 1) the local educational agency fails to provide a free and appropriate public education, 2) the parent supplies services which are established to be appropriate, and 3) the parent receives training. The court further determined that the parent need not be certified as an ABA therapist in order to be compensated. Bucks County Department of Mental Health v. De Mora, Case No. 01-3254 (ED PA 2002)
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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Closing of Facility For Disabled Found Discriminatory
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In Rodde v. Bonta, No. 03-55765 (February 5, 2004), the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld an injunction preventing the County of Los Angeles from closing the 207-bed Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.
The county had sought to close the facility citing budget concerns. The county argued that the closure was not discriminatory against the disabled patients of the facility because cuts were being made “across the board.”
In 2002, the county had consolidated its services and moved all acute rehabilitative services for patients with disabilities to Rancho Los Amigos. Then, on June 30, 2003, the county planned to close this facility. The court held that the county could not completely eliminate the “only hospital of six that focuses on the needs of disabled individuals.”
The proposed closure was enjoined as a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Your child’s special education needs are determined on a case-by-case basis. The Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony can provide you with the legal representation you need when dealing with the school so your child receives the best possible individualized education plan.
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