Mariah Harris 3/18/13 Senate testimony speech is on NPR Talk
Radio 91.3 FM today! It aired twice this morning and will air again at 5:30PM
if it doesn't get bumped for breaking news today on Monday April 22nd, 2013.
Why Parents Could Get More Control Over Their Child’s
Special Education
APRIL 22, 2013 | 10:32 AM
Right now, schools determine whether to move a student into
special education classes.
But a proposed bill in Tallahassee would give parents of
children with special needs more power over their education.
Fort Lauderdale 6th grader Mariah Harris has Down syndrome,
and she wants to be a veterinary technician.
“My dream is to go to college with my friends one day,” she
told a panel of lawmakers.
“I feel the school is now providing my daughter with very
expensive babysitting service,” said Nancy Linley-Harris.
Linley-Harris said Mariah is getting simple worksheets that
are far below her ability.
She told a Florida Senate Committee that Mariah was taken
off a regular education track when she started at the magnet school. “Because she was going into middle school, it seems as if
there was a strategic plan to remove her from being able to get a real high
school diploma,” Harris said.
Education for kids with special needs is spelled out in a
plan tailored for each student known as an Individual Education Plan, or IEP.
“The IEP team, with the blessings from the district,
purposefully dumbed down all of my daughter’s quality educational IEP goals,”
Linley-Harris said.
Harris said her daughter can handle a general education
program. A proposed law moving quickly through the Legislature would give
parents of special needs kids the final say about their child’s education.
If a school district wants to override a parent’s decision,
it would have to convince a judge.
Denise Rusnak oversees special education for Broward County
Public Schools. She said schools must have the ability to do what’s best for
each student.
“There’s medical malpractice,” Rusnak said. “To me, it’s
educational malpractice to make a decision that’s not in the best interest of
the child.”
Supporters of the change say schools are more apt to take
special needs kids out of general education so they won’t have to take
standardized tests like the FCAT. Starting next year, those test scores factor
in to teacher salaries.
But Rusnak said the state only allows a small percentage of
kids to be exempt from the FCAT.
“So, if a school is doing that, we’re going to see and were
going to go in and investigate it,” Rusnak said, “and we’re going to make sure
they’re making the right decisions for kids.”
In the event of a dispute between parents and the district,
the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act requires a due process
hearing.
But supporters of the bill want to give Florida parents more
control than federal law offers.
Ann Siegel with the advocacy group Disability Rights Florida
says these kids are more capable than people think. “I think they’re kind of forgetting what the special part in
special education was,” Siegel said, “and that is to provide that specially
designed instruction to meet the unique needs of the students so the students
can achieve to the same extent as their non-disabled peers.”
Siegel’s group has represented many students who she says
were inappropriately moved to a special diploma track.
“They can’t recoup those credits that they’re missing,”
Siegel said, “and the special diploma is going to not allow them some options
such as colleges and universities and some vocational schools and military.”
Besides giving parents more power, the proposed law calls
for more special needs training for teachers.
It also allows parents to hire
private help to assist their children in the classroom.
The proposal is getting strong bipartisan support and is
ready for a full vote by the House and the Senate.
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