Panel rejects John White's special ed plan

Following what has become the standard playbook for the State Department of Education, Superintendent John White today surprised a committee with sweeping changes to the state’s special education program.

But the Special Education Advisory Panel refused to play patsy, and rejected White’s proposed special education funding formula on an 8-2 vote.

White told the panel that his plan for the $313 million spent each year on children with disabilities will not have a major impact on overall funding levels for school systems. It would, however, radically change the funding structure for special education programs.

Instead of allocating the same amount of money for all children identified for special services, White said, his plan would base funding on three categories into which children could be placed.

In addition, state funds to schools would be adjusted depending on the academic achievement of students, based on academic improvement targets.

A final adjustment of funding would be based on where a special needs child is educated, such as a residential facility, at home or in a hospital.

Panel members objected to the scope of the superintendent’s plan, saying that they did not receive proper notification of the changes and did not have time to study the proposal. Questions were raised about how White’s plan would be implemented, and whether or not it meets requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Members wanted to know why stakeholders were given no opportunity to play a role in developing White’s new policy.

Instead of approving White’s plan, the panel voted to create a task force to study the proposed changes and how they would affect school systems.

The vote may set up a conflict at the next meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state department expected BESE to approve his plan this spring and send it to the legislature for approval; but the panel recommended waiting at least until the 2014-15 before the changes go into effect.

The special education funding plan is also expected to be discussed at the next Parish Superintendents Advisory Council meeting on February 14.

Newsweek article tarnishes New Orleans' charter image

In a devastating new report, Newsweek magazine alleges that New Orleans' charter schools, widely touted as the solution to the city's "failed" public school system, discriminate against children with disabilities.

"What good is the charter revolution," the headline asks, "if it doesn't reach the students who are most in need?"

Part of the Newsweek article focuses on a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center against the Louisiana Department of Education. The lawsuit claims that charter schools in New Orleans violate the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, "particularly in terms of excessive punishment of children with emotional and behavioral problems."

Newsweek says the expulsion rates for special education students in New Orleans charter schools are "shockingly high."

One apologist for New Orleans charter schools tells Newsweek that the problem is "not enough resources," and that in New Orleans "such a great percentage of students are considered special needs."

But anyone who follows the news knows that New Orleans schools, particularly in the Recovery School District, receive much more per student than other public schools in the state. And Newsweek demolishes the argument about the number of special needs students in the city:

Actually, the percentage of public-school students in New Orleans considered
special needs is pretty low: just 8 percent. In Baltimore, the percentage of
special-needs students was 15.3 percent in the school year 2008–09, while in St.
Louis, the percentage was 17.4.

The Newsweek article raises an important issue: "does the much-touted academic progress of New Orleans’s post-Katrina charters come in part because special-needs students are being weeded out? "

New Orleans schools aren't serving special education students well

It seemed like the wholesale takeover of New Orleans schools by the state following Hurricane Katrina was going so well, what with the Recovery School District spending twice the per-pupil amount as the state's other public schools, and all.


Then the Southern Poverty Law Center has to go and spoil it all by revealing that the city's Recovery District and charter schools are doing a lousy job of caring for special needs students.


As Times-Picayune reporter Cindy Chang puts it in this story, "Thirteen students with disabilities have filed a complaint against the Louisiana Department of Education alleging that the agency has looked the other way while New Orleans public schools commit a range of federal violations, from refusing to enroll them to failing to provide a blind third-grader with a full-time aide."


And since there are only a small handful of schools left under the jurisdiction of the much-maligned Orleans Parish School Board, there's no place left to place special needs children except the schools that were taken over by the state.


For his part, Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek is simply SHOCKED to learn that children aren't getting the services they deserve, and if only the Southern Poverty Law Center had called him instead of filing a lawsuit, this all could have been handled without any public outcry.

Is the Recovery School District shortchanging special needs children?

All public schools are supposed to admit students without regard to disability or special circumstances. But last week, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education heard a report detailing what Times-Picayune reporter Sarah Carr characterized as "wide, and stubborn, gaps in the number of students with special needs" in New Orleans' charter and Recovery School District schools.

Read her report here.

The comments by readers deserve special notice - there are first-hand reports of charter and RSD schools turning away special education students, even referring them to pricey private schools.