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Special Education Needs Causing Financial Crisis in California Schools

Now, I am all for special education forschools' cases went to a full hearing - 386
children with disabilities. I attended schoolin all. The remaining 90 percent were
at a time when such children were either putresolved through confidential settlements.
into "special" schools or thrown in with theWith 700,000 special needs students currently
general student population to sink or swim onin the California schools and already paying
their own. It was a terrible inequity. Ithundreds of thousands of dollars each year
finally was addressed in the 1970s with a lawfor private placements, the school system is
designed to correct such discrimination byheaded  for  a  financial  crisis.
giving these children the civil right to an
equal opportunity to learn. The law coveredIn 2004, the California schools received $4.1
children from birth to age 22, guaranteeingbillion for special education from the
them the right to a free and "appropriate"government and local sources. It was still
public education. It is the ambiguous wordnot enough to pay these extra settlement
"appropriate" written into the law that iscosts, and the California schools had to take
creating a crisis for the California schools,$1.6 billion from the regular class budget.
according to Nanette Asimov, staff writer forTwenty-eight percent of the special education
the  San  Francisco  Chronicle.expenditures that year came from the regular
education  budget.
The article cited a situation of one
California schools child with a disability.California schools educators complain that
The assigned public middle school offeredparents who are able to afford an attorney
special college prep classes, daily help fromare assured more opportunities for their
a special education expert, a laptopchildren than those who cannot afford to do
computer, extra time for tests, theso, creating an inequity between the haves
opportunity to temporarily leave class if theand have-nots. Additionally, special
child's had an anxiety attack, and a specialeducation teachers see benefits to special
advocate to smooth over any problems withprograms, such as horseback riding therapy,
teachers.but acknowledge that such parent demands are
not education related. California schools
The parents hired a special consultantparents  and  educators  are  at  odds.
instead, who found alternative schooling
opportunities - all were private schools andParents are making tuition payment demands of
all were out-of-state. They settled on athe California schools for such programs as
boarding school in Maine, outside the mainprivate day schools, boarding schools, summer
city, that had one-tenth of the enrollment ofcamps, horseback riding therapy, and aqua
the California schools. The one thing thistherapy. Additionally, the California schools
school did not offer was a special educationare expected to pay for computers, airfare,
program. The mother said that smallercar rental, hotel stays, meals, new clothing
classrooms and a smaller campus were moreand tailoring for the children, cell phone
important than a special education program.calls, stamps, gas and tolls, and future
Since the possibility of anxiety attacks wasround-trip visits from time of enrollment
mentioned in the article, no one can trulyuntil the children graduate from high school.
judge the merit of this situation except the
child's  physician  and/or  psychologist.In all, the California schools are paying
billions of dollars each year for private
After the child was placed into the privateplacements and auxiliary costs. It is
school, the parents then hired an attorney,creating an inequity for children the civil
who specializes in special education cases,rights law was passed to protect and a
to file papers with the court demanding thefinancial  crisis for the California schools.
California schools pay four years of tuition
and family travel costs between CaliforniaI have to admit that I wanted every
and Maine. Tuition was $30,000 annually. Theopportunity possible for my child to live a
California  schools  met  the  demands.happy and normal adult life. I had a special
needs child and spent many hours sitting in
This is only one such case in the Californiaprincipals' offices and at the school board
schools, which may or may not have beendemanding that his needs be met. I was
justified. The problem is that it is not thethankful that he received access to the
only case. In 2005, there were 3,763available offerings within the public school
California schools children with disabilitiessystem.
that were the focus of formal complaints -
the vast majority of which came from parents.In my view, however, it is not a question of
This is triple the number of only ten yearsright or wrong, justified expenditure or not.
ago,  and  the  numbers  are  growing.It is a question of the legislators going
back and specifically defining the word
With a cost of almost $40,000 to go to a"appropriate". Until then, the California
court hearing and the possibility of anschools are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,
expensive judgment, the California schoolswhich means less opportunities all the way
attempt to settle cases before they get thataround.
far. In 2005, ten percent of the California



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