Evanston parents and community members are worried a possiblefederal law could leave many special-education students in the citywithout the services they need.
The reauthorization of the Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Act is scheduled for Senate debate this summer afterbeing passed by the House of Representatives late last month.
If the bill becomes law, it would change how students areevaluated and disciplined. It also would cap the number of studentsa state can declare as having special needs — and thereforeeligible for federal funding — at 12 percent.
“The whole proposal to change the law is a wolf in sheep’sclothing,” said Matt Cohen, an attorney who represents parents ofspecial-needs children. “They say it’s to make teaching easier, butit’s really designed to lower the bar for what schools are expectedto do.”
In Evanston/Skokie School District 65, about 1,500 pupils — or20 percent of the total student population of the district –receive special services. These pupils range from children withautism to those with dyslexia or other attention disorders.
“Evanston has a huge number of kids who are special needs,” saidChris Baer, and Evanston resident and parent of a special-educationpupil. “We could be in significant trouble if there were acap.”
The proposed law also would affect how some special-educationchildren are academically evaluated.
Many such pupils receive an Individual Education Plan — anannual set of academic goals created by teachers and parents. Theplans currently are revisited at the end of each year, but theproposed law would require evaluations to be done only every threeyears.
The purpose of the education plan is to document studentprogress and some feel three years is too much time betweenevaluations.
“Consider the amount of development of a child betweenkindergarten and second grade — it’s a massive amount,” Baer said.”To just look at the goals every three years really stagnateskids.”
And because most special-education children are in regularclassrooms, Baer said it is essential for teachers to have a clearunderstanding of a child’s goals. Otherwise the children might endup like Baer’s son, who she said sometimes received better gradeseven if he didn’t complete all his work because teachers wereunsure how to evaluate him.
The new law also would treat special-needs children in regularclassrooms like regular students in disciplinary matters even ifthe behavior was caused by a disability, Cohen said.
“A kid with Tourette syndrome may swear in class and be thrownout for that,” Cohen said.
Many minority and low-income special- needs students already arenot getting services under the current law, said Marian Casey,founder of Answers for Special Kids, a nonprofit support group forparents. If the number was fixed, even more students would beexcluded.
The Disabilities Education Act is a legal document that protectsparents and special-education children, Casey said. Without thebacking of the act, parents would be unable to hold schoolsaccountable for providing special services to their children.
“Special-needs kids are becoming a larger component of generaleducation,” Casey said. “Special education is not a place, it’s aservice. It affects all general student achievement.”
