There Were No Winners

Travis attended his local middle school for one month. After his third suspension we decided to move forward with our Due Process Hearing. It was set for October 31, 2005.

When the hearing officer heard that we wanted to move forward with the hearing he asked if we would be open to him coming to sit down with us and the district to try to mediate our situation. We were supportive of that idea. We knew that we could not in good conscience send Travis back to the middle school for even another day. And the hearing was set for five weeks away.

The conference took place on September 23rd, 2005.

The special education director told the hearing officer that he did not know that we were unhappy with the out of district placements. (No, I am serious. He actually said that!)

This is where saving every document comes in handy. One of my friends that follows my blog recently told me that I need to share with my readers the importance of saving documents. And how I did it.

First off, I have a ton of three ring binders. I have printed dozens of articles during my research. They are in research themed binders. I have IEP themed binders, where I filed the most current IEP on top of the others. I have referred to them often over the years. I also have file folders. Most of Travis’s settings did a back and forth notebook to tell us how he did and what he worked on each day. We shared with his schools how things were going at home. I still have these notebooks, in the file folders. These notebooks are a big part of the reason I remember the details. Because rereading them refreshes my memory.

I labeled file boxes, and put the research information with the school information by date. I have several of these boxes that I kept for all of these years. They contain Time magazines (with related articles), pictures, important letters and evaluations.

For my readers that are parents, hang on to any information you receive from your children’s schools and their doctors. Having this information available came into play on many occasions advocating for Travis’s needs. Today it can be done much more efficiently. Save all the documents in folders on your computer and then to a memory device.

When the director told the hearing officer that he did not know we were unhappy with out of district placements I pulled out one of my binders. It contained everything from Travis’s fourteen months at his first day treatment school setting.

I turned to the section with the monthly treatment plan meeting minutes. The school setting took notes at each meeting and then sent them out to Travis’s team members in the format of meeting minutes.

I read the portion of the minutes that stated how unhappy we were with this setting. That we did not feel that it was an appropriate setting for Travis. The minutes stated that we wanted to know when an autism and related evaluations were going to take place. The minutes showed that we were told the evaluation would be in four weeks. In the minutes it showed that our local district was invited to attend the meeting. And the minutes showed that they were CC’d to the special education director himself.

Then I turned to the minutes of the next month. Read the same portion out loud to the hearing officer. And again our district did not attend, and again we were told evaluation was four weeks out, and they were CC’d to the director.

I did this for six months. And then I asked the hearing officer if I should go on. I told him that I had fourteen months of minutes. And then I dug out my next book. For the day treatment setting that Travis attended for the following year. I told the hearing officer that I had another year of monthly meeting minutes I would be happy to share with him.

The hearing officer looked at the special education director and said something like, “I do not know what is worse. Either you just lied to me about not knowing that the parents were dissatisfied with the placements, or you sent a child out of district and wrote him off. The district did not attend the meetings and you did not bother to read the monthly minutes?”

My take is that he lied. The hearing officer was upset either way.

The hearing officer asked what we were hoping for as a result of having a hearing. We told him that we wanted our son to go to his local school. That we would like our district to hire a teacher with an autism background. Have four or five children in the classroom. With a paraprofessional in the classroom. A properly trained aide.

The hearing officer looked at the director. And he actually responded to the group that he had no intention of providing such a program. So the hearing officer looked at us. And asked without an appropriate program within your district, what would your next choice be?

I had already began to research options. (I know that my readers that know me personally are not surprised one bit!)

But I am also guessing that my readers that are getting to know me through this blog are probably not surprised by now either!

I shared information about a private school as a potential placement. It was out of town, but not a day treatment center. The school described their students as exceptional children.

The hearing officer shared with our district that if it was unwilling to provide a full, adequate and complete continuum of educational services as provided by IDEA and it’s regulations, then the district would be required to pay for a suitable alternative.

I wanted our district to build an appropriate program. Not only for Travis. But also to serve other children in our district with similar needs. It would save them money. And save Travis from having to travel an hour to and from school. I was saddened by the turn of events and the realization that our district had no interest in building a program.

The hearing officer said that if we had a hearing he was going to find the district was not providing a continuum of educational services and that they would be required to pay for private school.

The district opted to forego the hearing and agreed to pay for Travis to attend private school.

We had a signed contract for enrollment at the private school I researched on October 3rd.

I was happy to not have to participate in the due process hearing. And Travis was going to have the opportunity to attend a school that would likely better meet his needs. But I was surprised at the wording in the Order Dismissing Request for Due Process Hearing.

It states, “the parties informed the hearing officer that they had agreed that the petitioner’s then current placement in the middle school was not appropriate, because of the petitioner’s severe behavioral issues. The parties agreed that they had given that placement a fair opportunity to succeed for approximately five to six weeks, and that it had become apparent to all concerned that the Petitioner needed a more restrictive placement.”

(Um no. But whatever.)

It also states, “At that time, the parties were working together to attempt to agree on that placement, and they were investigating a private school as a private placement.”

(Again, this is just not the case. The director was working with us to find a private school placement? In what alternate universe did that happen?)

“Accordingly, the petitioner moved for dismissal of the request for due process hearing. The respondent countered with a motion to dismiss with prejudice, contending that if the petitioner asserted any violations of the IDEA or sought remedies in addition to those already agreed to by the parties of the private school placement, the petitioner should be required to proceed to hearing presently.”

The hearing officer determined, “If the private placement effectively disposes of the issues raised by the petitioner in this proceeding, then this request for due process hearing should be dismissed with prejudice as to those issues, and petitioner would reserve the right to request a hearing on any matters which arise subsequent to the date of this order.”

So in effect, we are erasing all of the errors made by the district in the past because they have agreed to pay for the private school. Like it never happened. And how extraordinary of them to do so. After the hearing officer said that would be his finding if we proceeded to a hearing.

But we reserve the right to request a hearing on any matters which arise subsequent to the date of this order. Well, unfortunately, this would be something I end up having to remind the district of in the future.

Our complaints were that our district was not providing (FAPE) a free and appropriate education under IDEA and that they did not provide a full, adequate and complete continuum of educational services as required by IDEA.

The dismissal order states, “The agreement for private placement resolves these issues. First, the petitioner would not have agreed to the private placement had that placement not offered a free and appropriate education. Second, the placement demonstrates that the District offered a sufficient continuum to satisfy the currently perceived educational needs of the petitioner. Therefore, the allegations and the proposed remedies contained in that request for due process hearing are now entirely resolved.”

At the time we believed we won. Although Travis would not be attending his local school, he would be attending a private school that at the very least was more appropriate than a day treatment program. Honestly, how would we know at this point?

I’m sure the director thought he won. Every mistake he made in the past is gone. Cannot be brought up again. And he doesn’t have to put forth the effort of building a program. And he no longer has Travis in district. He clearly did not care about the financial cost of sending Travis to a private school.

Travis attended private school until he finished his high school years. The cost falls in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. From sixth grade through twelfth grade Travis was transported over an hour each way to and from school.

What would the local taxpayers think of that?

There were no winners. Everyone lost. Especially Travis.

“Morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” - Martin Luther King