CPS parents, teachers demand tough actions from state to protect students with disabilities from service denials, delays
Ask ISBE to appoint independent monitor to oversee CPS reforms and direct CPS to compensate students who were denied services
CHICAGO—CPS parents and teachers are taking their demands for tougher protections for students with disabilities to the state board of education Wednesday, where officials will be considering the results of a five-month probe of abuses in the district's special education program.
Parents and teachers will hold a press conference to outline their findings from the investigation and call on the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the fixes of the CPS special ed department.
Groups also want ISBE to award $10 million in compensatory services for students who were wrongly denied special education programming over the last two years and to direct CPS to make its special ed procedure manual less cumbersome for teachers and more transparent to families.
WHAT: Special Ed parents and teachers Call to Action at Illinois State Board of Ed
WHEN: Wednesday, April 18, 8:30 a.m.
WHERE: State of Illinois Building, Thompson Center Lobby, 100 W. Randolph
WHY: ISBE is meeting Wednesday to consider the findings of an independent "inquiry team" that has been overseeing the state's probe into CPS special ed service cutbacks. Special ed parents, teachers and advocates will detail their findings before the meeting.
ISBE launched the probe in response to a request from a coalition of parent, teacher and special education advocate groups, who documented how CPS has been routinely denying special ed services to students in violation of federal law.
Over the last five months, the advocates filed dozens of affidavits from parents and teachers who witnessed those cutbacks firsthand, questioned numerous CPS officials and combed through thousands of pages of CPS documents and data.
The results of the investigation paint a picture of a district bent on implementing policies and procedures designed to delay and deny student services in an effort to cut costs. Parents documented how their children were put in danger because of those polices. And teachers testified how a new "procedure manual," requirements for mountains of new data, and demands that a district representative approve all special ed services hampered their ability to provide services students need and are legally entitled to.
During the course of the inquiry, CPS also announced that it was changing its special education budgeting process, moving from a controversial school-based budgeting process that allowed special education funds to be moved to other purposes, to one that clarifies that special education dollars are to be used for special education only. This is a partial victory for advocates, they say. Advocates have long-said the school-based decision process was causing harm to students with disabilities.
The inquiry and recommendations are the culmination of decades of frustration with the CPS special education system, brought to a head by two developments.
One was a series of investigative stories last year by Sarah Karp of WBEZ-FM, the public radio station in Chicago. The stories covered the development of a CPS special education manual, which appeared to be designed for the purpose of denying services and supports for students with disabilities in order to save money. The other development was the illegal denial of transportation services to CPS preschool students with disabilities, which angered families and advocates in the early intervention field.
“In 1975, it became the law of the land that every child with a disability had a real right to public education,” said Marca Bristo, President and CEO of Access Living, a Chicago-based disability rights organization. “Over the last few years, it’s become very obvious that CPS was on a path to deny that right through the use of a secret procedural manual developed by budget analysts with zero input from teachers and families. That was the final straw for advocates.”
During the ISBE inquiry hearings, families and educators testified to many cases of denial of services, in some cases resulting in physical harm to children with disabilities. One father of an elementary school aged daughter with severe disabilities testified that although his daughter’s education team agreed that she needed a dedicated aide, CPS delayed services by requiring data collection. The student was denied her IEP that required a dedicated aide because of CPS’s budgetary restraint on proper staffing and the student suffered injuries at school resulting in having to go to the emergency room.
The ISBE inquiry is also of national interest because it is rare that a state board of education will exercise its power of inquiry. ISBE’s findings and possible recommendations are of great interest to families, teachers and advocates nationwide.
“As evidence in this investigation, dozens of parents submitted affidavits detailing egregious examples of how special education services for their children were systemically delayed and denied by CPS,” said Mary Fahey Hughes of Raise Your Hand, a parents coalition supporting public education. “The families of CPS students who have special education needs deserve justice and we expect ISBE to come up corrective action that remedy the gross abuses committed by CPS.”
The special education advocacy coalition includes: Access Living; the Shriver Center on Poverty Law; Chicago Principals and Administrators Association; the Chicago Teachers Union; Parents 4 Teachers; Ounce of Prevention Fund; Legal Council for Health Justice; Raise Your Hand for IL Public Education; LAF (Legal Assistance Foundation); Equip For Equality; Potter and Bolanos, LLC; Matt Cohen and Associates; 19th Ward Parents for Special Education, and Sharon Weitzman Soltman.
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Contact:
Matt Cohen, Matt Cohen and Associates
Olga Pribyl at Equip for Equality
Mary Fahey Hughes at Raise Your Hand
773-419-0240 or faheyhughes@gmail.com
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