If you are a parent or teacher of a child with Down syndrome, you’ll want to follow the proceedings of a Ninth Circuit case that may change how and where school districts place students with intellectual disabilities. You can watch the proceedings LIVE, Thursday April 11th here.
The case revolves around a 2nd grade Arizona boy with Down syndrome whose parents refused to send him to a self-contained classroom at a different school, because they argue he was making progress at his homeschool in general education. Starting in kindergarten, the student attended his neighborhood school in a regular classroom with a paraprofessional, and was pulled out 110 minutes for “intensive instruction” in reading, math and writing.
Related: 5 Tips for Including Students with Down Syndrome in the General Education Classroom
“Student was demonstrating progress on his IEP goals, including the majority of the goals that were implemented by the resource teacher (academic/social- behavior goals). Additionally, the student’s resource teacher admitted that his communication skills greatly improved from two-word phrases, which were limited to things he knew about, such as about his mom, dad, or sister, or naming things that he knew, to three to four-word phrases. The impact on his typical peers and teachers was described by his kindergarten teacher as ‘amazing’,” according to the plaintiff’s open brief (parent’s attorney filed).
The Gilbert Unified School District has 30 days after the plaintiff’s brief to file their own, but the following link gives you a more detail description of the district’s possible argument. Click here.
Despite his progress, the Gilbert Unified School District in Arizona decided just a few months into his kindergarten year that the boy should have 20 more minutes of “intensive instruction.” This time in a self-contained classroom at another school. The school district said the new school would be better for the student, and provide him with “more services at his level with peers in a small environment that could have been better for him.” This subjective opinion was the only evidence they used to propose a change in the boy’s IEP.
The parents argued that it amounted to a change of placement without the proper evaluation of his progress under his current IEP, but the district argued it was just a change in location. Although the Special Education Director testified the model of teaching was different at the new school, where the students would be in a self-contained class 100% of the day using a replacement curriculum.
Sound familiar? It’s likely, if you have a school-aged child with Down syndrome, your child or someone you know has fought a similar battle. After 30 years of research and federal law to back up inclusion with proper supports, parents are still fighting for their child to be included in kindergarten of all places. And the battle often gets more difficult as students progress through school.
But Endrew vs. Douglas County has give parents an opportunity to demand more for our children. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools must provide special education that enable students with even the most significant cognitive disabilities to meet “challenging” and “appropriately ambitious” goals. For these students, progress may be measured against “alternate academic achievement standards” designed to promote further education, work, and independence.
Related: Realizing the Promise of the Endrew Supreme Court Case
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals must now decide if the school district made a change in placement and threatened the student’s access to a Free and Appropriate Education in the Least Restrictive Environment as the parents argue, or if it was simply a change in location as the school district contends.
The National Down Syndrome Congress and National Down Syndrome Society have written amicus briefs in support of the Arizona boy, stating the Supreme Court’s Decision in Endrew announced a “Markedly More Demanding” standard for educating students with disabilities, reflecting the IDEA’s high expectation for students. The organizations’ amicus brief also describes the research that proves “students with disabilities benefit from being included in regular classrooms with non-disabled peers.” You can read both briefs here and here.
Fortunately, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) allows the Arizona boy to stay in his current placement while the court proceedings continue. He’s now in a regular 2nd grade classroom at his homeschool, and his parents say he continues to make progress.
The map below shows the states that will be impacted by the Ninth Circuit of Appeals decision. If you live in a different district the court decision doesn’t have to be followed, but could be used as a possible argument by parents or a school district in similar due process hearings.
The parents and school district can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if they are unhappy with the Ninth Circuit’s decision. I’ll keep you posted on the court case as it unfolds.
You can read about the family in a local Gilbert, Arizona news story here.
You can also read a more recent blog post about the Arizona boy’s mom who has fought for the last 2-years to ensure he remains at his neighborhood school. Click here.
I think people with disabilities in school and across the board are still fighting for inclusion This is the last Civil Rights movement STILL waiting to happen!
Yes, Loree it truly is! Civil Rights laws and court cases are the precedence for special education laws. History is in our favor! We just need to keep up the good fight.
I know this may be a less popular stance, I’d like to respectfully request that we, as a community, take care not to destroy the continuum of alternative placements in our just quest for inclusion. My child is medically and educationally complex and has done far better in a specialized school. We had the opposite problem— our district removed her from special school to the regular school. She spiraled into the steepest regression. Their argument was and still is LRE alwayand first. Placement, like all parts of the IEP must be an individual determination. Thanks for hearing this.
In 1990 I tried to include my daughter in K at her home school but it didn’t work out because the atmosphere was very hostile we changed schools and it worked much better she was included in Jr. High and high school and graduated from high school. She also has Down syndrome. She currently works as an actor and is a member of the actors union. Inclusion can be where there is a will there is a way
Thanks for sharing your daughter’s story of inclusion Theresa. I wish all families and teachers could get the support they need to include our children in general education. Inclusion shouldn’t just be for the children who’s parents move and sue and fight. Sigh!
https://youtu.be/U8ezbvwIq_k
What would happen if the parents just said, “Never mind. We don’t want him to get any special education services.” Can the school force them?
We were lucky in that our son was 100 percent included thru elementary, then maybe 60% in middle school and 75% in high school — not perfect, but it worked for him. And never any threats to move him elsewhere.
Keep on fighting!!!
One of my advocate mentors actually did this with her son who has Down syndrome as he went through school in the late 1990s, early 2000s. She just did private therapies and never allowed them to pull him out for anything. The problem is some families depend on school supports and therapies to help their child progress. Not everyone is lucky enough to teach them at home and pay for private therapies.
David is 39 and employed. How can you look forward to jobs and inclusion when your education focus is exclusion? Being socially appropriate its a learned skill. Only way to learn this is through model and acceptance.
Yes, and this is the parents’ exact argument in this case…among many other very valid arguments.
You are so right Suzanne. My son is 17 and holding a job at Burger King and I️ am convinced it is because of my pushing for him to be included as much as he has been. He is holding this job and doing it well without the benefit of a job coach. The struggle is very real but we have to think of the future for our children. The only way to be included in your community in the future is to be included in your community. Tomorrow’s managers ,lawyers ,entrepreneurs ,psychologists, doctors, etc…etc….are the children sitting in the desk next to your child and learning of their abilities and the extra they bring with them!!
I fought every year from before entering Kindergarten through the beginning of Fifth grade to keep my son in his home school. Due to the ‘Stay Put’ part of the law I was successful in keeping him at his home school, but not fully included- maybe 50% of the time. He just started middle school this year, and the administration is more on my side- he’s included in gen. ed for history and science (which he is absolutely thrilled about)- this is very unusual for this school, and other kids at and even a little above his skill level are in self contained, so it’s definitely not perfect, and the teachers are skeptical, but it seems to be going okay.
Good job advocating for your child and stressing the “individual” part of his IEP
In Washington state, we had to fight all year to allow our kindergarten daughter access to peers. The proposed placement was a self-contained class with only older boys with autism. No other girls or kindergarteners.
Oh, this fills me with such anxiety. We are a military family and our next duty station may take us to Washington state. Coming from Ohio, I made the wrong assumption that because Washington seems progressive, inclusion would be accepted. The more I hear, the more that assumption is wrong. All wrong! If the 9th Circuit rules in favor of the parents/child, I plan to use the case for my son who will enter kindergarten next year.
We are military and were in Washington for 6 years. I fought for inclusion and for the support my DS girl needed to be successful and they fought me at every turn. Best bet, get a good advocate and have them hold the district’s feet to the fire. We finally, got advocacy that was working, then PCS’d. Military life is tough with an exceptional child. I plan to start advocacy training to help others. Bottom line…it is shameful that any child has to want and need in a school setting. Education is the gateway to our future and it is in constant need of funding. Our country needs to prioritize and put its citizens first. Good luck.
I am 53 now but I was born with spina bifida. So 40+ years ago when it was time for me to go to school, my parents wanted at the same private school as my siblings, the school said no. So I went to public school who wanted me in self contained class all day. My parents fought to have me main streamed when there was really no such thing. I can tell you for sure it was great for my intelecual development. Today I hold two B.A.’s and am working on a Master’s degree. My niece has Down’s Syndrome and is in a regular class. She is doing amazing things. While I’m glad education has changed since I was in school, it angers me that more has not changed. People with disabilities need a full civle rights movement. I advocate every day so those like my niece who come after me have fuller better lives they should have. Keep up the good work. All children learn by example. Disabled children learn to advocate for themselves from their parents. I did and my niece will to.
Thank you for advocating for yourself and your niece!
Is there any way we could find out when this case will come up? I have not been able to find any such information on the 9th’s web page.
I have looked too. I do know the School District has 30 days after the plaintiff’s brief to file their own. I’m not sure what the timeline is after that.
Thank you for bringing this to light! It is 2017~ NO child should be segregated! We too have fought schools over “their perceived idea” of placement. When is this going to end? Hoping a strong win will help clear up exactly where a child belongs~ Gen Ed!
My son with autism was making progress in high school when the school decided they wanted to put him in a 90-minute self contained block. The reason? Case manager said “all my kids are in my resource block.” He didn’t have goals to support that much time out of the mainstream setting. We went on stay put for almost a year but it was complicated by a 15-min self contained service that was left on his IEP (we had hoped to get rid of this as he has mastered the goal tied to it and he wanted to get on with graduation requirements. It got ugly. To give him this 15-min service they pulled him out of LUNCH. This went on for almost his entire junior year.
This road is just so tough! But your son’s future will be brighter because you fought for his right to an ambitious education. Thanks for being a role model for moms like me following in your footsteps.
Separate is not equal. The fact that we even have to have this discussion is absurd.
Indeed! The law is behind us, and hopefully this case law will be behind us too. Fingers crossed!
What is the recommended procedures for demanding more time with general ed students?
My son who has down syndrome is in 2nd grade. We moved from wonderful big school district to smaller school district in same metropolitan area this school year. His time in general ed ch is zero in current school from 1/3 in previous school. I expressed the concern in IEP meeting. so what is the next step I should take?
Honestly, I think principle doesn’t know he is discriminating special needs children by segregating them as much as possible.
Hi Emma! The first thing I would do is go to http://www.copaa.org and find an advocate in your area. Show that advocate your child’s school records and have them come with you to the IEP meeting. You would need to prove that he’s not making progress in his current placement, so it’s very important that you document all evaluations and data that the teacher takes. I would ask her for all test results (formal and informal assessments). Use this to track his progress and see if he’s making progress. If the IEP goals are not ambitious enough he may be easily making progress, which means he should have more ambitious goals. Good luck! And keep me posted!
Re: “After 30 years of research and federal law to back up inclusion with proper supports, parents are still fighting for their child to be included in kindergarten of all places.”
It would be helpful if you could include links to the research you’re referencing for those parents who aren’t familiar with it.
Hey, Steph! Will do! Thanks
I teach an academically based self-contained middle school class. My classroom is a safe, caring environment for all students on my campus, not just my students. My students go to inclusion elective classes and core classes when appropriate with a para educator who provides support and circulates the entire classroom, shadowing my students providing support to all and not focusing attention to them specifically. My students are accepted and embraced on my campus . The goal is to push them out to gen edu classes as much as possible, not segregate or isolate them. Unfortunately many times, due to a language impairment and/or a large academic discrepancy, my students express anxiety in gen edu classes, even with para support and accommodations. I have gen edu students who come in my class as student mentors and my students love them. I love my students and always advocate and make decisions based on what is best for them individually considering all factors. I fight for my students on a daily basis.
Let me preface this by saying that I have a 20-year-old daughter with intellectual and physical disabilities. I may be in the minority, but I don’t believe 100% inclusion is always best. My daughter was in a self contained class in high school that focused on independent living skills and vocational skills. She was mainstreamed for elective classes. Before that, she went to a school just for those with speech and language disorders She thrived because she was taught on her academic level , not on the level of the average student and time was not wasted teaching her things that would not be useful to her. Her learning time was focused on things that would help her be successful in life. She is doing great, BTW. She is attending a school that focuses on teaching independent living skills and job skills and lives in her own supervised apartment.
I have fought to keep my child included and this is terrifying news to me if the Gilbert school district were to win. The laws were created so that children would be included yet after all these years we are still having to fight so hard for this !
Our family fought hard for our daughter with intellectual delays to be placed in her least restrictive environment.
The general education teachers at her high school were welcoming and supportive, the administrators were not. Our daughter graduated with several awards and was recently accepted into one of the most inclusive University programs in our country (Washington State University Roar Program).
She would not have qualified if deprived of the many classes we pushed for.
I am excited about this upcoming ruling as we just adopted a 14 year old with DS, so here we go again.
My son is in kinder at his neighborhood school with his sibling and cousins and was just forced to self contained at another school. The school spent the year documenting his failures/regression all year as proof he didn’t belong there. They didn’t want him there in the first place so they never made an effort to let him shine. He started out the school year able to read by signing, knowing his letters, numbers, colors. I think they believed i was making that up. If the team doesn’t believe in your child, the child will not be successful. It sounds like Ryken had a great team that believed in him and that is wonderful!! I wish them luck and thank them for standing strong in this battle!
I remember a very powerful conversation I had with a women who had a son with special needs. She sent her child to a “normal elementary school” he had aids and an IEP tailored to his needs but never really thrived.
When it came time to transition to high school she was told that it was probably best that her son attend a special school more suited to her sons needs. The woman refused and sent her son to a “normal high school” her son was bullied and fell even further behind. At the end of the year the woman was again told that her son was not coping in the school environment and he would likely do better at a special school, again she refused to accept their advice.
Her son continued to fail, the bullying continued and his behaviour deteriorated, he became depressed, his speech regressed and he would rarely come out of his bedroom, he did not have any friends.
By the end of ninth grade the mother was called to a meeting with the school principal, teachers and a representative from the education department where she was told that was it, her son could not attend normal school and she no longer had a choice he had to attend special school. The mother screamed, cried, abused the panel discussing her sons needs but it amounted to nothing her son was enrolled in a local special school
When her son started at the school the mother was angry and hurt, her son was not like those children she thought, how dare he have to go to such a school. But then much to the mothers surprise her son came home and asked if he could spend time with his new friend after school. It had been years since her son had a friend so of course she agreed. She then notice his speech was improving and her son would come home and sit in the lounge room, no longer locked away in his room.
By the end of the year her son received a positive education assessment, he had joined a soccer team and had a full social life. Again the mother ended the year in tears but this time the tears were not because people weren’t accepting her son, it’s because they were and she realised that it was in fact her who had not accepted her son for all those years for who he was. She admitted that her reluctance to accept her son did have special needs and did need to be in a special school had contributed to years of depression for her son
Her son was 21 when I had this conversation with her. He had moved out of home and into a shared apartment with friends he made from school, he had a job as a technician at a local radio station, still played soccer and was overall a happy young man
The woman’s story reminded me that sometimes it’s important to sometimes listen to those who are not so emotionally involved in their children’s development. Sometimes teachers and those involved in disability educational support do know what they are talking about and as hard as it may be we sometimes need to accept that just because special school is not what we want as parents it doesn’t mean it’s not what our children need
Sounds to me like another mom beaten down by the system of segregation. Many of us get to this point. We want to change the world for our child, but instead the world convinces us that our child needs to change. Of course the student was depressed and struggling. The school your describing doesn’t understand or believe in the legal definition of Least Restrictive Environment. Instead of using natural proportions of 1 in 5 students with developmental disabilities at the regular school (which is what the real world looks like), they warehoused enough of these children in a special school and then made the mom feel crazy and you question her advocacy for her child. If the other children with disabilities were instead attending the regular school as the law requires, he would have had what you call “friends,” since I suppose typical peers could never be his real friends. In fact, the teachers and students at the regular school will never be this child’s friend or advocate, because they were never asked to look outside their narrow view of the world. He’s other. He’s different. He’d just be happier with his own kind. Because this is the way it’s always been it’s definitely the right way, right? No matter that the the law and over 45 years of research says general education with appropriate supports is most beneficial for ALL children, and where all children must start. This student you describe adapted well to the world he was given, and we can all applaud ourselves and tell ourselves that we did what had to be done. You may argue that this is the way the world is and the mother had to conform, but I’m proud that she fought so long. She knows the truth. That special schools aren’t equitable. That even though her son adapted and came out the other side ok, something was loss in the process. That separate is never equal.
Yes, Courtney. I agree. Well stated. The parents cave, acquiesce, defeated, resigned, needing a school, and the student is set up to fail in the place where he is not fully accepted, the regular school, so the district wins in the end, perpetuating a segregated system.
Actually FAPE/IEP/ LRE is wrong. Under Supreme Court case Olmsted v.lc/ew decision basically removes LRE to ‘ most integrated setting appropriate to needs of persons with Disabilities’
Under Olmsread mandate, self-contained classes are violation of ADA (Olmstead Decision)
lc= Lois sued to get out of an institution so she could get integrated services.
The student in this claim needs access to most integrated setting, not just least restrictive environment (LRE)
Point? Full integrations into all school activities, included sports, pe, reg classes, clubs ( 4h, pep club etc) AND supports
Would you accept being isolated from peers? Let this kid have full access, ADA, and inclusion
BTW private or Christain school are NOT REQUIRED to comply with ADA,IDEA,LRE, etc. Let’s not fund a group that segregated and discriminates..because it hurts our disabled kids
Does anyone know the name of this case or have a link to follow up on the decision? Thanks!