Breaking news!!!! I’m so happy to announce the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision that 15-year-old Luka’s school district violated the teen’s rights to a free and appropriate education in his least restrictive environment. In a lightning fast decision, the 6th Circuit Court also ruled that Hamilton County Department of Education in Tennessee must reimburse Luka’s family for the cost of private school education.
Luka’s mom, Deborah Duncan, said today’s decision validates years of fighting for Luka’s right to be a fully included member of his school community. “Hopefully this will prevent other students from facing segregation, empower families to insist on real educational services and measurable outcomes for their child with a disability, and make it impossible for schools to continue discriminatory practices against students with disabilities,” Deborah says of the decision.
Read Related Post Here: Ninth Circuit Court to Decide if Student with Down Syndrome Can Stay in General Education Classroom
Hamilton County School District in Tennessee wanted to place Luka for half his day in a self-contained classroom in a school outside of his neighborhood. “The segregated class follows no state curriculum or standards. There’s no homework or grades. No accountability,” Luka’s mother Deborah Duncan explains. Knowing Luka would not receive a Free and Appropriate Education in the Least Restrictive Environment if he stayed, Deborah moved her son to a Montessori school where he continues to attend today.
After paying private school tuition, $75,000 dollars in legal fees, and a five year battle with the school district the family eventually prevailed at the district court level in Tennessee. The District Court ruled that a self-contained class is more restrictive than necessary, but that the family would not receive reimbursement for the private Montessori School.
Read Related Post Here: 7 Research Studies You Can Use at Your Child’s Next IEP Meeting to Win the Fight for Inclusion
Then Hamilton County Schools filed an appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Federal Appeals. “They have no ground to land on, but it allows them to delay reimbursement of our legal fees. They just look vindictive and have spent a lot of taxpayer money just to violate the law. We finally decided to cross appeal for reimbursement of the Montessori school private tuition,” Deborah explains.
Now the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the district must pay the family for all the years of private tuition they incurred, and upheld the lower court’s decision that Luka’s rights to FAPE in LRE were in fact violated. Today’s decision will impact students with disabilities in the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.
Read the full text of the decision here.
My son was socially promoted past an entire year of middle school to high school and the. When he couldn’t keep up, they unilaterally moved him off diploma track, forcing us out of town. He later graduated from High school with a Tennessee honors diploma and in dec, after 6.5 years, he lived in his own apartment and graduated from Marshall University w a 3.1.
I think this is an AMAZING victory!!! Congrats Luka!!! You are a strong guy who deserves what ever child without a disability gets. My 7 moth old grandson has downs syndrome and you are our hero! You fought and won!!! Your parents never let you down and I am proud of your family for not allowing Tennessee schools to discriminate you. I have had issues with the school’s here in Knox county. My son was asked by a teacher if he was illegal and they put him in college prep classes knowing he had an IEP. UNACCEPTABLE!!! The school also called CPS bc my son has stomach issues which I have documentation of his visits and instructions that were sent by the doctor to the school. The CPS worker didn’t understand why the call was made considering I had all my documentation. I now homeschool bc I feel Tennessee schools are ridiculous! Good job for you and you family sweet boy…you’re a winner and a hero today!!!
I just hired a lawyer to help fight for the rights of my child. I’ll be happy to tell you more about it. Working on a new IEP with legal representation as I type.
Email me the details Michele! And good luck
CONGRATS
I just had a situation where my son won a lottery spot in a charter school in Utah, which is state funded. My son has mild autism and ADHD. When I went to meet the teachers, they observed my son’s special needs and immediately discouraged me from keeping my son at the school and told me they couldn’t accommodate him because they don’t have aids or a full time special educator. When I told the principal, he also made excuses for their school and no plan was offered or IEP explored. They all just actively discouraged me from keeping my son in the school until we no longer felt welcome there. I ended up losing my spot at our private Montessori school and had to enroll him at my local public school because it was the Friday before school started and I had no place for my son to go.
Charter schools have no mandate to provide services to students with special needs. Dislike immensely.
In this case, the charter school was receiving state funding. Assuming those funds included federal funds, yes, the charter school would be required to provide services.
My son has severe dyslexia and the school district does as little as possible despite the tons of advocating and documentation I have done. I have a good case but can’t find a lawyer that doesn’t have a outrageous retainer fee. It’s devastating that lawyers and private schools for children with disabilities are exclusive.
My daughter was finally moved into a self-contained classroom after years of fighting with an advocate . She was bullied, isolated and left alone to take care of herself .
I hate the fact that since we have to move her, she loses diploma opportunity .
I dont have money for lawyers or private school. We are considering moving out of state.
Why do you feel a diploma is necessary? Is there a resonable chance/opportunity for future employment?
Public schools are tasked with ensuring all students are college or career ready. I want the expectation to be that he will receive a diploma. I don’t know if he will reach that expectation, but if I said in kindergarten that he’ll never get a diploma–well, he’d never get a diploma. There are students with Down syndrome that are receiving high school diplomas. As you know, many jobs are not available to people who don’t have a diploma. If my son decides he doesn’t want a diploma I will be ok with that. Our expectation at the outset is that he will work towards a regular diploma, just like it is for my typical son.
HCDE leaves much to be desired for kids with IEP’s and special needs. I have had to fight for an inclusive setting as well. The next step needs to be appropriate curriculum acquired for my daughter who has epilepsy and basically a traumatic brain injury due to brain surgery. I believe there are some great teachers in the system but the administration for exceptional education is the problem. For years the thought process has been to put our kids in a back room rather than to include them with their peers and see their strengths. We now have a new superintendent and new exceptional ed director. Time will tell if their new 3 year plan for inclusion will be successfully implemented.
My 15-year-old son with Down syndrome was recently forced out of his home school district and is now commuting 2 hours a day to attend a public school for children with special needs, which is located in a neighboring county. At his home school, he spent 60% of his day in s specisl needs classroom, which he hated and from which he regularly eloped.,The school district laid all the blame on my son and has labrled him as a behavioral problem. I am disgusted by their lack of culpability, and I am very frustrated.
I have homeschooled my son for the past 12 years for this reason. He’s been in school twice for short periods. Last year going in at grade 5 in a self contained was a disaster; no IEP for 4 months, violence in the classroom, no expectations, no academics, to name a few. I pulled him out in 3 months and will forever homeschool. I just don’t have time to fight the system, I would rather use my energy to homeschool. I have two other children and we do school together.
We fought for 2 years for our daughter with DS to be taught in a general education classroom. Our old district fought us every step of the way. We hired attorneys and advocates, created a Change.org petition which garnered 18,000 signatures, did everything we could to show them that our daughter had a legal right to be taught alongside her typical peers in the least restrictive environment. The district would not budge. A prominent special education attorney told me that there was no federal court case that was won regarding inclusion, and even if we somehow managed to win our due process case, there was no guarantee that the district would even follow through on the court’s decision. He stated there is no “inclusion police” in schools. He encouraged us to move, and ultimately, that’s what we did, a day before our due process hearing. Since we moved while under “stay put,” our fully inclusive IEP (that we had managed to get written after lots of struggle and cost…and what the district was trying to change to 100% self containment) was implemented in the new school district. Our daughter has been 100% included in this new district in Illinois (Naperville 203) for two years now, and it was absolutely the best decision for her and our family.
Hello, I’m writing this from the standpoint of a parent volunteer so please, please do not think that I am being heartless. Also, please forgive me if I’m not using the proper terminology. Correct me, I’ll need to learn. My hopes in writing this is to start a dialogue and find a solution. When I volunteer, it’s very difficult to balance the learning of a high needs student and that of a more mainstream student. With 25 kids in the room, the teach undoubtedly has to divide his/her attention. But when one student’s need require 30% of the classroom time, it’s not fair the other children sit neglected. It sounds awful, I know. But the entire progress of the class is held up because one student needs so much more attention.
Hi, I’m so happy you’re here. Please peruse the blog. I started it because I wanted to open people’s minds to inclusion. I started it because I wanted people to understand that my son, and other people with developmental disabilities, are not just a burden; that they have something to offer a classroom and workplace. Did you know that 80% of people with developmental disabilities are unemployed. Imagine if we could cut that in half, even a quarter. Imagine if more people with disabilities could live independently and work. We’re never going to get there by assuming they can’t be included even in a general education classroom. It starts in school. Yes, teachers need support and training. But evidence-based research shows that inclusion benefits not just students with disabilities. The extra training and supports equals better outcomes for all students. Thanks for reaching out! https://www.inclusionevolution.com/7-research-studies-can-use-childs-next-iep-meeting-win-fight-inclusion/
Only 39% of Americans can afford a $1,000 emergency. These laws are a joke. No wonder schools fight so hard. They have zero incentive to do anything otherwise. Not when it takes $75,000 in legal fees and $XX,XXX in private school tuition. They know we are at their mercy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/18/few-americans-have-enough-savings-to-cover-a-1000-emergency.html
Deaughter with FAS. School’s IEP was non effective and provided nothing she needed. During IEP meetings people would smile and nod, take notes, and none of tgeir notes resulted goals or accomodations. Took them 3 months to get the final draft. Teachers ignored my concerns. She’s a year behind in math and language arts. Finally pulled her. We homeschool. She was suppised to start 6th grade, but at barely four feet and 50 pounds soakibg wet I just couldn’t throw her in the lion’s den. Due to the FAS she is functioning as an 8 year old. Very socially and emotionally immature. She was bullied but no one did anything. Much less anxiety now.
In the state of HI we seem to be going backward with inclusion instead of forward with more students being segregated than ever. At our daughters last IEP in May 2018 , the dept against everything we advocated for offered for our daughter to only interact with her typical peers for 15 minutes in home room, recess lunch and “specials “. This is unacceptable as she will spend the day in a resource room with other students coming and going with no opportunity for peer modeling of her typical age peers. They will be strangers to her at recess and lunch and she to them. It sends both our child and her typical peers a strong message that she does not belong in their classroom but must be segregated away into another classroom where only students with disabilities belong. Needless to say she is not attending. Hopefully things will change someday I’m HI students with disabilities will be welcomed and valued in general education classrooms and learning alongside their typical age peers.