Deborah Duncan Rausch says it took countless sleepless nights researching and even selling her home to fight her son, Luka’s, public school district and win. She doesn’t want any other family to have to do the same just to get their child included.
Deborah says it started in their hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee when she realized starting in preschool Luka would be segregated from his peers and set on a non-academic path to nowhere. The family moved to Hamilton County to a magnet school in Chattanooga that initially accepted Luka with open arms. But starting in 3rd grade, as high stakes state testing began, the school started pushing for a segregated setting even though Luka was making progress.
The district 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,” Deborah explains.
Read Related Post Here: Ninth Circuit Court to Decide if Student with Down Syndrome Can Stay in General Education Classroom
Deborah pushed back and started advocating for other families facing the same prejudice in her school district. “It was so important to me because I knew it was endemic. They were trying to segregate my son as a 9-year-old. It was worth selling my house to pay the $75,000 in legal fees to force the school district to follow federal law. But what about the families that can’t?” Deborah asks.
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 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.
She didn’t stop there. “I’m in finance, so I know you have to follow the money,” says Deborah. She started digging deep, making numerous Freedom of Information requests, and soon uncovered an incentived funding formula that keeps students with disabilities in her county in a cycle of segregation. “Our district’s formula pays more in segregated setting receiving the exact same level of service, than if they were in regular setting. We filed suit against Tennessee’s Department of Education for violating their fudiciary duties. They quickly settled with us, because they knew we were right,” Deborah explains.
“We can’t go any place in our town without parents coming up to us and thanking us for what we did. They say they felt helpless,” Deborah describes.
Read Related Post Here: 7 Research Studies You Can Use at Your Child’s Next IEP Meeting to Win the Fight for Inclusion
The family’s battle for inclusion is still not over. Hamilton County Schools actually 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.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that families can be reimbursed for private school tuition if the public school IEP was found to be inappropriate, and the if the private school placement is deemed to be the most appropriate available option (School Committee of the Town of Burlington v.Department of Education of Massachusetts). “The District Judge even stated Luka made progress at the Montessori School, and he ruled the public school was inappropriate. I think he knew there was a clear violation, but just didn’t want to penalize the school district by making them pay for the private school tuition,” Deborah explains.
Even after all of the family’s success, Deborah would never recommend suing. “I would recommend learning everything you can about your child’s rights. Get connected to a local advocacy agency. No parents should go into an IEP meeting alone. Always have an advocate with you. Schools will negotiate if pushed. Fewer district will go as far to segregate as ours did,” Deborah says.
“And If you don’t care at all about disabilities, care about the the cost of taking parents to court. We could be pushing a million dollars for my son’s case, and not a single student has been educated with that money. That money should have been spent on training teachers, co-teachers, advocacy training for parents. Everyone should be outraged by that.”
A ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court for L.H. v. Department of Education of Hamilton County could take months or even a year. I will keep you posted on any updates about the case.
Have you or someone you know had to fight a similar battle for inclusion? Are you frustrated that we’re still fighting this fight more than 30 years after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed? Tell me about it below.
Yes, it is tragic that another generation of children is being harmed, socially and behaviorally by the segregation of students with disabilities. Special education rooms need to be abolished. The child abuse and mistreatment, false data collection, all need to end now.
I hope Endrew F. will bring about good change. I’ll be following these cases closely, as I know you will be too Christin.
Our kindergarten daughter was forced into a self contained class with only older boys with autism. No other girls or kindergarteners. She would have one recess, lunch, and a 30 minute visit to a gen ed class. She knew 30 sight words and had nice printing, but they would not consider giving her more gen ed time. It took 15 months, 6 IEP meetings, a Citizen Complaint to OSPI and a lawyer to move her into gen ed with an aide 80% of the day. By then, she was in a private school and remains there in 1st grade.
Sorry your daughter was excluded Susan! I’m befuddled as to how systematic change hasn’t happened when an education in the least restrictive environment with supports is federal law, research and case law backs it up. So frustrating!
When my son was 6 yrs old our school devided to change his placement feom gen ed to therapy school. They school they chose for him was one with no outdoor space or playground, tiny rooms with a wide afe range and worst of all a hallway with three small dark timeout rooms in a row. I refused to send him and hired a lawyer who negotiated a better placement. But informed me that fighting the placement change was useless because I didnt know our eights and didnt act in the time frame (9 days, I rhink) so mu son was sent to a school for autism 1/2 hour lonely bus ride away. I juggled impossible drop off and pivk ups between his bus and mu orher two children. Fyi, testing showed no autism, he was above the cut off. He would be pdd or Asperger. But every meeting I was told they had no place for him in district. Why would they want him there? I also believe our state reimbursement made for a financial wash to the district. So for 2 years he got very little academics (alrhough staff was very caring) every IEP meeting I was told he wasnt ready to return, just quiet yet. Even when the district opened an Aarism class room, rhey said he wouldnt fit. I caonsidered sueing evry day but the lawyers fees are so high. Eventually I decided to give up on our district ever educating him, now we homeschool.
I’m sorry your son didn’t get the education he deserves. Most families can’t fight like Deborah did, and many can’t homeschool. We have to ensure public schools are following the law with fidelity so those who can’t fight get the education they deserve under the law.
You are the reason not a single child was educated with the one million dollars spent. Your son deserves a quality education. So do all the other children. You could have negotiated and worked with the school without incurring this waste of money. the main benefactor was not your son: it was the lawyers who got their fees paid. You were on a crusade & to heck with everyone else. Districts will only put up more barriers out of fear of parents like you. You should advise parents to keep open minds and hearts and work collaboratively with the educators who work with your child. Not bring lawyers to IEP meetings!! Why don’t you tell parents to bring lawyers to their kids pediatrician appointments? Or to your child’s play date? Where has common sense and decency gone?
The reason not a single child was educated with the money lost in this suit was because the school district either didn’t know the law or didn’t care. That’s why the school district lost in court. I’m not sure why you’re attacking this mother for advocating for her child. Do you have a child with a disability? I’m also not sure why you’re reading this post; you’re obviously not going to find the point of view you’re looking for here. This website is for parents and educators who following federal law and advocate for those who can’t always advocate for themselves.
Tiffany you obviously don’t have a clue what’s it’s like to have a child with an IEP and be up against a school district dead set in their way. Do you honestly think this mother didn’t try the negotiating route?? She spent over $75,000 of her own money for pity’s sake! Seriously you have no clue!
Hi Courtney. I am curious what inclusion would look like for your son in a public school setting?
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for reading and asking. I’m just beginning to formulate my vision for my son in a public school setting. In preschool his IEP already states that are long term goal is for Troy to be prepared for post-secondary education and/or a competitively paying job in our community. To that end, I would like him to remain with his typical twin throughout his education career. He will need a lot of support to do this, but I think there’s a lot to be gained. I would be thrilled to have services and supports pushed in to his regular class, but I’m also not opposed to him having intensive learning for small amounts of time outside of the regular classroom. I would like him to have a 1:1 aide or be in a co-taught class. These are my dreams for Troy, but I would never say never to private school and possibly even homeschool (although I’m not sure who I can teach all the social aspects of public education from home).
I know you asked Courtney but I want to share that my son with down syndrome was in kindergarten he was in the regular classroom all day every day except 30 minutes a week of speech therapy pullout and 15 minutes once a month of occupational therapy pullout. He also had 15 minutes 3x/ month of occupational therapy in the regular classroom to work on handwriting while the class was also writing. There were other children who benefited from the IT coming into the classroom and since my son had an aide in the classroom it have the teacher time to work with some students. The speech therapist also came in to the classroom for 30 minutes per week and the teacher ,aide and speech therapist each worked with a group and all the children benefited. My son’s presence in the classroom helped a boy who had anxiety. Several parents thanked me for advocating to have our son included as their children loved him and he loved them. The special education teacher came into the classroom for a short time everyday and they all benefited from her expertise too. The aide,was there for my son but she helped with all the children. My son benefited from spending all day with his typical peers and having a sense of belonging. He was exposed to the same material as the other children. He was not a visitor to the classroom as so many children who are pulled out for long sessions everyday become,”Johnny he comes and he goes ” missing all that academic and social belonging time walking the hallways from resource room,to classroom,speech room to classroom,OT room to classroom. He truly belonged , it’s just a matter of removing barriers as the Bible tells us to. Is it easier to segregate …yes, is it the right thing to do..no. And my son was no better than any other preschooler with Down syndrome, it’s all about the time spent with typical peers in the language rich environment with the high expectations of the regular classroom. And to the family in Tennessee God bless you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. What occurred for our son and his classmates in kindergarten required great personal,fonancial,and emotional loss to our family. Our children have had enormous lessons in advocacy, corruption, deceit, by people they are suppose hold in esteem…educators…as we took them to IEP meetings. The schools act as dictators and there is no negotiation unless there is a lawyer oftentimes…I read about it everyday in my Facebook groups and it is sad because another generation of children are missing out on inclusive schooling….which is so beautiful done well.
We are in the same battle with our school district. Our son is 8, in the first grade general ed with some resource time daily. He has consistently made progress but in November, after doing a psychological eval on him and deteriorating his IQ is low (shocking) the district wants to put him in a self contained classroom outside our home school. I have contacted Disability Rights in our state and am waiting to hear back from them. No child with Ds in our entire district is educated in general ed, except one, whose mom refused to be bullied. She’s now in 7th grade but still battles SpEd every year. It’s so frustrating and exhausting! Thank you for this article and links!!! I’m reading and researching as much as I can!
I’m glad you could find some resources from the blog. Keep up the good fight!
Tiffany, have you tried to get your child with Down syndrome in a general education classroom in a school system where they just don’t want to do that? There comes a point where the school won’t budge and you have no other choice as your child is losing his or her valuable education if you don’t take them to task. You don’t have the luxury of just waiting and arguing because your child is losing out as every week passes. Research studies show students with DS have better outcomes, academically and socially, when educated with their typical peers in a general education classroom with modifications to the curriculum. These students aren’t learning the same things in a special education classroom. Their only chance to be taught most information is in the general education classroom. The studies also show no negative impact on the typical students with few exceptions. In fact, the typical students’ test scores often go up. I applaud this mother for standing up for what’s right for her child’s education and at great financial cost to her. What she did not only helps her child, but all others’ with DS and other disabilities who are being unfairly treated the same way.
My district filed due process against us twice. Once over forcing an IQ test, which I then just had done privately, and then we actually went to court over an unnecessary re-eval….all in an effort to remove my daughter from the diploma track which then leads to some level of segregated classes. Too many school districts just don’t believe it’s possible to educate our kids in the gen. ed. classroom. They don’t know how to do it so our kids suffer and lose out on both academics and socialization. We went into debt trying to fight them and still lost in court….as most parents do. Better teacher training would go a long way but we need an entire culture shift to believe that it’s possible because without belief there is no effort to even try. The education my daughter now receives in her ‘special’ classes is not that special because the bar is now set so low. They didn’t educate her properly when she was included and they’re still not…..because their vision is different from mine. Having down syndrome should not relegate a student to being separated and seen as less than but that’s the example schools set. Her peers may one day be her employer or co-workers so we should be taking the opportunity now to treat her as an equal and not as a school mascot. Inclusion is just as important for the typical kids as it is for our kids…..it’s not just about the academics. Unfortunately segregated classes often fail to provide either appropriately.
“…we need an entire culture shift to believe that it’s possible because without belief there is no effort to even try.” You speak such truth Marge! It’s definitely a mindset, and unfortunately most don’t believe our children deserve the dignity of include and a growth mindset. How do we change that?
Been through this my kid’s whole K-12 career. Looming on your horizons: inclusive college. Why not? The main point of education is to create productive, independent citizens. thinkcollege.net lists hundreds of inclusive college options for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who have been excluded from college opportunity, until now. The focus of the transition services for my kid’s school has been can recycling, for years on end. Post high school programs focus on recycling cans in hospitals. Huh? What? No. Hospitals and can recycling are not places for our young adults to be educated. And can recycling isn’t a career. Advocates need to push into colleges too. Some states have already done it. South Carolina has an inclusive post secondary program for students with disabilities at ever public university. Who knew South Carolina would be such a leader?
Yes, to all of this Lauren! I have posted on a few of the inclusive college programs. The most recent post was Charleston’s. Read about it here: https://www.inclusionevolution.com/college-students-syndrome-reach-true-inclusion/