As a follow up to the article that ran earlier this month entitled “SC Government Schools ‘Bullying’ Disabled Children,” I would like to present you with the information that was provided to me by Richland /Lexington School District 5.
You will see the letter that was distributed to all schools within the district, the letter that Oak Pointe Elementary School sent out to their students’ parents, the legal opinion of Duff, White & Turner, L.L.C., the email correspondence that took place between the Director of Special Services for Richland /Lexington School District 5 (Marlene Metts) and myself – as well as the letter that I sent to Dr. Mitchell Zais, State Superintendent of Education.
I also sent copies of my letter to:
• Ms. Cathy Boshamer, M.Ed. Director, Exceptional Children
State Department of Education
• South Carolina Education Oversight Committee
• Washington DC (Metro)
Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Education
• President Pro Tempore John W. Courson
Chairman, Senate Education Committee
“Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members — the last, the least, the littlest.”
~Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a 1998 letter, Creating a Culture of Life
Our elected officials must be held accountable for their failures. By threatening to punish special needs families for taking their disabled children to doctor-prescribed therapy sessions is by all accounts failing them. Many parents of children that do not struggle with such challenges often times do not understand the federal and state laws designed to protect those with disabilities. Perhaps they don’t care, because it’s doesn’t effect them.
What we have to realize is that in the long run, no matter how you slice it, this effects all of us. As a society, we have two choices: 1. Engage and help ensure all children are provided a free and appropriate public education so that are able to grow and become independent, productive, contributing members of society, or 2. Pay in the price of life long public assistance and/or incarceration.
Unfortunately, statistics are not in our favor. I will not allow my child to become a statistic! I will not sit idly by and watch families in torment over whether or not to withdraw their children from therapy or play the odds and hope that Social Services doesn’t come knocking on their door to file charges against them.
When the schools (because of poorly written and interpreted state education laws) start bullying families with disabled children and we don’t get mad about it, who knows what they’ll pull next. This opens the door to allow all sorts of unethical behavior. How far are we going to allow them to push us around? If you’re not mad about this, you’re obviously not paying attention.
Danni Bloom
yourspecialneedsadvoc
Chapin, S.C.
SUPPORTING MATERIALS (.pdf)
SIC SEZ
Danni: This is amazing. You are a true champion for exceptional needs children in South Carolina. This state needs an army of you …
27 comments
More proof that the state owns your child if you send them to public school, not you.
Danni;
I humbly respect your position and your desire to fight this. I don’t believe that education is a core function of government and could give a rats patoot about what the SCOTUS says about it otherwise.
I realize that many folks haven’t the funding to drop their children into private schools where they would be better treated and better educated, and where parents wishes would be fully respected.
Good Luck to you and yours, Danni. You’ll be in our prayers.
Frank Pytel
“I also wish to caution you that the district cannot reduce a child’s school day for the purpose of allowing a child to receive private, third party services during the regular school day”–Meredith L. Seibert
I would be willing to bet an order of BOB’s hot wet crispy wings and a pitcher of Ying Ling that if Cockroach Lawyer Meredith L. Seibert had a child who was benefiting from private therapy during the school day and such was denied by the school District because it was not part of “their IEP” and conflicted with “their FRAP” she would be in a Court before her bikini wax burn disappeared demanding the Judge order the District to show cause why her child was being denied needed professional services based on the fact she did not want to take her child to therapy at 9 o’clock in the evening
Oh, my bad. Odds are Cockroach Lawyers’ kids go to private school and are not subject to tyrannical myopic self serving public educational polices and procedures that remove all parental control over what they and non-educational professionals deem best for their children the moment they send their child through the front doors of a public school
Once again it is time to sharpen the blade, get the donkeys out of the barn, grease the cart wheels and load’em up
So glad to see you back. I missed your acerbic truth telling wit.
I personally think most of the attendance rules are illogical but they are rules nonetheless. I know high school kids who did not graduate because they missed one day over the limit. It’s no more unfair to them than to a disabled kid. The same rules should apply to everyone. Change the rules. If my memory is correct, when I was in school, back in the dark ages, students could miss 30 days. Now it’s 10 unexcused absences. Lobby to get the rules changed so they are fairer to all students.
The whole situation is a disgrace, rules enforced by philistines, it is something out of a Kafka novel. You must get your child treatment by professionals, but if you take your child out of school to the professional, you’ll get into serious trouble. WTF, school boards, districts, anybody awake with a functioning brain over there? Danni, I know you won’t, but don’t back down on this or anything else to do with these cruel drunk-with-power schools. You are now in a long line of activists who put themselves on the line to make things better, to stop arbitrary petty bureaucracy run amok.
Danni is a true advocate. I wish more people would join her.
Danni you are being dishonest with readers, which is your prerogative. you are perfectly free to pursue private schooling and therapy for your child. but i can’t register my kids at the local public school and then not show up even if i feel like i have a valid reason. the local school will be held accountable for your child’s progress. we don’t allow schools to throw their hands up and say ‘well billy’s old man just won’t drive him to school so forget him’. i’m sure you are trying to right by your child, but you are trying to have it both ways – you want schools held accountable (just like Fits), but you want the freedom to do as you please. can’t have it.
Spoken like a true Libitard Idiot. Just blowin in the wind.
Oh wait… I get it. I get it. XP
You are appropriately named. Have it both ways? So a child with cancer is given the option to either attend school or go to chemo, not both? Dialysis? Physical therapy to prevent being crippled by injury? Do you not understand that doctor’s offices are open during business hours? That appointments with medical professionals occur during the day? You are being dishonest. What exactly is your axe to grind with Danni? You have an agenda, why don’t you reveal who you are so we can be clear about why you are lying in a pathetic attempt to discredit her?
ProTip to TGB:
Please chain your dawgs.
Idiot’s comment highlight the government mindset well.
There are “rules”. There is no grey, just black or white. Either the rules are enforced or not…regardless of the situation.
It’s a perfect example of what happens when you legislate everything in society.
Glad you’re feeling better, BB. We don’t always see things the same, but sometimes we do.
Here’s what part of the problem is: the idiotwind poster is trying to equate a negligent parent who doesn’t feel like driving their kid to school, and a special needs parent trying to get medical care for their child. And that doing so is somehow akin to
“the freedom to do as you please,” as if the parent is trying to get away with something or is doing something unnecessary in booking treatment appointments. So the parent IS negligent if they don’t take their child for therapy or doctor’s visits, and they are also negligent for taking them appointments during the school day. Idiotwind, YOU can’t have it both ways. And threatening parents with DSS to boot! This attitude is likely the culture of the school administration, or it is emanating from one person who has their eye on federal dollars to the district. There needs to be clarification of the policy from the Department of Education. And reprimands for anyone threatening parents, as if they don’t have enough stress. The gall of looking a special needs parent in the eye and telling this garbage, that is what amazes me. Eduthugs. And they wonder why no one respects them.
Excellent points.
Perfect retort!
idiotwind: Your comments are just twisted. Sorry but you don’t make real-life sense.
As always, it’s about money. If special needs and disabled students get help and treatment in the private sector and not in a public school then that school or it’s district will have it’s budget reduced due to not needing to provide for those students. Less money in the school budget means less money going into school officials pockets.
It’s always about money and how much government officials can stuff in their pockets. You think bureaucrats really care about your child?
You are spot-on! My husband always says for EVERY thing, follow the money!
We might also ask about the battle between DDSN and USCMS. USC Medical school, in order to appear relevant, wants to gut the only decent State government program – the tiny Autism division – in an otherwise bloated DDSN department. Talk about making chicken salad out of chicken droppings!
I am shocked but not surprised. The arrogance of educrats and the slimey lawyers who support them is unbridled.
Those kids that are special need should have protection. But this overall bullying thing is exactly that; bull. Why don’t we spend more time teaching our kids to have more self-esteem, more confidence. Rather than teaching them to cry and run for big brother every chance they can.
Danni has a brilliant mind; and she is really focused on this dilemma. She will not quit until she prevails. You go lady!
So, the questions is, if the treatment is medically necessary why is it not included in the IEP?
Also, this is no unique to South Carolina
.http://www.issaquahpress.com/2010/05/25/new-school-absence-policy-to-affect-special-needs-students-the-most/
Because it is not the job of the school to provide medically necessary treatment. The school only adds therapy to the IEP if it is targeted towards educational goals.
from the article I posted –
“The problem hasn’t been with medically necessary appointments since the school’s faculty knows about them ahead of time through the student’s Individualized Education Plan, Holm said. Those plans are required by law and allow schools, doctors and parents to work together to advance the education and quality of life for a child with special needs.”
“The problem has become the amount of appointments that aren’t prescribed. In some cases, parents have scheduled their children, both special needs and regular students, to be out of school for a half-day every week, because it’s easier to make appointments during the day, Niegowski said. The appointments range from supplemental tutoring to optional therapies.”
So, if you cannot document it is a medically necessary absence why should the school be obligated to excuse said absence?
What a wacko. sic(k) willie never misses a chance to take bogus cheap shot at SC public education. In this case, it wacko cheap..
Our Funding Editor had an IEP “back in the day” when she was in high school. Of course, her school did not have running water or indoor plumbing in the 1800’s.
But, her parents were smart enough to get her 3rd party treatment included in her IEP so this was never a problem.
Otherwise, parents could claim an excused absence for a visit to get therapy from “Oda Mae Brown.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh5b29cM0KA
Seems like the SC education system is following the law and playing fair. Wonder why Danni doesn’t just get it in the IEP.