Newark's Special Needs Settlement

Abbott Leadership Institute Series 21
Newark's Special Needs Settlement
Saturday, February 25th, 10-1pm

Newark, Rutgers University

On Saturday, February 25, Jim and I attended this workshop pertaining to a lawsuit regarding special needs children in Newark that has finally been settled after 10 long years. A lot was talked about at the meeting and I would like to provide a breakdown so everyone understands what the lawsuit entailed and what it means for us as teachers!

The first speaker was Cassandra Chapman-Talmadge, who is a Special Education teacher at Miller Street School. She went over a brief overview of what Special Education is and decisions that are made at meetings regarding children's needs. She emphasized a parent's right to attend ALL meetings. Parents are considered part of the multiple-disciplinary team (MDT), which are all of the people involved in these meetings. Meetings include "identification", which is the decision to evaluate a child, "evaluation", which make up the assessment procedures, "classification", which is eligibility for services and "development and review", which is the implementation of the IEP! Cassandra explained that by age 14, a child has the right to be invited to IEP meetings to serve as self-advocates and contribute to their goals and needs. She suggested downloading the "PRISE" book, which can be downloaded right from the internet. This book is about parent's rights in Special Education.

At this time, several parents were expressing their concerns and issues. One parent explained how unhelpful the Child Study Team was and how she had to pay an advocate to help help through the struggle! Another parent addressed her concern about the school not providing her with adequate resources. She explained that all the resources she had were ones she researched on her own. Listening to this woman's worry and concern reminded me how important it is that we maintain open lines of communication with our parents and lend ourselves as a reliable resource for them! The relationship between parents and teachers should be a true team effort!

Next, an attorney member from the Education Law Center came up to speak about the actual lawsuit; her name was Ruth. As a reminder, the ELC advocates for school funding and special needs. They are an advocacy organization that feel all children deserve the opportunity to learn.

THE LAWSUIT:
This lawsuit is called "M.A. Class Action". Class action refers to a lawsuit in which a large group of people who have been harmed in a similar manner collectively bring a claim to court, with one or more persons serving as the "named" or "representative". It was first started in 2001 and was settled January 27, 2012. The defendants were NPS, the state and 3 individuals employed by the NJ Dept. of Education. Now, because Special Education is such a HUGE topic, Ruth emphasized that the lawsuit only covers a small part of Special Education, which is the obligation to identify special needs and implement the IEP.

1. LOCATION/IDENTIFICATION: She explained that it's the schools responsibility to find the disability. Physical disabilities are clearly obvious to point out, cognitive disabilities however, are a lot more challenging to find.

2. REFERRAL: A referral can be made anyone (teacher, parent, staff member). This is that part where we ask ourselves, "Does this child have a disability?"

3. EVALUATION: A very important thing to note, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WAIT LIST!!!! When dealing with special needs there is an extremely strict time constraint to follow.
Special needs students must receive their first evaluation meeting within 20 days of a request and special education services must be implemented within 90 days of the parents consent.

4. DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY: This is the MDT meeting that takes place with all the professionals regarding the child's services. The parent has the right to attend this meeting!

The core of the lawsuit was the 90 day implementation of services. It is not 90 days to receive a meeting, or 90 days to receive eligibility. IT IS 90 DAYS FOR SERVICES TO BE IMPLEMENTED!!! Only 4% of the time was implementation actually done in 90 days. The settlement now says that it must hit 95%.

Basically, complaints were brought to the table by 6 parents who felt their children weren't being serviced. The defendants brought "motions to dismiss", which are reasons to avoid bringing the case to court. The judge felt all points were valid and decided to move the case forward. Normally ELC does not advocate on behalf of individual cases, but because this was a class action case, they advocated on it's behalf. In order for this settlement to "go away" the district must improve the 90 day time frame.

PROOF?
District is now using an electronic data base to track the 90 day time frame. There has now been a "monitor" hired to track the 90 day time frame. There is also a compliance report. Newark must create a compliance report that indicates they are hitting the 90 day time from 95% of the time. Ultimately the goal is 100% of the time!

There as been $1 million set aside for those who were not serviced in the last 2 years. Basically the district looks through the records and sends them to an attorney. Parents will be notified by the attorney if their child is eligible for compensation funds that can be discussed at the next IEP meeting. If a parent feels their child should be entitled to this fund because they were not serviced, they can advocate through the monitor, district or ELC. It is up to the parent to fight it out. The compensation is determined on an individual basis.

I was really happy that I had the opportunity to attend this event, because as a future educator, especially in the field of Special Education, I feel it is so important for us to be up-to-date on the current events affecting our schools , students and community. I was appalled to learn about the details behind this lawsuit and couldn’t believe that such a critical issue took 10 years to resolve! It was mind boggling for me to hear that only 4% of the time the 90 day time frame was being met. For a district that is run by the state, that is completely unacceptable and honestly quite sad. That statistic alone made me feel like our children are not their first priority. I am happy to know that the district is now under a close eye and has strict obligations to meet the 90 day time frame. I was also relieved to hear that there is no such thing as a “waitlist”. The idea that a child who has specific needs and is entitled to special services had to be waitlisted really bothered me. That meant that their learning was being jeopardized and were ultimately falling even further behind. I whole-heartedly hope that this lawsuit helps children with special needs receive the services they need in a timely manner.

The parents who attended the meeting were voicing their concerns about not receiving resources through the school and getting the run around from the Child Study Team. Another parent explained that her daughter kept being moved around from school to school where services were supposed to be provided and were not. Her daughter is now 18 and is barely able to read and write. THAT IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! My goal as a teacher is to be knowledgeable of parental rights regarding Special Education and services and be able to educate parents on the topic to ensure that they are familiar with their rights and together we can work at getting their children exactly what they are entitled to.

Ruth provided really great insight on the Education Law Center and made me realize that they are such a great resource to use! Also, ALI is another great organization that advocates on behalf of our children in Newark. I would really like to spread word to our parents about these organizations and let them know that the power of voice can go a long way and that there are people in the community who are willing to fight for our children. I definitely plan to use these resources for my social action project if it relates! I also plan to continue attending ALI meetings to keep me in the loop about Newark issues. I believe that being educated on the city’s issues will create me into a better, more effective teacher.