Submitted by Caroline, Oct 1, 2007 23:44

There are certainly many sides to be argued when discussing who should fund a particular special needs child and there are certainly all kinds of public schools and all kinds of parents with various agendas. I would like to think that the public knows parents' objectives generally are not to bypass the public school programs just so they can take advantage of some "nice private placement". Parents do know their children best many times and have often made multiple attempts to work with a public school system to try to develop an appropriate program within the public school setting before they start to look privately. Some children have clearly observable and defined disabilities and it may be easier to determine if a school can provide appropriate services or not. Even then, there can be disagreement and battles. However, for those children that are not so clearly diagnosed, the battlelines can be drawn early and extended times of conflict where parents have to be in opposition to public schools gets fueled. Often parents have gone to great lengths to gather information (at substantial costs at times) and share that with public school staff so everyone could better understand a complex profile of a child only to have the information be dismissed. Many times, particularly with children with "invisible or hidden disabilities" (add, social and emotional disabilities, learning disabilities that keep a child from functioning to his potential even though they may achieve to the "average" or above average, NLD, Asperger's) their lives in and out of school are significantly impacted negatively when their needs are not met, or even recognized. The public should recognize that these parents have often tried everything they can to work with the system. To the public school these children "look good" but to professionals that look deeper, what successes they have, have come at great costs to themselves. If needs had been attempted to be met early on, maybe the children might find some success in the public schools. A big problem at this point is a lack of education for public school people. A great deal is expected of them and in general, I do believe teachers care, try hard, and do their best for most children. But without knowledge on some issues, they just can't "do it all". When parents have tried for too long to keep their child in the public school setting and the results have caused some significant harm and a lot of wasted time for these children, then the only option for a parent is to fight in a different way and seek a private setting. I think it is so wrong for public schools to be allowed to do wrong by children until a parent can find a way for an advocate, an attorney, and/or a court to prove the school wrong. And to get to this point, a parent has to have a significant amount of documentation over an extended period of time so that they can prove a good case. Even when that happens, it does not mean the child moves on to an appropriate private setting. Public schools may get a slap on the hand for what they had done but more often, decision making people ignore the past and are content to let decisions rest on what a public school "promises they will do for the future". At times, significant enough change may happen that these children may get educated somewhat appropriately even if they have to make up a lot of lost ground. However there are more times that these children have fallen through the cracks for so long and have taken a toll on family as well, that nothing that the public school proposes, will work. Parents have lived heartwrenching times with their child and want something more, something better. They go now for private placements.

At this point, in my experience, the only explanation for a school system to then want to fight a parent by trying to blame them as the cause and prove them wrong and try to involve DSS, Juvenile Court, Lawyers and Special Education Appeals, is that there has to be a hidden agenda. If they give in, then other parents will ask for the same. They can't set a precedent so we have to fight until the child has run out of time or the parent has run out of money and resources. There are no cost savings to anyone. Schools pay thousands for their attorneys and force parents to pay thousands to prove their case. If parents lose a case, the child often grows up with such issues that result in an inability to be successful in life and can be more harm and cost to society where they don't fit in. If a case is won in favor of private placement for the child, everyone has lost a great deal but the child has suffered most. Even if they move on to a private placement, there are no assurances of success in life. The hopes would be that the child gets the appropriate help soon enough to make a difference in their lives and in their success for the future. All that shows up to the public though is likely that special education costs are high.

When parents have clearly made good faith attempts and things have not worked, then public schools should stop fighting. They inflate the budget costs unnecessarily and cause further upset from the public who have to pay through taxes to support these hidden agendas. The public draw conclusions that special education costs are so high and draining the budgets because parents fight without cause for their children to have "private school education". There are no easy answers for this. Yes, Special Education should be better funded from the federal government and funding should come with less fight. However considerable more oppotunities for education and training and funding on speical education disabilities and issues for administrators and staff should be made available. It's not fair for teachers to be without resources and be left to think they should be "doing it all". Their recourse is to get defensive with parents becasue they feel that it is seen as they are failing at their jobs and the parents feel they are not being heard. Nothing gets worked out well for the child then. With an increase of knowledge comes better decision making on how to effectively develop appropriate programing for children. Some programs, with adequate funding, can be integrated well into the public school and some will, at least for now, be far better suited for a private setting. But the public needs to recognize that there are some special education cases that justify placements outside of the local school and the public schools need to fight less if they can't provide effective programs. I think some people that argue against funding these special needs children speak from the point of view of not having lived with a child with challenging needs. It isn't fair for parents to have to fight so hard for what is the right education for a child and to want a better life for them.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.