Can a school refuse to provide special education services? Can they make my child go to another school?

Question

My family and I are planning to move to Corsicana, Tx at the end of May. We lived there for a few months in 2006. When I went to sign my children up for school I was told my son would have to go to a different school in another district because he required special education. The superintendent told us that only one of the elementary schools provided special ed and that all special needs children were made to go there regardless of the district they lived in. Is this even legal? Any ideas for what to do?

Answer 1

Yes, they are doing something that is perfectly legal by federal guidelines.  They only have to provide them, but your convenience is not a consideration.  I am curious what disability your child has though.  I  imagine that in the next few years we will see a law suit, particularly with a learning disabled child being bused a long distance.  For low incidence disabilities, however, it is not uncommon.  It is simply financially more responsible to do so.  Self-contained classrooms require several services (therapies, etc), furniture, and adminstration that could cost 100K a year- EASY!  It's a much better use of tax payer dollars to bus the handful of students that need the services. The kids will receive a better education going into an established program than something that's forced with a untrained teacher feeling the situation out for herself.

Edit:  I would ask for a complete re-evaluation if one hasn't been done in the last couple of years.  I would also have a meeting with the director of special education and voice your concerns about them not doing anything for him.  Why is it that he is not in the regular classroom with the help of an aide to keep him on task?  What are they doing to stimulate his giftedness and increase his socialability?  These are questions I would pose and ask for documentation to back her responses.  Begin hunting for attorneys and autism advocates in the meantime.  It does not seem that they are doing the best by your son.

Answer 2

It depends on the child's disability, but I have never heard of a school that does not have a special ed. program. YOU DO have the right to put the child in a private school with special education, and the state has to pay for it, or choose a school in another district...this smells pretty fishy. You can look up info in the following websites:

www.nochildleftbehind.gov,

www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/ide...

These two websites deal with the most important info and laws on special ed. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

The answer to your question is tecnically yes. Schools often combine special education students and provide them with services at one particular location. For example, there may be only a few students with multiple disabilities throughout the school district so they are all brought to one location to share resources.

However, the term special education is a very large umbrella and covers kids who are vision impaired, hearing impaired, emotionally disturbed, mild learning disabilities, in near comas, some very health impaired. YOu can' just say since this child is special ed he or she goes here.

They way it is supposed to work is this. Your child is identified as having a disability which interferes with his or her learning.  An evaluation is held and the needs identified. then an IEP is written. An IEP is an individualized education plan, meaning what assistance, modifications, and accomadations will your child receive. Based on this plan THEN a placement decision is made.

Placement means where your child will receive services. It could mean that your child goes to a regular class with other kids and just receives accomodations and modifications, or that he goes to regular class with some extra help, or he goes to some regular classes and some resource classes or that he needs special education services pretty much all day.

It might be easier to answer your questions if you told us what services your child needed and/or what label he is being served under.

Edited to add: based on what you've told us, there's little reason for the school to ship your son off. If he is able to participate in regular education classess, then he must be allowed to do so. IF the school remains firm in its insistence that he go to another school and will not comprimise, then perhaps you can find the services of an advocate.

Answer 4

They are WRONG!!!  Tell them to give you a copy of ANY legal policy that supports their statements. If it is not in writing it is not true.

ALL public schools have to provide special education services.

You have to learn the special ed laws and follow them.

The best site for this is www.wrightslaw.com

The thing to do now, which is mandated by special ed IDEA law, is to write a letter to the person who told you this

(and cc the district special ed director)   and state you are requesting 'prior written notice' for their refusal of your child attending that school.

This will stop them in their tracks.

See, schools are suppose to have LEGAL reasons for their decisions involving special ed. And they are to give their reasons in writing to the parent (prior written notice)

So, when you write this letter the school will either

1)drop the whole thing and let him go to the school or

2) will not give you the prior written notice at all.

If they don't give it to you, the next step is to file formal state complaint. When you do this, the state will make the school give you the prior written notice.

At this point the school will then let your child go to the school because they will not want the state to know they made this decision ILLEGALLY.

When your child does go to this school, you are going to have a HARD time getting the help he needs, if they are pushing him out the door before he even gets there.

If you need help email me [e-mail]

Answer 5

The school is not refusing to provide services, it is just not providing them in your son's district or school of residence. It is not uncommon for several public school districts to "pool" their special education students because the districts do not have the resources to have several small classes in each district. This often happens in smaller districts, especially with low incidence handicaps. Your son will probably ride the bus that picks up other children of his age in your neighborhood and he will be taken to a central location and take another bus to the school he will be attending. This is how I have seen it work in the districts that I have been in.

I think that the only thing that you can do to prevent this scenario is to move into an area where the enrollment is large enough that special education students are served in their local building. Good luck--

Schools can't refuse to provide services, but they can bus a child to a setting that has the services available.

Answer 6

It is not illegal.  Some school districts combine the classes to one school so they can better staff them.  I work for a school system and there are a lot of students who don't go to their "base" school or neighborhood school because they can get better special services at another school.

There are guidelines, but if they are not doing it wrong then that may be your only option other than private school.

Answer 7

The school is not refusing to provide services, it is just not providing them in your son's district or school of residence.  It is not uncommon for several public school districts to "pool" their special education students because the districts do not have the resources to have several small classes in each district.  This often happens in smaller districts, especially with low incidence handicaps.  Your son will probably ride the bus that picks up other children of his age in your neighborhood and he will be taken to a central location and take another bus to the school he will be attending.  This is how I have seen it work in the districts that I have been in.  

I think that the only thing that you can do to prevent this scenario is to move into an area where the enrollment is large enough that special education students are served in their local building.  Good luck--

sg

Answer 8

Small school districts often only have special services available at one school, and unfortunately it may not be your neighborhood school.  Even in large towns, like Irving, there is only 1 school for autistic children, 1 school for the deaf and 1 for severe and profoundly handicapped students. However, they are required to provide the child with transportation.

Your fear that your child won't get a good education is another matter.  They do have to follow his IEP, and they do have to give you a copy of it so you can keep up with what is being taught.  If that doesn't happen you do have recourse.

Answer 9

they need a good rationale as to why you child could nto receive a free, appropriate educatio in the least restrictive environment through his home school-

WIth the large number of special needs students-I can't see how only 1 school provides services-

By pooling are special needs students together it could be construed as failure to meet the least restrictive environment law

I feel it is unethical for an area to not have at least resource room classes in each school and some self contained-I can see how it is beneficial to group certian groups of students (moderate cognitive impairment) in one school-but not for all special needs students as a whole

the school should be required to make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities

i.e-it would not be reasonable to open a class in each district and have 1-2 students in each class-

but if there are 4 similar classes of 9 students each-that it could be reasonable to have the classes in 4 different schools.

Answer 10

Schools can't refuse to provide services, but they can bus a child to a setting that has the services available.

Why wouldn't you want your child to go to the place where his needs are best met?

Answer 11

Schools do have to provide the services required but can bus a student out if his school is not equipped to handle or support his needs. Can your son be mainstreamed with an aid try to get his IEP to read so that it works best for him.

Answer 12

A school system can provide special ed services at one location. This saves taxpayer money. Small systems would find it difficult to pay the salaries of special ed teachers to serve 5 students at each school when the bus expense to get them to a central locations would be more cost effective.

However, I wonder if the person you spoke with actually realized that your son is on the gifted end of the Autism Spectrum. Did anyone at the school check his level of services as stated in his current IEP before making the remark?

Every public school system must provide a continuum of services. That is, if your child needs consultation only, then a special ed teacher will consult with your child on a regular basis to make sure he is achieving or whatever is described in his IEP. If your child needs inclusion, then a regular ed and special ed teacher are in the class at the same time for a particular subject, like math, writing, or reading. If your child requires pullout, then a special ed teacher should pull him out for the period of time indicated in his IEP for instruction in the given subject. If your child requires self-contained, then that is usually all day with a special ed teacher, except maybe for PE, or art, or music. A separate special ed school is something different from all of the given scenarios.

I suspect that the school they refer to is the only one in the district that combines regular and special ed.

It has been my experience that Asperger students do best in the regular classroom for the better part of the day. Even if his skills are above grade level. Regular ed teachers are supposed to prepare for student diversity, so more challenging work following grade level objectives would be best. This prevents a student from developing gaps in information. We have sent students up a couple of grade levels for a particular subject like reading, but sometimes the subject matter is not appropriate for his developmental stage.

Another reason we usually left Asperger students in the regular classroom most of the day is for the social skills. I don't need to tell you that this is a major area of weakness. In addition, organization is usually a weakness, but someone could easily consult on that part.

My suggestion is to locate a parent advocacy group. We have one in NC that has satellite groups stationed throughout the state to help parents negotiate the special ed beast. The advocate if provided for free and serves as the go-between for school and parent alike. I would think that Texas would have something similar. Or, locate your closest Autism group. They should be able to help you negotiate this situation. You could probably find a local group online.