The Philadelphia School District has fallen far behind in its plans to provide thousands of special education students with additional services they have been unable to receive during the pandemic, state officials said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education first directed school districts to provide compensatory services to students in June after receiving complaints from the Education Law Center on behalf of families.
The lawsuit says some parents and guardians still didn't know their children were entitled to additional assistance more than a year after students returned to in-person instruction. Families and advocates fear many of these students may be suffering lasting harm.
“These are the students who have been hit the hardest by being out of school for 15 to 18 months,” said Margie Wakelin, a senior attorney at the law center.
Wakelin said students are not receiving math tutoring, speech therapy, intensive phonics instruction, emotional support services or other interventions required by their education plan.
In a Feb. 23 investigation in response to complaints, state officials found that the district had identified the majority of students who needed to be evaluated for compensatory services, but that they had not properly consulted parents as needed. It has become clear that he may have made a decision regarding his right to receive such treatment. .
The state's analysis of 50 randomly selected cases from four elementary schools in one of the district's 16 learning networks found that only four had the required family meetings. However, the district made eligibility determinations for 44 of them.
“Not everyone is necessarily eligible, but there will be a meeting to determine if they are eligible for services,” Wakelin said.
The state ordered school districts to submit evidence by April 5 that they are complying with all requirements for determining need and providing appropriate services.
School District Says Facing Special Education Teacher Shortage
According to the law center's complaint, the closure of in-person school from March 2020 to September 2021 most severely affected students with disabilities who have individualized education plans or 504 plans. An individualized education plan created by a team of school officials and parents specifies the services a student will receive, but a 504 plan provides guidance for students with conditions that may interfere with learning. Accommodation is guaranteed.
The complaint is based on the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights' review of what school districts must do to ensure that all children, regardless of disability, have access to a “free and appropriate public education.” Based on guidance.
The district has received about $528 million in federal coronavirus relief funding aimed at addressing learning loss, but compensation services are not listed as a priority in this year's budget documents. do not have. In an undated request for proposals, district officials estimated that up to 40% of the roughly 22,000 eligible students with disabilities would need to be served. The service is expected to be available from January 2022 to June 2024.
In a statement released last week, district officials said that despite a “national shortage of qualified special education teachers and related service providers,” they are “working to redress the loss in teaching and learning” caused by the pandemic. “There is,” he said. The district began the school year with 200 teacher vacancies.
The statement also noted that Natalie Nelle, who has experience in several other large school districts including Chicago and Broward County, Fla., was hired earlier this year as director of special education and diverse learners. Mentioned.
Under her leadership, the district “looks forward to building transparent, collaborative, and positive relationships with families, community partners, and advocacy organizations as we reimagine special education for Philadelphia's students.” ing.”
Families have difficulty accessing services
Many families in the district are finding the process of obtaining compensation services frustrating and have turned to the Education Law Center for help.
Yolanda Workman said she and her daughter met with school officials in January via Zoom to discuss services for her grandson, a fifth-grader at Mount Airy’s Emlen Elementary School who has been diagnosed with a learning disability. She said the school's special education staff didn't give the children much of a chance to talk, and then told her the children were not entitled to additional services. The contact also asked me to sign a legal document confirming it.
Workman refused to sign and said he told the contact person he would contact his attorney. A few weeks later, they received notice that her grandson was entitled to 75 hours of compensatory services.
However, neither Workman nor her daughter could say whether or how they were receiving services.
Colleen Gibbons-Brown, a 9th and 10th grade special education teacher at Strawberry Mansion High School, said she doesn't have any evidence that students are receiving additional services, what they need, and how to get them. He said he had not seen much evidence that parents and carers were being consulted about what was best. to provide it.
“From what I’ve seen, decisions are being made by network case managers and some administrators rather than as a team,” she said. “They are making phone calls and informing parents. [thus] Parents, teachers, and even students are removed from the decision. ”
She said her school's process for determining whether students were eligible for additional services was rushed and flawed. For example, invitations for parents to meetings about children were created on the same day that some of the meetings were scheduled. “I'm listed as part of the team, but I know I'm not attending the meeting,” she said.
One of Gibbons-Brown's coworkers, who is also the mother of a student with a disability, said she didn't know compensation services were available even though she works for the district. The child, now 10 years old, had not learned to read and was exhibiting severe behavioral problems that had worsened during the pandemic.
“I have never heard of compensation services,” said the teacher, who requested anonymity to protect the child's privacy.
She consulted an attorney who helped her enroll her child in an accredited private school, a common alternative school for students unable to meet their educational plans within the district.
Wakelin said the purpose of the law center is to force district officials to focus on alternatives to private services. Private services are expensive and tend to favor parents who are familiar with the system.
Some public schools are also unfairly burdened with this obligation. For example, at Strawberry Mansion, a school in a poor neighborhood in North Philadelphia, 43% of his 250 students are classified as having special education needs. The citywide figure is 19%.
Deciding on services for students is complex
Calculating how much each student should be paid and providing services can be daunting, Gibbons-Brown said. Still, she said her school's processes did not take into account the progress students would have made without the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
If a student has not regressed beyond their pre-pandemic scores, it was determined that services were not needed, she said. But it doesn't take into account the progress they should have made since then.
“Analyzing the impact of COVID-19 is more nuanced than simple comparisons,” she says. “Based on her one data point now and in 2019, there are students for whom regression does not seem to exist. That may not be the case, but their progress has stalled.”
Wakelin said the process is “now at a point of redo and trying to make sure families know that their children have this right.”
The challenge is complex, she says, but “there aren't other metropolitan districts that have tackled this and come up with solutions that are compliant with the law.”
Wakelin said the district has not yet taken basic steps to contact families, adding, “There's nothing on the website, no fact sheets for parents, no fact sheets provided to teachers. The amount of information provided is also minimal.”
“We want children to receive services. We don't just decide that this child is entitled to 50 hours that are not available.”
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational changes in public schools.
