Would you eve file a lawsuit against your school district?

Well, I haven’t PERSONALLY “been there, done that”, but I know of those who have. I’m familiar with at least 1 where “it took 8 years out of our lives” and by the time the attorneys’ fees were paid, they weren’t in very good shape.

Secondly, after attending a COPAA conference last March and seeing the caselaw, I concluded that it would be cheaper to spend my money teaching my kid to read than paying a lawyer to TRY to make the school district do it. As you may or may not be aware, there are NO guarantees with lawsuits and reimbursement is not well received according to the case law. Of course, IF you have Peter Wright…. things MAY be different :-)

My theory is that it will be ALOT less stressful to spend the money and time getting correct remediation EARLY b/c by the time you have spent several years fighting the battle, your child has lost time that oftentimes cannot be recouped.

Of course, this is JMHO.

You may be better served filing a systemic complaint with OCR and Socks on this BB is JUST THE PERSON to tell you how to do that!

Suzi,

From what I have read about your case and what I have personally experienced going through DP myself, you really don’t have a whole lot of rope to hang the district. :o For starters, your child isn’t older than 3rd grade as a non reader, she is only in knidergarten/first, some children are late bloomers in regards to reading and it takes them longer to get the code. :cry:

2nd, you have decided on your own to put her into a private school, they offered a program to you that you did not agree upon. But here is where your case falls apart, did you let them implement their program and let it fall on it’s face over a period of time? I am talking YEARS, you just had one or 2 years in kindergarten/first?

When we went to DP we had done it the districts way for kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. By 5th grade our child wasn’t reading fluently, and self-esteem was in tatters. We put them on notice that we were pulling our child out and doing our own program ourselves after they didn’t make progress on the G’s and O’s. We had month after month of long IEP meetings with advocates, we went through all the hoops they put before us, why this program and that was unacceptable. We then pulled and did our program part time keeping our child in school and doing our own remediation, for 6 months, they accused us of truancy, we then decided to go to DP after the truancy letter, :x brought in our own testing and advocates for the hearing and got some $$ but it was a drop in the bucket compared to what we had spent. :roll:

By that point we had spent about $10,000 in remediation and legal fees. We were able to prove our case on paper and settle in mediation but we only got what it would cost to educate our child for a year in special education, which was $7500. We used that money to put our child in a non-public agency’s lab class and our child made dramatic gains in reading and language. At the end of that year we went back into the district, they were on pins and needles and treated us as like a high profile case. We were able to mainstream our child with only speech services and a collaborative english class, after that I got what I wanted with no questions asked. :lol:

Frankly, I think you are doing the right thing by taking care of the remediation now on your own dime. Districts will wear you down, emotionally, physically the stress will get to you, :mrgreen: and spending thousands in legal fees who gains?? Your child suffers the most with the delays and the stress in the family

In other words, make the investment in your child and not the legal system. :wink:

first off you have terminated certain IDEA rights by placing your child into a private school. You have even lost the right to sue for tuition reimbursement if you did not provie to the public school in writing an intent on seeking reimbursemnt notice. Ten days BEFORE the student is removed. Why? Because you did not give them the opportunity to again provide a FAPE. I know,how stupid is that,you can’t get them to provide it ,that is obviously why you pulled her out in the first place,but just like you as a parent have the right to expect notice,so does the school.

You no longer have the “individual” right to FAPE,therefore you can not file due process for services your daughter no longer has the right to. You might check out the sections of IDEA entitled “Parentally placed private school student” It will explain what sections you have rights to and which you don’t and why.

Due Process is not designed for the parents in mind. Judges ruling on these cases do not know the law. A friend one time while trialing a case was asked by the Judge what FAPE meant. ( seriously)
I have another very close friend who filed a DP on the school district,who’s kid was still in public school,the case went 8 years,and the cost was over a million dollars. 5% in the nation of DP are won by parents. The rest? Well guess who wins those?

Now what you could do. Anyone who has an interest in the children of a county school district can file a class action civil rights complaint. If your sure that a large number of children are being discriminated against. Bare in mind the OCR does not care about state regulations,so unless what your claiming is also a violation of 504 laws they won’t investigate.

You can file a complaint with the state department of education. If you file a state complaint it would have to be on an individual child,which could potentially be yours.You have a year after you pulled her out,but I caution you there,usually they claimed to comply,once you agree to place her back in the public school.

Now you could file a class action complaint,but you need other parents, a LOT of other parents. Helped someone with a class action her complaint with attachments was 1200 pages long. There were 22 parents involved and 11 different allegations of violations of state and federal laws.

Just so you know what you looking at,it isn’t an easy task. moving a mountain would be easier.But I for one,would NEVER tell anyone not to take a stand. Just make sure your right about what your standing for.

Socks-

I’ve not done anything yet. My daughter was diagnosed at the very very end of kindergarten. She is not officially enrolled yet at her private school for the Fall. She is there for this summer for “summer camp”. I have not told the SD that she won’t be there in the Fall.

So, I guess I should go ahead and provide all the notices you talked about at this meeting today. Thanks for your comments. I just don’t see how this school district can get away with not providing what is needed.

Suzi

We went thru mediation and due process. Ended up filing a case in federal court against our district and the state of CA. Fought with both the state and our district for years without an attorney. Long story, didn’t end up winning. In fact, the court finally ordered me to get an attorney and put the case on hold until I got one for our son. The reason was if we prevailed at that level, the reason we would lose at appelate level would be because our son was not “well represented” in the case. Imagine the irony, the district would have gotten off because they could afford attorneys and legal costs with the tax dollars that I was paying :(

Anyway, long sad story. I’ve posted a synopsis in the past, it pretty much tells our story. (I’m at work now, don’t have it here to add, plus many have read the rant already :shock:

Personal conclusion, if finances are not a problem, take your time, find a great attorney who understands special ed law and see if you have a case; if not, save your money, time, heart ache and invest in the non-public environment where you child can thrive. You won’t drag your family thru hell, you can forgo the battle and win the war by saving your kid.

Socks and the others have sound advice about your chances etc., but you asked about those who have done it. “been there, done that”. :evil:

Andy

ps/ battle scars are still there, years later. mostly psychological, but there none the less. :roll:

pps/ similar issues with appropriate progam and placement, district multiple failures and IDEA violations…

My understanding is that you have to let the school district try and fail. We faced this when my son was in second grade and all our advocate gained was a great IEP which the district was going to then implement using the same program that had not worked in first grade. I simply did not have the ability to sit by and let him fail. I ended up pulling him out of school part time and teaching him myself, against the district’s wishes.

I was losing sleep and other (e.g., Andy’s story) made me realize that I had to focus my energy on my child. I think you mostly do these things for others—you are changing the world, at least at times.

I don’t think you have a leg to stand on legally if you have taken your child out of the school system voluntarily. Most states still use a discrepancy model (expected versus achieved) and a first grader is not expected to read much. I realize that your child has processing problems that you have documented but I don’t think that approach is recognized widely in courts. You would have to let them try to teach them using their approach and then show up in court how many years later with a child who cannot read.

You have wisely decided, I think, to help your child.

Beth

Beth-

I guess my whole problem w/ the SD is that they are offering NOTHING to my daughter. It is not like there is something there for them to try other than regular classroom and modifications. I know that we have planned for our daughter to go to a private school and I know that is the best thing for her. It really makes me mad that who knows how many other kids are at the school, struggling w/ dyslexia and receiving nothing. That is what I want to fight.

Suzi

I wish you good luck today :wink:

Thanks Socks….

I had my meeting and they did decide to provide services for her really fast. Of course, the services are not adequate, so there is our answer! Their solution was to put her w/ the dyslexia teacher for 1 day, 30 minutes a week, reading recovery for 30 minutes a day and ST w/ some auditory processing therapy 2x a week for 30 minutes. Oh well, we tried. At least they are moving their dyslexia program to i.d. in 1st grade and begin the Scottish Rite dyslexia program in 2nd grade (instead of 2nd going into 3rd) They say there is not a Scottish Rite program that begins earlier than 2nd grade. Is Scottish Rite behind the times or is my school and others jumping the gun??? We are still forming a committee to look into what can be done even earlier.

Suzi

Suzi,

I am an SLP who works with kids who have Auditory/processing issues I have a daughter with Dyslexia/auditory processing issues. I personally know first hand how frustrating it is to see your child struggle with reading and auditory processing.

You will notice in time she will get it. one thing I would suggest is to continue to work with the SLP who is working with her. Part of your daughters problems could stem from her phonological processes issues since she gets articulation therapy. The SLP should be providing auditory processing exercises and she can also have “fun” with your daughter by doing music. One CD I really liek to use to teach kids their letter sounds is Sounds Like Fun by Discovery Toys.

Many of the preschool programs in our district use this CD to teach language concepts to children who are struggling. She may need things slowed down for her but that doesn’t mean she won’t get it in time. My daughter is now in 9th grade and she is reading fairly fluently, but it took YEARS to get her this far and that is why I became an SLP. She still has Auditory processing issues but ironically she learns auditorially. Another thing that your daughter may benefit from is an Assistive listening Device.

First and foremost have fun with your daughter, let her be a child, play rhyming games with her, do lots of songs and fingerplays. This is how she can make sense of the words and sounds within the words that confuse her.

It sounds like the SLP is working on it and I am hopeful that she has good skills in literacy/language intervention. Personally, I would give her a little bit more time to mature before I went full board into a special school. Let the district try their thing and if it isn’t working then you can catch them and go after them for $$. But you have to play the game by their rules. :twisted: Which really irks us parents. I know, I have been on both sides of the fence as an educator and a parent of a child with a disablity.

I have friends who have children with exceptional needs, kids that have low cognition, they are non-verbal, blind, paralyzed…I see how difficult it is for them, little things like getting them out of diapers is a goal„ these kids are 10 years old.. they will never read, they just need to be able to communicate their needs and wants.

Amazing,that they decided they should throw you a bone.
Now if you decide not to accept their generous( scarcasm) offer of FAPE( this is what they will claim in a dp,and if you don’t have documentation to show this wasn’t adequate,then this is where the parent usually comes out on the short end of the stick)

Did your reject the IEP and give them written notice?

Have you spoke with scottish rite? I am not sure, but I don’t think there is a age limit ,I would check it out.

Early intervention is most definitely the way to go,and believe it or not Texas,is one of few states to have a program tailored specificly to this diagnosis.

Suzi,

It’s been quite a while for us, and even quite a while since I dragged this out from the cobwebbed archives. I was pretty raw when I wrote this, my opinion has not wavered. Take it for what it is worth.

Andy

=================================

Attn: LDA, State of CA
GRAM PUBLICATION OPEN LETTER TO PARENTS

Re: What was learned from the nightmare of a Learning Disabled Parent of a Learning Disabled Child attempt to obtain a FAPE in our local district.

To Whom It May Concern:

First, I ask your patience, because I, like my son, have a learning disability. I have difficulty with handwriting, so I always type. Typing makes the words legible, spell check makes the paper presentable, however, unfortunately, they have yet to invent the program to unscramble the word processing of a dyslexic mind.

Anyone who has lived through / survived the hellish experience of help seeking within the public school system for a child will know that this letter has the capacity for a 1000 page novel; I will do my best to be brief.

Our son was diagnosed with “LD” by the public school Psychologist in the 1st Grade. He was given an IEP, which was to begin his 2nd Grade year. By the 3rd Grade, with minimal and no provision of the services specified on his IEP, our son was floundering terribly. His areas of deficit were dysgraphia, dyslexia and other assorted invisible disorders, which clearly affected his performance in school.

By the second month of his 4th Grade year, having no RSP (as specified on his IEP), and no Counseling (as specified on his IEP), our son tried to slam his head through a window at home. He told us, with tears streaming down his face that he would rather die than go back to school, “where the teachers did not understand, and the kids were so mean about this handwriting”. He was 9 years old.

My wife and I sought help from the school; and the rest is documented history. Of course, it is also documented that the school claimed he was doing fine in class, the problems were coming from the home.

We (my wife and I) attended countless IEP Meetings (with and without advocates), we have attended Mediation Conferences (with and without advocates), I have represented my son in State level Due Process Hearings, and I have represented our son, alone, in Federal Court.

I know what it is like to be a learning disabled parent, seeking protection for our learning disabled son from a system that allows a school district to hire the representation of a “consultant” whose sole purpose is to keep the district from providing those services which are due the child by law. (I could go on and on about this one extremely unfair practice that is tolerated, the fact is, everyone knows this happens, and the child is still left without help, unless the parents can afford the services of costly consultants or attorneys).

I know what it is like to have an inexperienced advocate intervene and represent our son at Due Process Hearing, and have to sit back and watch an absolute kangaroo court in progress, while the Dean of the McGeorge School of Law presided.

Perhaps I need to digress for a moment and explain that during this time I was working, and unemployed at times, in the construction industry here in Southern California. It is common knowledge in the business world for sub-contractors to be loyal to the general contractor; the reason is simple, future contracts mean more guaranteed income. Even in the blue-collar world of construction, it would be abundantly clear that if the “inspector” worked for the General Contractor, the quality of homes could be jeopardized by the “partial” decisions made by a biased inspector. How obvious must it be for a law school like McGeorge School of Law to be a contractor with the State Department of Education to side in behalf of school districts whenever possible?

In June of 1991 McGeorge’s Year to Date Statistics show that the total number of Due Process Hearing Decisions rendered, parents did not obtain the services they fought for in Due Process 70% of the time!

If the hearing Officer finds the district to be within compliance, then the State does not have to enforce any “laws”, because there was no violation! This is absolutely ludicrous. The burden is entirely on the parent, and the power is entirely in the system.

I speak from experience. I will gladly provide a list of all the names and numbers of “protective agencies”, government employees, political figures etc., who were well aware of our son’s predicament. This is not limited to, but includes Chief Liaison to President Clinton, the Federal Dept. of Ed, State Dept. of Ed., Protection and Advocacy, the Governor’s Office, Congressmen, Assemblypersons, Senators, local agencies, OSEPS, OSERS, Office for Civil Rights (the list is endless)… The bottom line is there is no help, only a terribly tangled web of beaurocracy the feeds off of our taxes, and is simply impotent, inept and incapable of enforcing the laws that were written to protect children. The blatant and total failures of these public officials to enforce protections is disappoint, to say the least; corruption of this magnitude would not go on, if it were not tolerated at the higher levels.

I have scores of letters I sent to attorneys and agencies (and their responses) from across the country, begging for help for our son. My only request was to either enforce the law and provide him the FAPE he required, or release him from the system, and provide us with the funding to ensure he be educated and not destroyed.

One of LDA-CA’s past presidents, Joan Esposito, had written a GRAM which clearly outlined the problems parents like us have experienced. She is one of the only ones who understood the frustrations of what we were going through. (I can only imagine that she has an entire file cabinet with our son’s name on it!) I continue to thank God for her strength and compassion for our kids. The gauntlet is excruciating, the retaliatory actions of a school district are disgusting, and designed to exhaust parents. Our son’s last “active IEP” was his 4th Grade IEP, which was never enforced. He is currently going into the 10th Grade!

After 6 years of attempting to “right the wrong”, and taking both the local school district and the state dept. of Ed “to task”, I have only learned that I could do the impossible for our son. That was to survive the stress of war, stay married to his mother, see that he finally get an appropriate education (outside of the system), and move on with our life.

I have since passed on my “law library”, a virtual war chest of cases, laws and protections for learning disabled children to a local (San Diego) advocate. She has my permission to copy and pass along any and all data I compiled; including phone numbers, addresses etc. My hope and prayer is some other parents may get the help our son never received. It was quite a paradox to find all the protections, and rights our child had, yet been completely incapable of finding any authority to enforce the law!

My wife and I went to a leading “special education attorney and we begged for her to help; she felt to “untangle this case at this stage” it would cost an estimated $70,000.00, at least. It might as well have been $70,000,000.00, if you can imagine the devastating news to hear such a proposal. The up front money was to be a minimum of $15,000.00. I don’t know about anyone reading this letter, but that is a substantial amount of money which we did not / do not have! It is probably noteworthy to mention that there are not very many lawyers who specialize in the highly complex field of special education law; and those that do, usually work for school districts and the states, those that don’t are extremely expensive!

Out of necessity for our son, I virtually became the closest anyone will probably come to being a lay-lawyer in the highly specialized field of Special Education Law. For over 2 years, I stood alone, as a parent, in Federal Court, without an attorney, and did the best I could. With my wife’s help, we won some Motions, lost a few, and even had Court Decisions OVERTURNED, without help from attorneys! Truly, I will admit that the damage and suffering of such battles was more psychological and detrimental to peaceful family existence, and the fall out was financial, emotional destruction. It was as close to divorce and stress that I will ever hope to experience for the rest of my life.

Ultimately, the Federal Court Judge Ordered me to find an attorney for our son, because, if I did not, he said that our son’s case would lose at the Appeals level, due to the child not being properly represented in Court. What an irony, even if we could have won at the first level, they would have had it overturned because of how he was represented. Again, after an exhaustive search, we finally located a young, fresh out of Law School attorney, who offered to represent our son “pro bono”. Remember, we had been in Federal Court for over a year prior to her having even graduated from Law School! Within 3 months, our son’s case was closed, and the State Dept. of Ed and the local school district were absolved of any responsibilities.

I believe it is important that you understand the following, which is of public record in the Federal Court system in Southern California:

1. The District admitted to not providing services on our son’s IEPs.
2. The District could not provide original copies of documents where my name was added to agreements. (Reviewed by a documents fraud examiner).
3. The District failed to properly diagnose our son’s disabilities.
4. The District contracted a Dr. (for $14,000.00, on record)) to diagnose our son during the pending court case, to determine “what would have been appropriate 3 years past; when this same district had tested him 7 times within 12 months during the time in question.
5. State level investigations were useless.
6. OCR findings were biased and inaccurate.
7. McGeorge School of Law hearing transcripts are of record, and the Hearing Officer’s failure to acknowledge or address blatant violations of Special Ed Laws are abundant.
8. Numerous other violations of Education Law were proven clearly on Court Records.
9. Our son NEVER had another “active” IEP from the time when we filed for Due Process; the two parties (parents and district) could never come to agreement, so…

Our son’s case ended over a year ago. The scars my wife and I carry may never go away. Time is the healer and seeing our son doing well as a soon to be 10th Grader is the soothing ointment to assure us we did the right thing. He has no IEP, he gets no special help, and he is working very hard. He is alive, healthy and we are grateful. We stood by our child and did what we thought we had to do, protect him at all cost.

Adding insult to injury, after the case was closed, we received legal documents from the school district’s attorneys’, attempting to bill us for the legal costs they incurred! Some of these costs included the depositions they took of our son’s “expert witnesses”, a document fraud examiner and a Neuropsychologist; both who are highly qualified specialists. These testimonies clearly demonstrate among other issues the district’s blatant failures to diagnose our son’s disabilities, their (district’s) inability to explain how my signature ended up on a copy of an education contract that I had refused to sign. The irony is the district DID NOT enter these depositions as evidence after their attorneys deposed these witnesses, I DID!

My advice to anyone who will listen. If you are an advocate, thank you for your strength, courage and perseverance, and for trying to help protect our children. To you parents, until there are drastic changes in how the laws are enforced, do what you have to do to save your child. Our experience dictates that it might be wiser to pull your child and put him/her in a safe non-public environment as soon as possible. The money will be more effectively spent there, and less stress placed upon your family.

You see, for those of us who do not have a lot of money, we need to determine where best to spend the limited resources we have on what we find to be most precious to us, our kids. Moreover, for those who have enough money for attorneys and consultants why would they spend it on fighting a system? They can afford the tutoring, counselors, private educations…

Absolute power corrupts, and all the laws in the world are useless, until they are enforced. God bless you Joan, Mary Ann, Chris, Sandy, Adele (retired), and the rest of you advocates who fight for our kids!

Sincerely,

Andy

Ps/ Everything we experienced is of public record; I wish (pray) to God somebody had the time, money and courage to look at what clearly was the “Anatomy of a Public School’s Failure”. What has happened to my family, and specifically to our child, is the story of one; however, it will clearly show what happens to all who get involved and try to help a child (anyone’s child

Andy,

I am so sorry this happened to you and your family.

This should be required reading for every person who works in special ed or votes on the funding of it.

Again, I am so sorry.

Hey Barb,

Thanks for the kind words. :)

We really are doing fine now. The boy has turned into a young man, he is now 21! :shock:

He’s only a couple classes away from getting his AA in business! :shock:

Making plans to continue from local JC to a University and get his Bachelor’s :!: :!: :!: :!: (we’ll take it one step at a time).

(He) took time off from work etc. this summer and is starting to apply and look for a job that he can do around school hours starting up in the fall. Has a girlfriend, respects her parent’s curfew for her without griping too much… what else could we ask for :?:

I guess the epilogue is a family can go thru all that and survive. The big question is was it worth it? Damn straight!

Would I advise anyone else to do the same thing? I’d strenuously sudgest people in similar circumstances save their time, money, emotions, oxygen and do what you can outside the system; time goes too quickly, kids grow up too fast, the beaurocracy is a pretty big beast to try and move without the proper funding or tools. :evil:

It took years for my blood pressure to not soar on the way to the mailbox to see what document/package was going to be there from the district, the state or their respective (not respectable) attorneys/consultants. :twisted: Now, it’s just a stroll up the driveway to get the mail! :lol:

Well, enough of that, time to break out the mothballs and pack it all back up for a while.

Andy

ps/ We have a closet in the house filled with boxes, notebooks, hearing tapes etc… One day I’ll have to open it when we eventually move. With any luck between the moths and spiders I will just send it all to the dump in one big lump. As for right now, I can’t bear to look, or do anything with it, so it just takes up space. :)

Andy, I wanted to add how sorry I am for what you and your family have gone through. But you know what? Although the school system failed your son, you did not. You have also showed him you were willing to fight for him, isn’t it great to see what a great adult you and your wife have brought up, even with all the challenges you face. Isn’t this what our job as parents really are - To bring up a good decent human being.
For that I congratulate you, that takes hard work and lots of love.

I agree with you, I am seeking outside remediation for my son and am not going to depend on the school. I don’t want to waste precious time my son does not have.

(((Andy)))) My files are all along the top of my walk in closet and takes up half of my youngest son’s walk in closet. I found a tape the other day,put it in the tape player and laughed,because I couldn’t play it, the batteries had died!

Here’s to saving our kids!

Andy—

Thanks for sharing. I can only imagine the level of frustration your whole family felt at the time. It should be so simple. Do what the law says.

It just make me so darn mad, not for my daughter, but for all those we are leaving behind who have no clue anything is even wrong yet. I know how important early intervention is. We are definitely getting it with our daughter going into 1st grade at a good LD school.

(((hugs)))

Suzi

Although we have stayed in the public school, as Andy said, we are using our limited resources to provide private tutoring. The only thing I expect fromt he school is AT and compliance with the IEP - which is a full time battle.

My friend, who is a special ed teacher, was complaining this week b/c she had to go to 3 days of UNPAID (that’s a problem) in one of the “scientific methods”. So… after 3 days of training she is qualified (?!) to teach LDers. Give me a BREAK!

Andy I am so sorry to hear what you and your family went through. Thank you for pulling that up for the rest of us to read.
Also i am glad to hear your son is well.
dl

Hi thought I would weigh in on this subject. The Scottish Rite Dyslexia program was developed specificallt for Texas. The videos for the program caost $2500.oo with the materials that accompany the videos starting at 199.00 up. The program is unfortunately, designed only for students in grades 2nd thru 5th grade and the students must have an IQ of 90 or higher. Schools in Texas are not required to buy the Scottish Rite program; 19 TAC Chapter 74 subchapter C (c) covers it. So, Suzi if your school district purchased the Scottish Rite program, I would be careful. I do have a question for you, did your school develop a 504 plan or did they qualify your daughter for Special Education services? I know this all can be frustrating for you and others but hang in there! Pen

Pen—

No, the last time I had a meeting was before she was officially diagnosed. At that point, she had an IEP done by her speech therapist w/ input from her teacher which continued with ST, added some AP and placed her in Reading Recovery because of her low reading scores. Everything else has only been in meetings, etc to see what they can do for her. Should I go ahead and get a plan, even though we are going to private LD school? I’ve NOT told the SD that we are pulling her out to go to private school.

Our school district does do the Scottish Rite Dyslexia program. The district does have teachers who specialize in dyslexia who do the program with the children. They are not just put in front of the t.v. to watch the tape. I know several other SD and private schools too who do just the tapes.

Suzi

hi Suzi…..well, since you have already decided to have your daughter attend a private school, you do need to tell the district and the school that she attended. Because you decided she may not be eligible for services of any of kind through the school district. Where I am at in Texas, sometimes the district does go ahead and serve the student who has an iep or had an iep while in public school. This is not to say that parental placed students in private schools are entitled to services; that answer is no. What it is saying that it really is up to the school district. At any rate, you do need to inform them not to expect your daughter for the 2003-2004 school year. Good luck Pen

Thank you all so much for sharing your experiences. Can someone please explain to me why they don’t just make the small changes necessary to teach these kids? It is not about money -they get plenty of $$. Why don’t they just get the job done?? I am just not understanding -it takes as much or more $$ to not get the job done (i.e. make real progress) as it does to make real progress and be acountable.

Please explain to me !! I just don’t get it.