The public will get a glimpse at what has gone wrong with the District of Columbia’s crumbling special education system today when the D.C. Council opens hearings into a system that many say has failed thousands of children.
D.C. Council member Carol Schwartz, R-at large, has sponsored legislation that would require education officials to review the education plans of about 10,000 mentally ill and disabled children in D.C.’s school system. But some are hoping that today’s hearings will become an open forum on what’s gone wrong with the $210 million-plus system.
“I’m bracing for what we’re going to hear,” council member Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, told The Examiner. “To me, it’s a series of picking up large rocks and being shocked by what we find underneath.”
The Examiner has written extensively on D.C.’s special education crises. Critics say thousands of children have been left to the mercy of a bureaucracy that is indifferent to their health and welfare.
Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has promised to make special education her top priority. But despite a nearly unlimited budget, Rhee has struggled to make dents in the bureaucracy. Some observers say that neither Rhee nor Mayor Adrian Fenty understood what they were getting into when they took control of the city’s struggling schools.
“I don’t think anybody could have appreciated how uniformly awful our policies and programs have been,” Cheh said. “I think they’re pursuing things diligently but it’s an enormous undertaking.”
Among those who plan to attend today’s hearings are Dallas Gravette, who has been struggling to get help for his son, Cody.
“We’ve been fighting the schools since April of last year,” Gravette told The Examiner. “So we’re tired.”
Cody suffers from a host of problems, including anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The family moved to the District last year from Idaho and has been shocked at the way school officials treat Cody, Gravette said. The boy has consistently come home in tears, having been bullied by teachers and classmates alike.
“In Idaho, there was complete trust with the parents, the teachers and the counselors,” Gravette said. “Here, no one can be honest with us. How many degrees of crap do you have to put up with?”
Got a tip on special education? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or send him e-mail, [email protected].
Fast facts
D.C.’s special education system
» More than 17 percent of 49,000 students are in special education, highest in the nation
» Budgeted for more than $210 million in fiscal 2008
» Under two class-action consent decrees
» Special ed czar Phyllis Harris paid $195,000 per year to fix system
