Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

If you want extra reading and other learning disabilities services for your child, services adequate to help him overcome his disabilities and perhaps get through college or get a job that pays adequately and offers good health insurance that won’t be canceled if he gets sick, I strongly encourage you to become politically active. Simply depending on current special education laws and funding won’t work. From the phone calls I get and the newspaper stories I read, the federal special education laws are often ineffective, the schools often incapable of helping, and society often unwilling to help children with disabilities once they leave school.

Weak Federal Special Education Laws

Without spending a lot of money, it’s unlikely that parents with a strong special education case can prevail against a school system in court. One reason is that the fees of experts—experts whom the parents need to assess their children, attend program planning meetings, and testify in court—are not reimbursable under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA), even if the parents win.

To provide quality services to your child, an expert may well have to invest 50 to 70 hours. At $200 to $250 per hour for an expert with a doctorate, the bill of one expert can easily exceed $12,000. To win a case, parents may require two or three or more experts, such as a reading specialist, a psychologist, and a speech and language specialist. None of this includes the attorney’s fees, which, to a degree, are reimbursable if parents win, but not reimbursable if they lose.

The Inability of Schools to Help

In most states, schools are suffering financially. Hawaii, for example, has cut its school year and school week:

Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation after the state and teachers union agreed to shutter schools for 17 days a year, leaving 171,000 students without class on most Fridays…. Homelessness is on the rise as mental health, child abuse, welfare and daycare programs run short on cash. (Niesse, M., Associated Press, 12/19/2009)

Further east across the Pacific was a mecca of wealth, California. But the state is no longer wealthy. It too is having major problems. Its tax policy and legislative rules don’t allow it to readily help itself.

California’s governor is proposing deep cuts to health care, education, the state workforce and human service programs beyond those already enacted. Specific cuts include … a $1.5 billion reduction in K-12 and community college funding in 2010-11. (Johnson, N., Oliff, P., & Williams An Update on State Budget Cuts, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/28/2010).

The east coast is not immune. And of course, those with disabilities pay a terrible price. And even if the cuts are not in a school program, they affect the person’s life, which affects his education. Here’s what’s happening in Virginia:

‘People will be institutionalized who never, ever would have considered it,’ said Maureen Hollowell, director of advocacy and services at The Endependence Center in Norfolk, which helps the disabled. ‘There will be no option for them’…. Samantha Gregg-Montella of Virginia Beach has a waiver to care for her 12-year-old son, David. He has autism, cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder. State budget cuts would reduce the amount paid to personal care assistants for David. Already, it’s difficult to keep the aides because the pay is low. (Simpson, E., Medicaid funding for disabled on chopping block, The Virginian-Pilot, 2/8/2010, Retrieved 2/9/2010, from http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/medicaid-funding-disabled-chopping-block).

And as Tuesday’s guest post on our blog inferred, in Virginia, some schools use technicalities and misuse test results and federal laws to deny services to students with reading disabilities.

In New York, the state’s tax policy and political values are jeopardizing the prospects of all students. Only the degree of devastation is new:

Thousands of jobs and programs for students are at risk if school districts are forced to operate under Gov. David Paterson’s executive budget proposal…. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has estimated 8,500 educators would be let go…. ‘Many programs will be either reduced or eliminated,’ said Susan Mittler, president of the Ithaca Teachers Association. Special education would be especially hard hit, she said, in a district ‘that is committed to inclusionary practices.’ Mittler said 10 to 20 teachers could be laid off as well as several one-to-one aides and classroom aides. (Banks, C. B, Governor’s budget proposal a blow to education, health care, New York Teacher, 1/29/2010, Retrieved 2/9/2010, from http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/newyorkteacher_14382.htm)

Poor Services After Age 21

The statistics scream: In terms of employment, schools and society-at-large are failing children with disabilities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in January 2010, only 21.8 percent of people with disabilities were employed.  The rate of employment was 70.1 percent for those without a disability (Bureau of Labor Statistics News Release, 2/5/2010).

My anecdotal experience is that many adults with reading disabilities and other learning disabilities are unemployed, and when they are employed, it’s at minimum-wage jobs without meaningful benefits, like sick days and health insurance. Few minimum-wage jobs offer security or career advancement.

But surely, many parents think, a society that spends so much money on special education will help these children succeed after they leave school. Reflect on these sad facts. Fact One: Post-21 programs operate from totally different budgets that have little or nothing to do with public schools. They rarely ask what schools did for children and why it was important. They rarely attend pre-graduation IEP meetings. Fact Two: Despite my criticisms of IDEA, few laws and programs for adults offer as many rights and services. Programs for adults differ dramatically from state-to-state. Even in good economic times, many states provide little. Consider that for decades NJ has had a waiting list of more than 4,000 adults with developmental disabilities whose families are desperate for services. Fact Three: As a nation we spend far more money on beer than on adult literacy programs. In 2010 we will spend far less than $2.00 (two dollars) per American citizen for strengthening the literacy of adults with reading problems. In other words, without lots of money, your children can’t expect lots of help.

What to Do

Ignore bumper sticker phrases like “reduce taxes,” “higher standards,” “throw the bums out.” These are usually shorthand phrases for inflaming anger or bigotry and gaining political power, not phrases for strengthening knowledge or insight and improving lives.

Instead, read about and study policies that will help your children and then become politically active in supporting them. Keep holding politicians accountable: keep asking them questions, keep examining their votes, keep examining the bills they offer, keep calling them, keep withholding support for those whose actions don’t immediately help your child and other children, keep supporting those whose actions do, join and actively support organizations that support  your views. Consider running for office so you can institute and support policies that help children.

Learn, learn, learn. And share your learning. Keep writing to newspapers and magazines and blogs. Call radio shows. Let them know what you think and why: provide compelling facts and logic, not bitterness and bluster.

Help schools to get the resources they need to help your child and all children; then keep holding the schools accountable for their actions.  If they have the resources, they should have the accountability. Do the same for state agencies that are supposed to serve adults with disabilities.

Even in good times, life is tough for people with disabilities, including children and adults with reading disabilities and other learning disabilities. That’s why parents challenged schools and state governments in federal court, over and over, in the 1960’s and 70’s; that’s why they fought so hard for inclusive laws and federal education laws, such as IDEA. But these are not good times for people with disabilities. And so you must advocate hard for your child’s needs, for the needs of all children. And you must keep advocating: respectfully, forcefully, intelligently, knowledgeably, and persistently.

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond  http://www.reading2008.com/blog