Special ed. crisis looming in D.C.

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Despite promising to address the needs of its special education students within federally mandated deadlines, the District of Columbia has allowed its backlog of unserved children to grow by more than 200 in three months, The Examiner has learned.

Federal law requires that students be evaluated for special education needs within 60 days of a request and that children get services within 45 days of an evaluation.

An analysis written by a committee of public school and private experts has found that there are 935 students in the D.C. public school system who are still waiting for help. Nearly 400 of those have been waiting for at least five months beyond federal deadlines.

The deepening special education crisis puts D.C. at risk of being held in contempt of court because city officials promised in a consent decree that it would meet federal deadlines in at least half of its special education cases by June 30.

Mayor Adrian Fenty took over the city’s schools in June, promising to bring accountability and professionalism to the bureaucracy. There were 731 students in the backlog and barely 20 percent of them were being helped on time. As of Sept. 30, the backlog had grown by 204 and the “timely closure” rate had fallen by more than one-and-a-half percent.

Peter Nickles, Fenty’s top legal adviser, told The Examiner that the city was aware of the problem and was trying to fix it.

“I’m unhappy about it,” Nickles said, blaming the “slippage” on the post-takeover transition. “We’re not doing what we should be doing. And it’s being corrected.”

The analysis was created as part of a class-action lawsuit filed by special education students who alleged that the city was violating their due process rights by ignoring federal deadlines.

After a decade of litigation, the city signed a consent decree in the case, known as Blackman-Jones, agreeing to overhaul its special education system.

Both sides in Blackman-Jones are due in court next week.

“We’re encouraged by the new school leadership,” plaintiff lawyer Ira Burnim told The Examiner. “But we are seeing little progress being made in schools. While a family waits, the child is missing out on an education.”

News of the backlog was no surprise to Melbea N. Davis, a federal employee who has been fighting the school system over her grandson, T.F.

T.F., 12, is still waiting for services more than a year after applying for them, Davis said.

bmyers@dcexaminer.com

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