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Group Says Children With Special Needs Not Served Properly

Posted on: Monday, 25 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 25--NORCO -- Saying their children aren't getting the education they deserve, 16 families of special-needs children in the Corona-Norco Unified School District have filed for hearings with the Institute for Administrative Justice's Special Education Hearing Office.

After about four years of discussions with the district without improvements to their children's education, parents are fed up, said Jim Peters, executive director of T.O.P. Educational Consultants who represents the families.

Hearings begin Tuesday inside district offices and are scheduled to continue through Sept. 27.

"This is what happens with lip service," Peters said. "The parents have heard it for so long. They're ready to explode."

The Institute for Administrative Justice's Special Education Hearing Office is under contract with the state's Department of Education.

Spokeswoman Pam Slater said the state's Department of Education could not comment on the matter. School district officials did not return phone calls for comment.

Some cases involve children in the district's high schools where students are placed in life skills classes. Those classes teach students how to do laundry, balance checkbooks and fill out job applications, said Valerie Aprahamian, special-education advocate with T.O.P.

That's where parents want to see change. They want the district to develop programs for high school students with disabilities so they may continue to grow academically, like they did before high school.

Aprahamian said special education for children at the elementary and intermediate levels involves academics. Often special-needs children are behind others with some skills, such as reading, but they enjoy learning just as much as anyone else.

Other cases involve autistic children whose parents want them placed in regular classrooms with the support they are entitled.

Aprahamian called the district's resistance to change its educational programs discriminatory. She compared it to the civil rights violations during the Civil Rights Movement.

"It's a huge mindset change," Aprahamian said. "The kids aren't integrated. The other kids aren't used to it. The district isn't used to it. It's a change."

Some parents have placed their children in general physical education classes where they often don't get the support they need to succeed. In the end, parents pull their children from the classes, often because other children are making fun of them.

One child involved with the hearings is considered gifted. However, he stutters. Some students bullied the boy to the point that his parents switched schools, where it happened again. Now he doesn't talk. He has been out of school for two months.

"No one is addressing it. No one wants to see it change," Aprahamian said. "Other kids should be accepting them. They should be mainstreamed."

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Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

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