Posted on 08/08/2017 3:49:47 PM PDT by SMGFan
Attorney Michael Inzelbuch walked into court in Atlantic City a few weeks ago with the family of his latest client.
She was a little girl from an Orthodox Jewish family preparing to begin pre-K in Lakewood's public school system. Her evaluation said she had a long list of challenges – Down syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and physical problems, including a limp.
Lakewood's experts said the school district could educate her in the district's Early Childhood Center, located in a series of trailers. But Inzelbuch argued the public school couldn't accommodate the girl's disabilities.
In the end, the judge agreed. Lakewood taxpayers will foot a higher bill to pay for the girl's private school tuition at one of the specialized schools in town run by members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
"I got them what they deserved. Nothing more. Nothing less," said Inzelbuch, who has sued the Lakewood district more than 100 times on behalf of special ed students. "They deserve an appropriate education."
Lakewood expects to spend nearly $32 million on tuition this year to send special education students -- including hundreds of members of the growing Orthodox Jewish community -- to private and out-of-district schools. The bill is among the highest in the state and one of the reasons the booming Ocean County town is facing a school funding crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
One would need to run the numbers. But it might be cheaper to pay the private school than it would be to pay for all the support that would be required.
Smaller districts around here sometimes contract with larger systems that are having to provide certain services anyway; it’s cheaper than them setting up their own programs in that area. Teacher, occupational therapist, physical therapist, aide, and pretty soon you are talking big dollars.
On the other hand, with numbers that high, perhaps they need to look at more than sticking them in trailers.
Strange town Lakewood - 1/2 is orthodox Jewish, other is
illegal Mexicans hanging out on every street corner.....
Maryland has many students getting private school educations paid for by the taxpayers. There are lawyers who specialize in this. Bush 1 oversaw the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, deliberately written in vague terms to become a lawyer’s dream. People with true disabilities need help, but there are many scammers out there.
I bet a lot of kids suddenly become special needs cases.
The school district has little choice once the judge agreed that the district’s facilities weren’t up to the task. The way it works is this. Due to Federal Law, Title One, the district’s first responsibility is to its special needs students. It must accommodate every special needs kid in the district until the age of 21, whatever the cost. If they have to cut regular staff, cut programs, have larger class sizes for the regular kids, so be it. And if the student requires 12 months of education, the school must provide that. Once district had to pave the parent’s driveway so it’s special bus could reach the house. I heard of one case where the kid’s handicap was that he really like to set fires. The school district eventually had to send him to a boarding school half-way across the country to accommodate him. It’s seems crazy, but it is the law.
I don’t have $32 million...
What does the girl’s religion have to do with her education?
Actually, this is pretty standard practice for school districts that don’t want to bother setting up appropriate programs for the disabled. NJ and NY both do this.
The problem is the child loses all of his rights as he is considered a “guest” in the district that accepts him/her. This happened so often in the NJ district where my grandchildren were enrolled that nearly every family of a disabled child had to take the school district to court to get them to follow the educational plan prescribed by the educational advocate that the families had to hire and pay for privately.
What will happen next is the Lakewood school board, which I am assuming has Orthodox Jews on it, but no kids in the school district will demand that athletic programs be cut to fund special needs.
An precisely what is an appropriate education for a child with Down’s syndrom? What is the maximum improvement in IQ that can be made?
This has been a strange situation for years. One of the reasons this particular group (not merely Orthodox, but Hasidim) has such a big problem is that they marry only within their group, so they’re closely interrelated and have the problems to be expected as a result. They have a high rate of physical birth defects, mental retardation and genetically transmitted diseases. Unfortunately, they have made government benefits a way of life, both here and in Israel (where they are an affliction).
Were these the same people who contributed heavily to Hillary Clinton when she was “running for” Senator? In truth, she had been pre-anointed and didn’t have to run for anything, but she did collect a lot of money on it...
The underlying story is that orthodox Jews took over the town and are employing tactics not unlike what you would expect from Sharia Muslims. Very aggressive tactics, even mobile “security patrols” to chase others from surrounding towns.
Yes I meant Hassidic is the main problem. Dozens were recently indicted for ripping off the system, including rabbis. I’m not saying this girl didn’t need help, but obviously they are flooding their religious schools with special needs kids.
Sports over education.. we can’t have that! \s
There is no problem with how NJ educates disabled kids, it works fine elsewhere. There is a problem with corruption in Lakewood. The town is mostly populated by Hasidic Jews and illegal aliens, both of whom tend to do things off the books and avoid paying taxes as much as possible. So the town has abnormally low tax revenue, but high expenses because of the large families.
Same inbreeding problem as muzzles. Lakewood is scam central
I wonder if the lawyer has a stake in that private school...?
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