Berkeley Unified School District Denies Rights of Autistic Boy

Berkeley Unified School District Denies Rights of Autistic Boy - Broken district out of legal compliance with least restrictive education plan

In a surprising example of California's educational crisis, an autistic boy attending fourth-grade in the Berkeley Unified School District has been denied services required by law to ensure he receive an equal education under the Disabilities Act. District officials have refused to address the situation, forcing parents to seek assistance via a California state hearing.

BERKELEY, CA, February 3, 2004 – In spite of legally binding agreements made during repeated meetings of the Individualized Education Program team over the past year, Berkeley Unified School District continues to deny a 10-year old boy his educational rights under California State law.

According to Mrs. Donna Lehman, mother of 4th grader Gabriel Warner-Gonzales, her son is in a highly challenging environment with little support and is not receiving services agreed to by the district. Specifically: speech and language hours are in arrears; there has been no special training for his primary teacher or aide to assist them with understanding autism; his curriculum has not been appropriately modified to offer greatest chances of success; district inclusion resources do not exist; and Gabriel has an excessive commute by bus to an overcrowded school several miles from home.

“That’s just the short list of what’s not working here, “ states Mrs. Lehman, “Berkeley – and Rosa Parks Elementary in particular – has been struggling to ‘fix’ their system for a long time. In a letter sent home to parents at the beginning of the school year, the School District Superintendent asked for everyone’s patience and additional contributions, saying that they were still sorting through internal administration problems. Well I don’t have patience, I have a special needs child who needs help right now, not after they fix their bureaucracy.”

The Lehman family moved to Berkeley in mid-March of 2003 due to a work relocation from Pittsburgh, PA. It was the 2nd move in six months. But whereas the transition from their first move leaving Huntington Beach USD going to Colfax Elementary went smoothly and Gabriel was established in a new room with aide, speech, OT and personal support from the principal in only 4 days, it was an entirely different – and disappointing – experience coming to Berkeley.

Instead, it took 4 weeks for BUSD to place Gabriel and his sister Avalon. Dr. Michael Lehman, Ph.D., the children’s stepfather, was shocked, “I would have expected with the University here and the reputation for education and community activism that Berkeley has to have found a wonderful school district.” The opposite is true. “BUSD is worse than any place we’ve been, including LA Unified, which was a nightmare.” Added Donna Lehman.

Not only did the district take a month to put the children back in school, they said they had to commute five miles, or 25 minutes by car each way, and that Gabriel would be put in a Special Day Class with nine other boys – and one teacher. For anyone unfamiliar with California special education law this might not sound awful, but according to Gabriel’s IEP for the year, which was transferred with him from the other districts, he was supposed to be placed in a general education classroom with inclusion support. Also, the SDC student/teacher ratio was way off. So right from the beginning, Berkeley was out of compliance.

Donna Lehman took this issue up with Ken Jacopetti, the Director of Special Services. “But they asked for my understanding since it was so late in the year, and everything was ‘impacted’, “ remembers Donna, “and I was desperate to get the kids back into a classroom setting. I’m a marketing executive and have my own business to manage. Making multiple trips to the district offices and ferrying the kids back and forth was taking it’s toll, so I agreed – temporarily. At the IEP meeting in June, I was assured that things would be rectified in the coming school year.”

Which didn’t happen. Other severe gaps and general mis-management by the special education department have made Gabriel’s life much harder. Donna is angry with the bait-and switch tactics employed by special education advisor Alan Joy, who promised to place Gabriel and his sister in a school closer to their neighborhood where there was already a full-inclusion teacher in place who had experience with autism. Instead, Alan waited until three days before school started to inform Mrs. Lehman that sadly there was no room at Thousand Oaks elementary – a mere 2 miles away - and the children would again be bussed to Rosa Parks – which takes 45 mins. in the morning and over an hour coming home each day. On the way, they pass another six elementary schools all closer to where they live.

Even under these circumstances, Gabriel has made some progress this year, mostly re-gaining lost ground from last year when he experienced a regression during May and June. The most assistance has come from special day instructor Jessica Schussett, a young, enthusiastic teacher who now functions as pseudo-inclusion assistant and additional support services rolled into one. Jessica has some training in autism and does her best to work with Gabriel, his parents, his teacher and aide.

But Gabriel is in a split 3rd/4th grade class – the same room his sister is in – and was moved twice even on the first day of school. No expectations were set. His schedule was not completed for six weeks. His aide was changed in the first month. The primary instructor stated loudly on the first day, “He can’t be in my class, I already have too many students.” All of this – and dealing with his own disability every day.

Autism is a little understood spectrum disorder affecting the way an individual processes stimuli. There has been an explosion of occurrence and/or diagnosis of this disorder in the last 5-10 years, especially in California. More and more children are entering public schools and needing to be integrated into the regular education classrooms, just like any other child with a disability. Not every district is equipped to deal with this, and Berkeley USD would be one of them.

“Gabriel has now attended school in four different school districts, including the mammoth Los Angeles USD, which is where he started in pre-school through 1st grade.” Donna Lehman relates, “We were lucky we lived so close to so many people who were pioneers in dealing with the disease. Gabriel got immediate and intense early-intervention.”

Experts at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI) diagnosed Gabriel with autism in 1997. After two months in the Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program, run by Dr. BJ Freeman, Ph.D. (http://tarjancenter.ucla.edu/whatwedo/services/clinprog.htm), he was placed in what is called a Full Inclusion (FI) pre-school setting with a one-on-one aide to assist with language communication, behavior issues and general prompting for focus.

Donna talks about the reality of working with autism, “The early days were really rough. Gabriel was not very verbal and he tantrumed a lot. He attended half-day pre-school, then went to individual speech therapy three days a week with Dr. Alicia Elliott of the Elliott Insitute; he also went to a social/speech group on Saturdays; received occupational therapy twice a week at another hospital outpatient facility and he had a behavior therapist/tutor work with him in our home another two days each week.”

The integrated program of services paid off. With the exception of the two months when Berkeley mis-placed him, Gabriel has been successfully integrated in a regular school setting. His reliance on special services has decreased every year. For instance, he no longer needs O.T. He also requires less and less support from a one-on-one aide. His response to classmates continues to mature, and he now has a small circle of friends who he joins in playing with during recess.

While this is encouraging and good news, it does not mean that BUSD or any other district has less responsibility to educate children like Gabriel in the most appropriate manner and environment. Berkeley has a long way to go before they can claim to be doing any such thing.

For information about services for special needs in the East Bay Area, contact the Regional Center of the East Bay in Oakland at 510-393-1200 http://www.rceb.org

To reach Berkeley USD: Director of Special Education: Ken Jacopetti – 510-644-8986 Special Education Resource: Alan Joy 510-644-8928

Does anyone try to figure out where his disability came from in the first place? I volunteer at my childs school, when I was in school their were not any children with autism or ADD, now each class has around three each child needing their own helper. I hate to say it but it drags down the learning process for every other child in the class just because we all need to be politically correct.

Hoping you don't volunteer anywhere within any NJ school districts. There is a very active autism ping list here in FR and I believe I can speak for at least a few of the members saying we aren't placing our kids in the most typical setting they can tolerate "in the name of being PC". Be happy that you are on the other side of this and will never have to hear scathing comments coming from someone such as yourself.

If the teacher is a certified elementary school teacher, no special training is required by federal law.

I hope you can answer a question for me. My understanding is that IF something can be written into an IEP it becomes as good as law. Perhaps the law does not require special training, but if it was written into the IEP that the teacher get special training, wouldn't failing on that be not following the IEP and thus, against the law?

Dianna
Please go to http://www.listen-up.org. This is a link for parents of kids who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing, but it has a multitude of sites for questions such as yours. You can try to get teacher training into the IEP, but if you do, it might take till the next summer for the teacher to be trained in whatever it is. If the school is not following the IEP and you can document this, you can go to due process and get the Office of Special Ed policy involved but often this is long and drawn out. I also recommend you do a google on "Wright's Law". Remember all they have to show is compliance and FAPE but what if they actually found on line training and used that as a justification?

I have to say that there have been some very cruel and heartless comments on this thread. I am amazed that some people take the opportunity of the anonymity of the Internet to say things they would never say in person.

The children cannot help being the way they are and I would absolutely hate to be in the position of some of the parents having to raise children who will never leave home, nor will he parents ever have relief. It is a very difficult position in which to be.

Some parents, because of their lifestyles have precipitated the problems. Other parents have done nothing to cause the problems.

The parents and children deserve our sympathy and help, not our derision.

Think about what you are saying and the effect it can have on others.

I apologize for the soap box, but my wife dearly loves the children in her special ed class. My heart goes out to the parents who suffer with trying to help their children get through this life.

I am also amazed at the cruelty of other children. I know of one sweet little multiple handicapped girl who is in a wheelchair. The junior high kids push her into walls and abuse her. Where do they learn that kind of behavior?

Certainly, the schools are often lousy in the way they deal with the children. Often children who should not be, are mainstreamed. Other children who need to be mainstreamed are not.

Maybe we need to stop griping and start helping.

Now I am off my soapbox.

I guess I'm not that sympathetic to the mother's complaints - she made a lot of choices that probably weren't the best for the kid - especially changes to the routine. That is the LAST thing you want to do to a kid with Autism or Aspergers.

But I certainly don't want to defend the Berkeley school system - they have tons of money just for this kind of situation. Maybe they can divert some of the funds for Kwanzaa studies or self-esteem courses or sexual diversity courses over the the special needs kids.

That's a really good question. Here's the answer as I know it.

Items written into an IEP fall under very precise categories. First there is a present level of performance. Here is where the teacher describes the child as specifically as possible. Next, come goals--these SHOULD be quantitative and definable by any observer, ie. Johnny will multiply 2 digits by 2 digits with 90% accuracy on 3 of 5 tries. Goals should ONLY be written for access points, such as reading, writing, math, and for some kids, social/behavior/organizational. Then the team discusses accommodations. This is how the environment should be manipulated so that the student can access the curriculum. Common accommodations are seating near instruction, tests read, calculators, word processors, etc. If the child has a math disability, there is no need for word processing and vice versa. However, teachers who are clueless will present the parent with a "shopping list" of aaaaaaaall possible accommodations and then the IEP ends up with ridiculous stuff. Best practice says to start with the disability and work out. Then, if the kid is 14, there is a transition section. That's pretty much it in an IEP.

I guess it is possible that something could be written into the accommodation section, but only an incompetent administrator would let something like that through since that is not the purpose of that page. But, I'm talking taking the Peter Principle to its greatest limit.

However, all that being said. IF a parent browbeat a committee into requiring training it would be required, but only for the life of the IEP, which can be no more than one year.

Children are natural savages...

That is an interesting point that could be argued (as it was in Golding's Lord of the Flies). My fairly recent experience as a parent has led me to be more inclined to believe that we turn children into "savages" by treating them as though they are. Of course it isn't all one or the other.

I have not treated my own children as "little savages" and I am (so far) very pleased with how they are coming along.

have to say that there have been some very cruel and heartless comments on this thread. I am amazed that some people take the opportunity of the anonymity of the Internet to say things they would never say in person. The children cannot help being the way they are and I would absolutely hate to be in the position of some of the parents having to raise children who will never leave home, nor will he parents ever have relief. It is a very difficult position in which to be.

Thank you for your post and thank your wife as well. There is a photo of my special little girl in my profile and at 2.5 years old and after 10 months of therapy, she is nearly "indistinguishable from her peers" as her doctors now have stated. I have no doubt in my mind that she will eventually thrive in a normal school setting, possibly as early as kindergarten and become a functional and productive adult with perhaps some "quirks". However, along the way I have met some profoundly autistic children and it's a sad situation. To make such comments without having walked a day in these parents's shoes is plain cruel, as you said. FReepers have autistic children too and none of us asked to be here. Many of us pursue outside private therapy and are not solely relying on the government alone, just to clear THAT up. It's times like these where I think the Demilibs may be onto something when they spout that we conservatives "only care about children when they are inside the wound".

The state is required to provide an APPROPRIATE education--they must provide the "Ford" not required to provide the "Cadillac" Free and Appropriate.

I can think of at least one situation where a student has his own separate classroom, his own teacher, and three or more paraprofessional staff who work only with him. Counting paraprofessional staff this is at least a four to one teacher-student ratio.

I guess my point is that the product of laws and litigation over the last 30 years has created a situation that is more complicated, expensive and fraught with legal land mines than most people can begin to realize.

Bull, the Ratio is 9-1 or 12-1 with an aide.

Really, I thought that it was 6-1 or 12-1 with an aide. I worked with medically fragile infants/children for 15 + years and under state licensing regs we were required a 6-1 / 12-2 ratio during all hours of instruction. Frankly if the state wanted to HELP some of these children they wouldn't be "mainstreaming" them at all. They'd be using that education money that they are giving for these schools having these kids enrolled for specialized day schools with the proper setups.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.