Special Needs Kids Lose Their Rights

This fight may have been inevitable. If you have been reading the past few weeks, you would know that I have been gearing up for this situation. I was actually told just after the first of this year that USDB (Utah Schools for the Deaf & Blind) had considered not paying for my child’s transportation to and from school, but, decided ultimately to finish off this school year and just not pay anything this coming school year. Oh, yeah…it didn’t make me happy, although it was nice to be able to have time to start the array of calls that I knew I was headed for.

This morning at just a few minutes after nine am I was called by a USDB representative. This representative told me that she had spoken to my school districts person in charge of special needs kids. (Of course, I only told the district rep about this a month ago, and she is just getting to it because I called earlier this week to talk to her and got voice mail.) She explained that my district rep asked her to call me and explain the reasons why my child would not be picked up any longer, and why I would need to drive my daughter to a pick up point, that was half way to her school. She also explained that because of stiff budget cuts, this choice was made because the state told USDB to cut transportation costs.

When I stated that because I work, and I have two children that I have to get ready for school and get them on the bus at that same time I would have to drive my daughter, I was told that I should ask a family member or a neighbor. Not an option for me…I don’t have family nearby, and I don’t have a neighbor that isn’t getting their children ready for school or leaving for work (even if I did know any of them well enough to ask such a personal twice daily favor). My other options were to see if the district would take my daughter to the drop off point (of which I am okay with) or have my daughter return to the normal preschool classroom setting.

The funny thing is, that neither of those last two options were really options. I asked the USDB rep about having my child and the other child that rides with her, be transported by a district vehicle, and she said that even though it was an option, most school districts in Utah have a policy that prevents them from leaving school boundaries. So, that option is not an option really. We had even discussed the possibility of having the other school district that will be affected by this, pitch in so that all the children in these two school districts could benefit. Again, we run into the issue of school transportation not being able to cross boundary lines.

The other option is sending my child back to the local elementary school. For many reasons this is NOT AN OPTION! Here are the first reasons: we do not have the teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, audiologists or other personnel that my daughter needs, let alone the other child whose needs will need to be met. We do have one representative that already comes up from USDB every week, but, her abilities and my childs needs (daily or otherwise) do not match.

Here is my personal reasoning for not allowing the option of returning my daughter to school here in our district:

1- Our school district had months and months to get our daughter an intrepreter or help before she was placed in preschool and then 7 months after she was placed in the class room, and they never did it.

2- Past experience with this district tells me she won’t get the services she needs.

3- I have been lied to (or to put it nicely, mislead) and ignored when dealing with our district.

4- Our district does not employ personnel that can help my daughter with the needs she has listed in her IEP.

4- Her current teacher has been able to do more for her than any other state employee or representative, and has done it in a shorter period of time. She has developed a relationship and understanding with my daughter. My daughter respects her teacher, something that is hard at times for our daughter to show for others.

5- There are others, but those are the ones that come most to my mind right now.

Back to the call from USDB

After having their reasons explained to me, and getting my questions answered, I knew it was time to call the district rep. I understand that these employees are just that…they are peons in this whole thing, but, they are the ones that I have access to at this point, and are the ones that have to field these inquiries. You can read more about that in the next post.