10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School

NEWS
October 6, 2005
CPS case goes to Supreme Court
chaffer lawsuit to determine how special education is administered in Montgomery County
from SCHAFFER page 1
to provide an appropriate public
education mandated by the IDEA.
Under MCPS’s proposed IEP, Brian
Schaffer would have been in classes
with over 20 students and a trained
special educator, according to the
Schaffers. They believe the school
system has the responsibility to
prove that an IEP is adequate.
MCPS maintained that special
education litigation should follow
legal precedent, where the plaintiff
bears the burden of proof. This
is part of the “traditional rules of
the court,” according to Brian Edwards,
communications director
for MCPS.
Plaintiffs have the burden of
proof in most legal cases, but there
are exceptions, said Miguel Mén-
dez, a professor at Stanford University
Law School. “The general rule
is that the plaintiff bears the proof,”
said Méndez. “The courts can
change this. When defendants have
more evidence, sometimes courts
put burden of proof on them.”
Making the plan
In Montgomery County, IEPs
are developed in conjunction with
parents, said Edwards, who believes
that MCPS provides excellent
special education services. “MCPS
has extremely dedicated special
education teachers and staff,” said
Edwards. “We are known for our
excellent special education programs.”
Some parents of special-education
students disagree with
Edwards’s analysis. Bob Astrove,
a parent of two MCPS specialeducation
students and a longtime
education activist, said MCPS
should have to prove that IEPs are
sufficient. “They’re the ones proposing
the plans; they’re the ones
who implement the services. The
school system has all the experts;
they control all of the research,”
said Astrove. “It’s not a level playing
field.”
According to Astrove, MCPS
uses litigation as a way to avoid improving
special education services.
“[MCPS] would rather litigate than
educate,” he said.
Diana Lautenberger, the mother
of a special-education student,
agrees that MCPS uses legal power
to avoid enriching IEPs. Lautenberger
is unsatisfied with how
silverCHIPS
SA forms basketball league to prevent gang activity
Following soccer league precedent, sports academy hopes to attract new demographic of students
By BAIJIA JIANG
The Blair Sports Academy (BSA) exanded
its gang prevention and academic
upport initiatives to the formation of a basetball
league that began Tuesday, according
o Security Assistant and BSA Director Jose
egura.
After the implementation of last year’s inoor
soccer league, organizers hope to reach
different demographic with the same goal
n mind: “to get kids off the street [and proide]
a structured environment where they
an come, stay out of trouble and have fun
ith a focus on academics,” said Segura.
The basketball league will follow the same
ormat as the indoor soccer league. Students
ring their own teams of eight to the small
ym after school on Tuesdays, Thursdays
nd Fridays. Although they can no longer
ring new teams into the league, students
ay still join existing teams. Guidelines
or participating will also remain the same,
ncluding the requirement that all players
ith a GPA of 2.0 or below attend academic
upport.
Last spring, the indoor soccer league atracted
389 students, more than 10 percent
f the school’s population, according to Seura.
The BSA hopes to eventually expand into
four-part program that will run throughut
the year: a basketball league in the fall, a
restling team in the winter, an indoor socer
league in the spring and a camp in the
ummer, according to Blair Gang Task Force
eader Susan Gardiner. “Our goal is to serve
he maximum amount that will come out,”
he said.
Battling gangs
A surge of gang activity last summer,
including five knife attacks at Springbrook
and at a Target store in Wheaton — thought
by police to be the work of prominent Salvadoran
gang Mara Salvatrucha — has intensified
gang prevention efforts throughout the
community.
In 2004, the Joint County Gang Prevention
Gang Task Force, a council between
Montgomery County and Prince George’s
County officials, was formed to recommend
strategies to counter gangs in response to
rising gang activity in the D.C.-metropolitan
area. The Task Force stressed a threepronged
effort: prevention, suppression and
intervention.
To further curb gang activity, it is imperative
to sponsor prevention programs
and structured after-school activities like
the indoor soccer and basketball leagues,
according to Luis Hurtado, Community
Relations Specialist and Hispanic Liaison
Officer for the Montgomery County Police
Department. “A gang person has no
relations to communities, no relations to
schools,” he said. “When you have a program
at Blair, [the students] develop positive
relationships where they can depend on
others. It’s outstanding.”
Junior William Soriano, who played in
the indoor soccer league last spring, said
that participating in the league fostered communication
between players. In addition to
making new friends, Soriano improved relations
with team members he did not initially
like. “We had to talk to each other and became
friends,” he said.
“It’d be good for the kids”
Graphic by Camille Mackler
Integrating academic support with the
sports programs is another priority for the
BSA. According to Physical Education
teacher Emanuel Charles, who volunteered
as a referee and security guard during
games, the league motivated players last
year to get help with schoolwork if they
were failing. “They love sports, so they’re
MCPS has administered special
education programs for her son.
“[MCPS] didn’t want him; that was
very clear. They made it very difficult
for him. They didn’t give him
the support he needed to be successful.
He began to deteriorate,” said
Lautenberger. “When I said, ‘You’re
not meeting my son’s needs,’ they
said, ‘Prove it.’”
Most of the parents whom Board
of Education member Sharon Cox
has met have been satisfied with
their children’s special education
programs. “I have spoken
with many parents who say that
their experiences with the school
system have been terrific,” said
Cox. “MCPS makes every effort
to provide the services that a child
needs.”
Blair’s 250 special education
students are among the 17,000 of
MCPS’s 140,000 students who need
such programs.
Meetings to design IEPs involve
school psychologists, teachers,
speech pathologists, counselors,
parents and the student being evaluated,
said Lisa Davisson, Blair’s
special education resource teacher.
She added that a Supreme Court
ruling in favor of Schaffer would
make it harder to help design IEPs
and administer special education
programs because of extra legal
precautions.
When school officials decide
MCPS cannot provide quality services
to a special-education student,
the county pays for the student to
attend a private school. Currently,
650 MCPS special-education students
are in private schools, costing
the county $32 million per year,
according to Edwards. This expenditure
constitutes over 10 percent of
MCPS’s $310.7 million special education
budget. At Blair, Davisson
going to do anything to play,” he said.
Before standardized tests such as the
High School Assessments and the Geometry
Maryland State Assessments (MSA)
this year, the BSA required 23 players who
were failing their Geometry classes to attend
review sessions. This year, Blair met federal
standardized testing requirements for the
Geometry MSA in the category of Hispanic
males, which was the demographic that
had caused Blair to fail to meet the testing
standards the year before. BSA organizers
attribute this achievement to the hard work
and collaboration between many teachers
and students through the soccer league. “It
was a team effort between the [English for
annually refers about one student
for placement at another public
school or in a private school.
In Schaffer’s case, a decision
was not reached in an IEP meeting
to place Schaffer in a private
school. Schaffer’s parents decided
on their own to enroll their son in a
private school, and they sued MCPS
for reimbursement, said Jocelyn
Schaffer.
In 1998, a judge ruled in favor of
MCPS, according to Wrightslaw, a
special education research group.
Since then, a series of appeals from
both the Schaffers and MCPS led
the case through the U.S. Court of
Appeals, which decided in favor of
MCPS, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
MCPS special
education statistics
• MCPS spent $974,132 on
special education legal
expenses in the 2005 fiscal
year.
• Six hundred fifty MCPS
students with IEPs are
currently enrolled in
private schools, costing
MCPS $32 million per
year.
• In the 2005 fiscal year,
42.85 percent of MCPS
legal expenses were special
education legal costs.
Special education is 19.42
percent of MCPS’s total
budget.
Information courtesy of the
MCPS web site.
Speakers of Other Languages] ESOL department,
staff development, the math department
[and others],” Segura said. “All these
played a crucial part in the kids’ performance.”
Even though the BSA will have enough
money to run the basketball league, it is
still waiting for additional funds to finance
the entire program for the year, Gardiner
said. The $25,000 County Council grant
that went to the YMCA last year will also be
transferred to the BSA throughout the year.
With funds in place, organizers look
forward to a successful new season and
league. “I would like to see it happen,” said
Charles. “It’d be good for the kids.”
Graphic by Camille Mackler