Posted on: Saturday, August 18, 2001
Special education deadlines trying for parents
By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
Enough is enough.
That's the cry from some parents and advocates of special-needs children after a federal judge this week gave the state another chance to improve special education services.
"The state has been given enough warnings already," said Denita Waltz, a private consultant for families with special-needs children who also has a disabled son. "How many more warnings do they need before they get there? You cannot blame it on any one person, but after so long you've got to give up already, and the court has to do what they have to do."
U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled on Thursday that the state has until Nov. 1 to get two-thirds of its school complexes into compliance with the Felix consent decree and meet several other benchmarks or he will appoint a receiver to take over the system.
Hawai'i's special education system has been under Ezra's oversight since 1994 after a class-action lawsuit accused it of ignoring children with mental disabilities.
Yet seven years after the state entered into the Felix consent decree and agreed to improve its services for special-needs children, there is a creeping cynicism among parents and advocates that the state will ever be held accountable for improving services.
"The judge promised ... that if the state didn't meet its deadlines, he would appoint a receiver and then he said judges make promises not threats. So? He promised," said Larry Geller, executive director of the Hawai'i Coalition for Health. "My feeling is the time clock is ticking for kids and if a receiver can make things happen, then we should have a receiver."
The state argues — and Ezra has agreed — that it has made significant progress in the past two years. It has hired thousands of special education experts such as counselors, psychologists, social workers and behavioral health specialists. It has created a new computer system to reduce the mountains of paperwork. And it has built the infrastructure to deliver services, which can range from counseling to reading tuition to physical therapy.
Even the plaintiff attorneys who brought the Felix case in 1993 agree that these days more children are more likely to get the help they need.
Yet there are pockets where the change still has not taken hold, and others where there has been backsliding, they say. Some parents are still fighting to get the help they need and are entitled to under federal law.
The fact that Ezra didn't take over the system this week as the plaintiff attorneys had asked was greeted with everything from outrage to resignation by parents, said Michael Leone, co-chairman of Maui Community Children's Council.
Leone has fought his own battles with the system. His 17-year-old son is receiving treatment on the Mainland because Hawai'i is not able to provide the services he needs. His son is making progress, Leone said, but it's financially and emotionally rough on the family that he is not in Hawai'i.
"He really needs his family there to support him help go through this stuff," Leone said.
While there are those who are crying out for a receiver to be appointed now, Leone is more cautious. A receiver could be a double-edged sword, he said.
"It could be the best thing that happens," he said. "And it could be a total nightmare because that receiver will inevitably have the sole control of the state for all of those children. ... At least the way it's set up now, at least we have the community involved and with a receivership, we won't. We'll be at the mercy of that receiver."
Ezra has yet to outline what powers a receiver would have, but that person could potentially have control of the state purse and the ability to move personnel regardless of collective bargaining agreements. Some already are predicting that if Ezra does take over in November, it will be limited to certain areas such as Maui County and the Big Island, which continue to struggle with compliance.
After seven years under court oversight, none of the seven school complexes in Maui County has been able to pass the test that measures how well it is delivering services to special needs children. The Big Island has passed one of its nine complexes.
In 10 weeks, the Department of Education must bring 27 of its 41 complexes into full compliance. Nine already are there. Another 12 are halfway there, which means the DOE must bring six more up to par — or risk Ezra stepping in.
Many believe the DOE has no chance of pulling itself over that bar in the time remaining. Teachers still haven't gotten enough training, they say. The system has just undergone a massive reform and taken over the delivery of the majority of services from the Department of Health. And the schools are emotionally burdened by the ongoing argument between the state and teachers union that has left teachers without a contract and without the pay raises and bonuses that it was hoped would help attract more qualified staff to Hawai'i.
For Leone, one of the hardest things is that many parents have given up. The Community Children's Councils were set up around the state as part of the Felix consent decree to give parents a voice in the process. But some of the councils are now chaired by DOE and DOH staff, Leone said, because parents no longer attend the meetings.
"I run into parents all the time and they say the same thing, 'I got tired of showing up for nothing. I feel that it's a waste of time, like nothing's going to change,' " he said.
