State may be free from Felix oversight

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

The state has come into substantial compliance with federal special-education law and could be out from under federal court oversight by June 2004, according to a report filed yesterday by the court monitor overseeing Hawai'i's efforts to comply with the Felix consent decree.

The report from court monitor Ivor Groves is the first indication of when the Department of Education and Department of Health could be released from the years-long watch of the federal court system that has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars and dominated the education agenda here for nearly a decade.

The Felix consent decree stemmed from a 1993 federal class-action lawsuit that accused the state of ignoring the needs of mentally disabled children.

While the state's efforts to bring special education up to federal standards have not yet come to full fruition, the state has come far enough that Groves is recommending that federal District Judge David Ezra end the independent monitoring and technical assistance that have overseen the state's attempts at compliance.

A hearing before Ezra is set for June 10.

The recommendation means that Groves' involvement in the case would end and a new, independent monitor would only be tapped by the court if Hawai'i backslides substantially.

"The work and effort to improve the performance of the system to achieve the current level of compliance is only half the job," the report says. "It is equally critical that the state demonstrate that it can sustain and continue to make improvement in the education and mental health services for children with special needs."

Groves has recommended that the state departments report directly to the court quarterly starting in June. If Ezra finds the state's performance adequate in June 2003, the same quarterly reports would continue for another year.

The lawsuit could be dismissed after June 2004.

Now, 95 percent of the students in the state are attending schools recommended for full compliance with the consent decree.

The report outlines some of the massive impacts the Felix case has had on the Hawai'i school and health system: in 1994, just 6 percent of the state's students were considered eligible for special education, a rate far below the national average, and the state spent $115 million a year, while today 11.53 percent of students are eligible and the state's special education budget has ballooned to $340 million.

The state failed for several years to make satisfactory progress toward fulfilling the consent decree, and Groves in 1999 developed a set of 141 benchmarks that outlined a plan for the state to improve its special education services. The benchmarks require tracking everything from student discipline to the number of qualified teachers in the classroom.

Seven months ago, Ezra had threatened to put the state into receivership, and in December, he gave the state one final chance to meet the benchmarks, telling officials they needed to achieve full compliance by March 31.

As of March 31, 38 school complexes, which are high schools and their feeder schools, composed of 243 schools and 171,146 students had been recommended for certification as fully compliant.

Three school complexes — Pahoa, Wai'anae and Lana'i — have not met the federal requirements. The court monitor and the Felix Monitoring Project will continue to work on bringing those campuses into compliance.

Among other things, the report says the state still needs to:

• Improve performance in several intermediate and high schools that have high rates of suspension, due process hearing requests and low reading scores.

• Complete the computer system used to track student performance and help teachers learn to use it.

• Keep training, coaching and mentoring specialists hired in areas such as autism, reading and behavioral health.

• Have at least 90 percent of its special education teachers licensed or certified. It now has 88.7 percent.

"There is great skepticism and fear in parents, advocates and system staff that without the pressure of the monitor, outside technical assistance and the active oversight of the court the system will backslide and fail to educate and serve all children appropriately," the report said. "There is great fear that parent input and preferences will be disregarded and ignored."

Groves also noted that the number of due process hearings found in favor of parents indicates that there are still people and campuses across the state unable to comply with the law.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who could not be reached yesterday, have until the end of the month to submit comments in response to the monitor's report.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.