The United States Department of Education sent a “guidance letter” to state local education agencies (school districts) regarding Response to Intervention (RTI) and Child Find. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) sent the letter on April 29th. It reminds pre-schools that they are responsible for child find. This means the local school district is responsible for paying for a special education evaluation. A pre-school can’t use RTI if a special education evaluation is needed prior to the RTI process. This is all great except for that one tiny, itty-bitty, little thing: Who pays for it?
The US DOE had their toddler Race to the Top come out a year after the regular one and it gave states tons of money to make great pre-schools. The funding for this runs out on June 30th of this year. Which is why Delaware, Governor Jack Markell requested over 11 million bucks to keep these programs going. But the big problem with this is school districts aren’t allocated more money to pay for all these special education evaluations. So guess where that money comes from? The local funds a school district gets from school taxes. From YOUR property taxes. Guess how much the charters pay for those pre-school evaluations? Not one cent. In fact, Delaware is a state where there is no basic special education funding from the state share of funds for students in Kindergarten to 3rd grade at any public school. But that’s okay, they can afford it? Right? Yeah, let’s not go down that road.
If so many Delaware schools lack the ability to give special education services to kids in Kindergarten to 3rd grade because they just so happen to not get any extra funds for that, how is that going to work with pre-schools? This letter, on the surface, looks great. Big government is looking out for the kids with disabilities. But who holds them accountable when they have NEVER given the full amount of funding to states under IDEA? They give what, 10-13%, and they want to be the enforcer of all things special education? What a crock!
Response to Intervention is the biggest joke of them all. It is a crutch for Delaware schools to NOT give special education in Kindergarten to 3rd grade. What they are doing is messing up kids big time. Whether it is a school district or a charter, and unless they are listed in the “intensive” or “complex” category, you are better off letting your basic special education child sit in a pile of needles cause that’s what it’s like for them. Imagine having a bad infection and someone says “let’s try this technique that will take a while to fight it”. Will the infection get better? Nope. It’s going to rot and fester. That’s what happens to the minds of children with neurological disabilities who don’t get the right special education. But it’s alright, because Mary Ann Mieczkowski, the Director of the Exceptional Children Resources Group at the Delaware DOE says Delaware’s due process system is more than fair. Yeah, I can see how that scares the hell out of Delaware schools into doing the right thing…
The US DOE are a bunch of hypocrites. They endorse things like social impact bonds which is when a company “invests” in an education setting (like a pre-school) for a certain goal. In Utah, that went swimmingly when Goldman Sachs had a long-running program they “invested” in. The goal: only 1% of 200 kids would need long-term special education services in regular school after they put in the “necessary” programs at the pre-school to “help” these kids. I guess they didn’t get the memo that disabilities are NEUROLOGICAL which is why programs like this are complete and utter crap. In Delaware, the average for students with disabilities in public schools hovers around 13.5 to 15%. But with genius banks getting their hooks in, only 1% would! Goldman Sachs got a return on their “investment” because of the “success” to the tune of $277,000. I don’t see OSEP sending financial institutions these letters…
To read the latest “guidance” (which essentially means do as we say or we are going to make you sorry) letter from US DOE/OSEP, read below.
The Season Of Myths 