State rules that CPS has violated the rights of disabled children, takes over monitoring...
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised Forrest Claypool at the time of Claypool's resignation from his post as "Chief Executive Officer" of Chicago's public schools. In doing so, Emanuel ignored Claypool's record of ethical violations and the undermining of special education services to the city's most needy children.On Wednesday, May 16, 2018, the monthly meeting of the Illinois Board of Education (ISBE) voted to accept the findings and recommendations of the investigative committee headed by Stephanie Jones, the ISBE general counsel. The findings of the investigation showed (see below) that the Chicago Board of Education had routinely violated the rights of special education students and ignored the rights of parents and families. As a result of the findings, CPS's spsecial education services will again be placed under an outside monitor. (CPS was under a federal monitor for more than a decade).
The ISBE Board were given the report in April so they can have time to read and digest the findings which were based on documents given to them by a consortium of special education advocacy groups and legal counsel. There were also public hearing where testimony was taken which were held at Kent Law School in which the public was able to view live. Elizabeth Keenan, the latest CPS Director of special education actually admitted at the hearings that she has never attended a special education meeting (known as an IEP -- Individual Education Plan). Yet she put together a Procedural Manual that dictated how special education services were going to be provided.
Here are the actions that ISBE deemed urgent and necessary to undo the illegal and immoral practices that Chicago Public Schools and especially, the Office of Diverse Learners Services and Supports (a title bequeathed to CPS by Markay Winston the head of special education four directors ago):
Essential Corrective Actions
1 .CPS will fully cooperate with the Monitor appointed by ISBE, providing the Monitor with
timely notice of meetings, requested data, and other information related to the
implementation of this plan or Federal and State law governing special education.
2. The ISBE Monitor will have access to the SSM system in order to independently monitor
IEP’s throughout the school year. CPS will provide the monitor with such access.
3. CPS will seek approval from the Monitor prior to changing or adopting policies and
procedures regarding special education, including any changes to its Procedural Manual.
4. CPS will provide the Monitor with dates for all trainings related to special education and
allow the Monitor or designee to attend and/or participate in the trainings.
5. CPS will invite the Monitor to all meetings of the Parent Advisory Committee.
6. CPS will invite the Monitor to all meetings with the Advocates when issues of Policy or
Procedures are discussed.
7. The monitor will be accessible to CPS staff for the purpose of raising concerns or filing
complaints against CPS. Staff who report concerns to the monitor shall not suffer retaliation.
8. ISBE and the Monitor will have the authority to provide Technical Assistance or additional
corrective action if CPS does not fully implement this plan and take other affirmative
actions to change the policies, procedures and practices that are inconsistent with IDEA
Part B.
9. ISBE and the Monitor will publish reports on the ISBE website on an annual basis which
review the status of the Corrective Action Plan, outline activities undertaken in the
previous year and set forth activities planned for the upcoming year. The reports will be
published as long as the ISBE Monitor is in place.
Isbe.net. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.isbe.net/Documents_Board_Meetings/201805-packet.pdf pp. 77-79.
The following is a report by the Legal Advocates and Parent Groups on May 9th after conducting a survey of parents, teachers and administrators of the issues around special education: The findings were made public right before the ISBE meeting to help the state and others to get feedback by those who must deal with special education services on a daily basis.
New survey shows CPS special Ed problems continue despite ISBE probe
Parents, teachers say CPS hasn’t fixed problems, independent monitoring team needed to oversee program and protect students
CHICAGO—Despite claims that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has fixed the special ed problems at issue in a state probe, the vast majority of parents and teachers responding to a new survey say they continue to experience the same delays, denials and roadblocks in obtaining services for students that prompted the state investigation in the first place.
Legal advocates and parent groups will present the survey findings to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Wednesday to bolster their call for an independent monitor to oversee the CPS special ed program and for at minimum a $10 million dedicated fund to compensate students whose legally-required services were denied or delayed.
"Actions speak louder than words and survey data from thousands of parents and teachers confirm the problems that prompted our request for the ISBE investigation are continuing,” Matt Cohen, one of the lawyers representing the advocate groups that brought the state complaint, said. “We are talking about our most vulnerable students here and the only way to assure they are protected is with a robust and fully-staffed independent monitor who has the authority to compel CPS to follow the law.”
More than 2,200 parents, teachers and administrators responded to the survey, issued by the legal advocates and parent groups who sought the ISBE probe in the wake of massive complaints by special ed parents and teachers last year.
In one of the most shocking findings, 71 percent of all respondents said that legally-required student services were denied because the school couldn’t afford to hire the necessary staff, in clear violation of federal special ed law.
And 45 percent of all respondents reported students being denied their required aide because the school had insufficient student data or a district representative failed to attend the meeting to finalize the student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP), also a violation of federal law. IEPs are the federally-mandated roadmap for the education of students with disabilities.
The survey also found that CPS’s much-heralded revised procedure manual isn’t making the grade. CPS says it revised the manual to address the concerns of teachers and legal advocates who challenged the procedures put in place by ousted CEO Forrest Claypool last year.
Yet the survey found:
· 95 percent of teachers and 91 percent of administrators said they have yet to receive training on the revised manual. Without proper training, teachers and administrators continue to have problems approving services for special ed students in the complicated, online system CPS uses to establish IEPs.
· 46 percent of parents said that their child was not consistently receiving the services indicated on their IEP this school year and another 22 percent were unsure of whether services were being provided.
· Some 69 percent of parents said they had never even seen the procedure manual, which is critical to obtaining needed services, like one-on-one aides or transportation, for their children.
· 71 percent of parents have never heard of the new CPS Special Ed Parent Advisory Committee, which CPS CEO Janice Jackson claims will enable parents to have a greater say in developing and administering special ed policy in the district.
"After years of having issues getting proper services for my son, he was wrongfully denied
transportation services last year,” CPS parent Nancy Curran, who submitted a sworn affidavit in the ISBE probe, said. “I participated in this inquiry with the goal of sharing our experience so that systems and structures are put in place to improve special ed service delivery for all students. I believe the only way to achieve this is through an independent monitor with staff who can hold CPS accountable.”
“This survey conducted over only two weeks’ time magnifies the depth of the violations of children’s rights and the extent to which CPS fails to engage stakeholders,” Legal Council for Health Justice managing attorney Amy Zimmerman added. “Over 1,400 anonymous comments bolster the need for whistleblower protections along with accountability.”
The legal advocates are delivering the full survey results along with a detailed proposal for remedies to ISBE board members Wednesday. The state board is scheduled to rule on the group’s request at its May 16 meeting in Springfield.
[The special education advocates’ coalition includes: Access Living; Chicago Principals and Administrators Association; the Chicago Teachers Union; Equip For Equality; LAF (Legal Assistance Foundation); Legal Council for Health Justice; Matt Cohen and Associates; Ounce of Prevention Fund; Parents 4 Teachers; Potter and Bolanos, LLC; Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education; Shriver National Center on Poverty Law; 19th Ward Parents for Special Education, and Sharon Weitzman Soltman]
Erica Clark, a strong and articulate parent who leads one of the groups, Parents 4 Teachers, wrote a letter to the Chicago Tribune, talking about the demeaning way CPS has treated parents and students over the years when issues about special education were brought to their attention. Here is her letter dated May 18, 2018:
The Chicago Board of Education has failed our special ed students
So, it's official. The state has essentially taken over Chicago Public Schools’ special ed program after a five-month investigation documented systemic delays and denials of vital services for children, in violation of federal law.
A WBEZ investigation documented the abuses, but parents, teachers and advocates had been bringing those violations to the mayor's hand-picked, rubber-stamp school board for the last two years.
Their response? CPS Board President Frank Clark routinely told parents to get their facts straight. Ousted CEO Forrest Claypool told us we didn't know what we were talking about. New CEO Janice Jackson sat there silently nodding her head in agreement with her bosses.
The mayor's response now? He says CPS will go along with the state-ordered monitoring of CPS. How big of him. He doesn't really have a choice.
But there's been no real admission or apology from CPS or the mayor for the irreparable harm they've caused children and families over the last two years, all to save a few bucks. If we needed any more proof that the mayor's appointed school board has failed Chicago's children, this is it.
Chicago needs and deserves an elected school board. What will it take to get our elected officials to stand with the people of Chicago instead of the mayor?
How many more children need to be harmed before Chicagoans get the right to elect the people who run our schools the same way every other Illinois city does?
Seriously, what will it take?
— Erica Clark, Parents 4 Teachers, Chicago
Tribune, C. (2018). The Chicago Board of Education has failed our special ed students. [online] chicagotribune.com. Available at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/ct-cps-special-ed-investigation-janice-jackson-20180518-story.html
The following are two reports on the ISBE ruling. The first is by Brandis Friedman, the educational reporter for WTTW. The second is by Sarah Karp (education reporter of WBEZ), who was instrumental in getting the special education abuses in the public.
State Board Approves Special Education Monitor, Reforms for CPS
Brandis Friedman
Parents of students in special education say they’re concerned that the state’s recommendations to reform Chicago Public Schools’ special education program don’t go far enough.
After a month’s long investigation into the program, the Illinois State Board of Education voted Wednesday to approve an independent monitor to oversee CPS as it works to implement changes.
Advocates say a single independent monitor won’t be enough to clean things up.
“We cannot change this culture or practice at CPS without robust supports,” said Amy Zimmerman of the Legal Council for Health Justice, “and that’s going to require a significant amount not only of monitoring and ensuring compliance with the remedies that ISBE has put forth, but there’s also a requirement for a lot of technical assistance that they’re going to need.”
Local advocates first called for an investigation into the district last year following a WBEZ report that revealed CPS had used outside auditors to secretly overhaul its special education practices and limit both its funding and services.
The State Board of Education began its public inquiry process late last fall and found the district was in violation of a laundry list of policies under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, including those surrounding software the district uses to create and manage Individual Education Plans (IEPs), documentation and data collection, budgeting, the appeals process and providing transportation.
Christine Palmieri, whose fourth grade son attends Blaine Elementary in Lakeview, says for at least six months her autistic son was denied services he needs, and that the appeals process was cumbersome.
“What’s really hard is determining regression and trajectory for students on the spectrum,” she said. “Having going without proper supports and services for so long, we’re rebuilding, but we’re starting from a place that’s so far behind that I don’t really know if he’ll ever meet the same trajectory that he might have, had services been in place.”
The independent monitor has quite a lot of responsibility, including making sure the IEP software is working and that everyone who needs access to it has it.
The district will have to get approval from the monitor to make any changes to special education policies or procedures, access to any and all meetings and trainings, as well as serving as the third party when staff, parents or advocates have a concern to raise.
Even the state board acknowledges it will be a heavy lift.
“It is a robust report,” said Stephanie Jones, general counsel for ISBE. “There are a lot of requirements, and it’s probably more than one person can do. We acknowledge that. But we do believe that we have the staffers in the agency to support the monitor and provide the services that ISBE is requiring of itself to provide, through the recommendations, and also provide the oversight that we believe CPS needs.”
Jones says this doesn’t mean the state couldn’t appoint additional staffers to work on reform in several months or even a year if it realizes more people are needed.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson has previously said she had hoped the district wouldn’t need a monitor, and that she felt the district could make reforms with its own internal process.
But during a press conference Tuesday with the mayor, said she respects the state’s decision.
“We respect the findings, and we’re going to do everything we can do to right the wrongs, but also respect the process,” Jackson said.
That said, the advocates we spoke with question some of the reforms Jackson says she’s implemented. They conducted their own survey of 2,000 teachers, parents and staff at CPS.
A few surprising results: 94 percent of respondents -- that’s 1,800 teachers -- said they’d never had training on the new CPS Special Education Procedural Manual from February of this year. https://www.isbe.net/Documents_Board_Meetings/201805-packet.pdf (pages 74-126)
The independent monitor will be on the job for three years. For now, the general counsel for ISBE and the state’s director of special education will serve the role, until the right attorney is found.
Tribune, C. (2018). The Chicago Board of Education has failed our special ed students. [online] chicagotribune.com. Available at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/ct-cps-special-ed-investigation-janice-jackson-20180518-story.html
State Strips CPS Of Control Of Special Education
Sarah Karp
May 16, 2018
Chicago Public Schools — the nation’s third largest school system — must turn over control of nearly every aspect of its special education program to the state, the Illinois State Board of Education said Wednesday. The board voted to appoint a monitor who will have final say on all policies and budget plans related to special education. It’s a major blow to CPS’ autonomy and a rare and aggressive move by the state. CPS spends $900 million, or more than 16 percent of its total budget, on special education annually to serve more than 52,000 children with a broad range of special needs, including learning issues and behavioral and physical disabilities.
The board voted to appoint the monitor for at least three years and 40 other “corrective actions” for CPS after accepting the findings of a state investigation that found CPS had violated federal special education laws when it made sweeping changes to its program for disabled students two years ago.
The investigation found “systemic problems” with special education in CPS that “delayed and denied” services to children. That inquiry was prompted by complaints from advocates and a WBEZ report that mirrored the state’s findings.
WBEZ Investigation: CPS Secretly Overhauled Special Education At Students’ Expense
The state board Wednesday also voted to require the monitor and CPS to identify students harmed by the 2016 overhaul and offer them the opportunity to pursue a remedy.
Stephanie Jones, the ISBE general counsel who oversaw the investigation, called this a “great day,” but said the hard work had only just begun.
“It is the first day of a tremendous amount of work to come to ensure we have a system within the city of Chicago that provides special education students the services that they deserve,” Jones said.
Jones acknowledged concerns raised by special education advocates that a single monitor couldn’t handle the workload that lies ahead and said a team of people inside the State Board of Education will be assembled to support the monitor.
‘A good start’
The adoption of these recommendations is the culmination of an inquiry process that started in January. The extensive review involved a panel of experts holding several and collecting more than 800 pages of documents.
The conclusions were damning. The state found new CPS policies and procedures around key aspects of special education created roadblocks to access and violated federal law guaranteeing disabled students’ rights to an appropriate education. Specifically, children didn’t get transportation, one-on-one aides to assist them, and other needed services because of new onerous requirements around data collection and around how students are identified for special education.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson said she will accept the monitor and will work with the state, though she initially opposed a monitor. She noted that CPS already was taking steps to improve special education, including increasing funding and staff, and would do more on it its own. Jackson has said the problems with the overhaul had to do with implementation, but neither she nor Mayor Rahm Emanuel have acknowledged the fundamental problems with the new policies and procedures.
State Schools Superintendent Tony Smith said he pushed hard to require changes in place by the new school, saying there was no time to waste.
“There has been a level of trust that has been lost, and we want to help CPS regain the trust … Naming things and being open and honest to how that happened so we can continue to foster that trust,” Smith said.
Special education advocates and some state lawmakers celebrated the state’s actions, but said more was needed.
“Whereas I think — and many of us of think — this is a good start, I personally think it does not go far enough,” said state Rep. Fred Crespo, (D-Streamwood) who chairs a House education committee that held hearings on CPS’ special education program. He was flanked by several special education advocates at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
His Republican colleague on the committee, Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-Sycamore), accused CPS of a pattern of “tending to slow walk everything.”
“CPS tends to say they’ll do something” he said. “They tend to give the image of working with us, but they don’t. And that’s what I’m concerned with right now as we deal with the special education issue.”
Pritchard also noted that an aspect of CPS’ long-troubled special education program was under court monitoring until just a few years ago.
Pushing CPS for more
Crespo said he is considering introducing legislation in the next few days to push CPS to go further.
This includes requiring CPS to pay a minimum of $10 million to students whose services were delayed or denied, and mandating that CPS pay $500,000 for parent training and distribute the findings of the state’s investigation and remedies to all CPS parents. He also wants to require ISBE to review whether CPS’ special education policies disproportionately impact minority students of color.
Crespo’s legislative ideas mirror many raised by special education advocates.
Throughout the 2016-2017 school year, those advocates and parents complained to Chicago Board of Education members that support and services were being stripped from students. Then-CPS CEO Forrest Claypool insisted they were incorrect and assured board members that students were getting all legally required services.
Then, WBEZ’s investigation revealed that CPS hired outside auditors to orchestrate an overhaul of special education. Those auditors, with no experience in special education, helped write the policy and procedures. WBEZ’s investigation found the school district also changed the way it provided money to schools and cut special education spending, while Claypool repeatedly insisted the school district was not trying to save money.
Emboldened, the advocates urged the state to step in.
On Wednesday, one of those advocates called the state’s actions a beginning but still declared a significant victory.
“I am very grateful that ISBE took some action and conducted this inquiry because their findings were what we, as advocates, were saying for almost two years now,” said Mary Hughes, a CPS parent and advocate with the group Raise Your Hand. “It was very validating to hear an elected body take all of our stories and do something about them and take care of our children.”
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ.
WBEZ. (2018). State Strips CPS Of Control Of Special Education. [online] Available at: https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/state-strips-cps-of-control-of-special-education/c51e9d34-6ce0-42ce-9b1c-
