Providing A ‘Free And Appropriate’ Education

After a couple of centuries of grappling with just what our country’s Bill of Rights means, our courts and governments have settled on a set of basic human rights from the much larger cornucopia of privileges that pile up in a free society. One of the last of these civil rights to emerge from the tumultuous 20th Century was the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990. This federal law followed by seven years a similar Connecticut statute that required school districts to identify children with disabilities that inhibit their educational performance and to provide them with a “free and appropriate education” that addresses their individual needs. Determining what is an “appropriate education” for what have come to be known as “special education” students has become a dual challenge: how to design a program of study that addresses individual special needs, and how to pay for it. Unfortunately, many of the parents of those students suspect that school administrators are overly influenced by the cost when determining and addressing the need.

That suspicion, according to Newtown’s two state representatives, Republican DebraLee Hovey and Democrat Christopher Lyddy, has reached a critical mass in the Newtown school district. The two lawmakers have requested that the state Department of Education investigate dozens of parental complaints about the district’s special education department. School officials, including Board of Education Chairman William Hart and Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, say they welcome state scrutiny of the district. They are confident of the local special education program’s legitimacy and suggest, as Dr Robinson put it, that parents who are denied services are “just bitter.” Mr Hart likened the process of apportioning special education services to the process insurance companies use when apportioning health coverage — not everyone gets everything they want. “We don’t ration — period,” he told The Bee last week, conceding, however, in the next sentence, “It’s inherently like rationing.”

The Newtown school district plans to spend $6.4 million next year for special education programs; state and federal grants typically account for between 20 and 25 percent of total expenditures in this area. Consequently, there is a great incentive for school officials to stint when setting up individualized educational programs; every dollar not spent on special education is another dollar potentially available for other programs addressing more general educational needs.

We hope a state Department of Education investigation of Newtown’s special education programs provides a clear picture of the processes and motivations that determine the educational opportunities for Newtown’s most challenged students. As a society, we have decided that our commitment to public education is not just limited to those who are easy to educate. We are all bound to honor that commitment, even when it costs us money we would like to spend on other things. Having a child with special needs can be the challenge of a lifetime, and too often families dealing with these challenges feel isolated and powerless in the face of the difficult hurdles ahead. We need to make every effort to ensure that as a community we do not throw even more obstacles in their path, but hear them out and help them on their way.