Family of autistic student sues over graduation
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / OCT. 2015
Family members argue the McKinley High School student has been forced into a graduation he is not ready for, Hawaii News Nowreported.
The family of an autistic student is suing over the 19-year-old’s graduation.
Family members argue the McKinley High School student has been forced into a graduation he is not ready for, Hawaii News Now reported.
Lawyer Carl Varady said his clients took steps to make sure the student is best prepared to take part in adult society.
Federal law says disabled students age out of eligibility for education services at 22 years old.
The student’s mother says the family needs to advocate for him because he can’t do it himself. “What the school is supposed to do is provide a bridge and to provide the support in place to be able to transition him from high school into post-high school activities — and McKinley High School failed to do that,” she said.
State education officials released a statement that says parents discuss progress and adjustments with school officials at least monthly, and it’s unusual for an issue to be raised just before graduation.
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“Each special education student works under an Individualized Education Program developed between the school and parents,” the statement said. “Students’ growth is a collaborative effort between parents and teachers, where students learn life skills at home and lessons at school.”
53 responses to “Family of autistic student sues over graduation”
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From the televised interviews with this man’s mother, it sounds as if he will never be ready “to take part in adult society”. Is it fair for his teachers and much younger fellow students to be placed in this position?
Sad to say, but there are some unfortunates that will always be at a severe lifelong disadvantage.
It is like the students bound to wheelchairs. The schools are trying their best to help educate the student. Parents cannot expect miracles to make the child walk. The mother needs to transition her son into an adult program.
She wants her “free” baby sitting service to continue.
Terrible waste of public money . Normal students get short-changed because of such.
You are short change. Oh, loose change.
Troll. I knew you were always just a troll.
Written by someone who apparently has no soul.
Other posters have vehemently declared many times you’re an admitted atheist. Does your comment above suggest you’re not? It’d be refreshing to know the truth for once. Thanks for your time and effort.
Parents who have soul should homeschool their special kit.
DeltaDag – I’m a proud atheist. I have a Ph.D., so the atheist thing was all but guaranteed.
You might want to read Proverbs 16:18..
Klastri
Many people have Ph.D.’s and are not atheists. So your implication seems like a poor generalization.
I appreciate your qualification of “all but” guaranteed.
But since some of the smartest people I know, – scientists by the way – are Christians, I wonder.
Might be interesting to see a breakdown per discipline.
Cricket_Amos – You may want to believe it’s a poor generalization but it’s not. Varying surveys have it hovering between somewhere in the 83-93% range of natural science Ph.D. holders (mine is in microbiology, which I attained before law school) are atheist. You can believe that or not. It doesn’t matter to me.
Like Dr. Degrasse-Tyson said, “If that’s how you want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on. So, just be ready for that to happen, if that’s how you want to come at the problem.”
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Florida’s McKay SPED grant
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Critics of public education fail to realize that this student is one of many like him in the system. College prep private schools, which most people try to compare the public schools to, don’t accept autistic or other special needs kids.
As long as these parents contribute to the tax base, they deserve the education that the government guarantee each AMERICAN child. It’s part of the Constitution.
Please quote the passage in the Constitution that “guarantees” this.
Hawaii State Constitution – Article X
You should read that document sometime. There is a large volume of settled law related to this section.
Klastri: The gentleman was referring to the Constitution of the United States. I thought I addressed Article X of the Hawaii Constitution below. It specifies FAPE and subsumes Compulsory Education.
Cellodad – Actually, he didn’t specify which Constitution was under discussion.
Obama said no child left behind.
No, LCLB is GW Bush’s gift to the American education system. While federal law says the child has the right to receive a public education until age 22, where were these parents doing all the Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings?
Nowhere in the Constitution of the United State is Public Education or any other kind of Education mentioned. Never. Not once.
In this situation, it’s part of Article X of the Hawaii Constitution and subject to Federal law under The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Under both State a Federal interpretations, a qualifying child has the right to receive a Free and Appropriate Public Education until 22 years of age.
The wording in the IEP is what is important because for “regular” Special Education students, services generally cease upon graduation (“graduation” is not the same as the “graduation ceremony.”) (Oh yeah, the spokesperson got it very wrong. There is no requirement for monthly meetings. Annual and Reevaluation meetings are required. Both the parent and the school may request meetings at any time and in my experience, requested meetings are always held. In fact, I’ve suggested to some parents that we needed to meet more often to evaluate goals.)
notes:
(For students who don’t qualify for services under IDEA, the State right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education ceases upon graduation or 18 years of age.)
(It’s not uncommon to see special needs students attend graduation ceremonies with their chronological class but continue to receive services through age 22.)
How do you know that they contribute to the tax base?
Whether they contribute or not, they are treated under the State Constitution and under Federal Statute identically.
Whoops, sorry. Children who are homeless are provided for by the States under the McKinney-Vento Act.
Anyway, not to belabor this point any longer but the provision of Public Education in this country has come through a very tortuous route from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, (which really set the stage for local control of education – Are you listening Allie?) to the present which is an uneasy balance of State policies (under the 10th Amendment – Reserve Clause) and has been a really difficult row to hoe. The saving grace is that we are turning out some wonderful young people.
I recently got a FB message from another Special Education student who just graduated from college. It said “Thanks.”
McKay Scholarships
NanakuliBoss, If you’re referring to the U.S. Constitution, you should understand that that document concerns itself with what kind of government citizens of the United States shall live under. As Cellodad wrote, it is silent about educational guarantees for individual citizens.
If you meant a guarantee somewhere in the Bill of Rights, understand too that nothing suggesting a right to an education exists there either. Even if such an amendment to the Constitution had been included, common sense and well-known Supreme Court decisions should make it obvious that no “right” be it free speech, free exercise of religion or the right to bear arms, is unlimited in scope.
After 22 yrs old, same condition, what services will take over?
Okay,,WE THE PEOPLE,PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE…that part.
Sorry Boss, but the preamble serves just to tell us what the rest of the document is for and why it was written, which is to define what form of national government “we the people” are going to live under. That’s pretty much it; there’s no guarantee of anything there.
I believe the state department of Human Services take over.
Darwinian forces have been a strong influence for millions of years[the law of the jungle] and the physics of cream rising and denser materials settling out in many ways applies in our society today. It is tough when the cards you get dealt put yo at a tough end of the bell curve. One can at best hope for some resilience in some cases.
Is the Marijuana dispensary open?
Looks like the parents are going for the gusto. Hire a lawyer and settle for a couple of million.
So you have some knowledge that they want money instead of what’s best for their special needs child? How exactly did you invent that?
Buddy, it’s time to back off. Have you ever sat with the parent of a special needs child? Do you have a child? I do and I also spent three decades as an educator. Parents love and want the best for their children. I love my child and want the best for him. I always held that thought in mind when dealing with parents and children.
If you do not have a positive or constructive idea to contribute, perhaps you should take a break, look at your life, and examine what matters.
If you’re directing this at me, you didn’t read my comment.
Is there really a conflict between a desire for a lot of money and wishing what’s best for a child? “Best” for anything and anyone has always meant expensive. If the parents believe a publicly funded school can’t or won’t provide for their child, then there should be no stigma if they seek a large monetary settlement or award so they can outright purchase their child’s needs as they see fit.
First world worries.
For what it’s worth I commend the DOE for helping not only this person but all the special needs students. I’ve seen the dedication. Some of the folks on this post know what good work they do to the point they are now able to participate in a fairly coherent level.
This particular student has not progressed to your level and further instruction may not be available. He will need to get into another support program which is available.
Having a person well into his 20’s anyone can understand he does not need to be with teenagers.
As far as suing the State, to my mind that is in extremely bad taste. They, the family, should be thankful instead.
What is this article saying? If the student fulfilled all the requirements to graduate, then he/she should graduate. Why are the parents opposing that? Do the parents want their kid to stay in school until age 22? What is the purpose of that except to have the school look after the kid for that length of time.
Is the same Mom that filed suit before about other issues? I can understand the situation but I do not believe we the public can be held liable for personal needs.
My heart goes out to the family as they cope with this forever issue.
There seems to be a gap in info here. The article, and the parents, do not mention that graduation doesn’t mean services will be cut. Many special ed kids graduate with their age group at age 18, them continue at the same high school, getting vocational training.
Repeat, they graduate on schedule with their classmates (just like how they don’t flunk special needs kids–but regular ed kids do get held back). If necessary, they can continue schooling until age 22. Date of graduation is never an issue. What matters is what the team has decided abut how long the kid can attend school.
The parents shouldn’t sue about the graduation, they should just fight for a couple of years of schooling–if legit.
I would assume that this was brought up at an IEP meeting where all present were in agreement to “graduation.” This includes parent/s or legal guardian. I would not think that this could have occurred without consensus of all parties in the IEP meeting.
This way the State will be forced to pay a lot more to take care of this adult!
Bottom line, if the law says until age 22, then that’s what the family is entitled to per the law. Notice I used the word entitled. I would think A judge in a court of law would have to view this way and it would be his/her job to uphold the law. As for all of the people who post that the state is going to end up paying to take care of this child longer until age 22, the state will end up paying forever for this person just from a different department. I think after age 22, he will most likely be eligible for services from the state department of Human Services. So tax payer money will still be used. If we are concerned about state money, I think that giving him the services until age 22 like the law indicates will cost less than going into litigation in court to fight this since the law is on his side. Could this be a case where the law isn’t practical for this one individual, maybe, the article doesn’t give too much details/information on the schools/DOE point of view as to why they want to graduate him out and they can’t probably due to confidentiality laws. But this is a broad law as it exist for everyone with disabilities. Is this law perfect, most likely not, but what law is? There are always cases where the intent of the law doesn’t match a particular situation. Due to the for mentioned confidentiality laws which the DOE must follow, we will never know exactly why they want to graduate him out. What I think should change for the future is that the DOE graduates all special needs students out at 18, and if individuals qualify for continued services under the state department of Human Services then they pick it up since they will have to in the foreseeable future at age 22 anyway. So my larger or bigger picture question is, why is the DOE assigned the task of educating until age 22?
I agree with Hoppy. My son went to special education all his 12 years of schooling and graduated with his class at 18. However, his graduation certificate said he “attended” High School. After graduation the State Dept of Health assumed his case. He was placed in training programs such as Goodwill and eventually found a job. Sounds like the school and parents are not communicating.
My guess is the parents are not communicating. Most special ed kids graduate with their same-age peers at 18, then can stay in school for more training–if it makes sense. This is especially true for the ones working on vocational training, if the team agrees that the extra few years will make a difference. Some other kids go on to Dept of Health services.
Parents suing about the date of graduation are missing the point. They could sue to get the extra years of schooling. But it’s likely they’ve already agreed to the current exit plan years ago.