Disabled students are struggling to get what they need at school

This episode highlights the challenges that disabled students face in receiving necessary educational services and supports in schools.

1. Disabled students often face significant barriers in accessing appropriate educational services.
2. Families sometimes have to resort to legal actions to secure educational rights for their children.
3. The bureaucratic processes involved can be lengthy and frustrating for the families.
4. There is a lack of adequate resources and support from educational districts to meet the needs of disabled students.
5. Early mediation might offer a quicker resolution but doesn't always work, leading some families to pursue formal investigations or lawsuits.

1: Introduction to Sam's Story

An introduction to Sam, a young boy with multiple disabilities, highlighting his daily challenges and the loving support of his family. Adrian Florido: "Sam lives with his seven siblings and parents in a small town in central Georgia."

2: Educational Challenges

Discussion of the educational and accessibility challenges Sam faces at school, and his mother's efforts to advocate for him. Tabitha: "We're fighting to get him the services he needs to get the public education he's guaranteed by federal law."

3: Legal and Systemic Barriers

Exploration of the broader systemic issues that affect disabled students and the legal avenues families can pursue. Katherine Lehman: "We owe them careful evaluation of facts to figure out how the law applies to the particular concern."

4: Personal Impact

A deeper look at the personal impact of these challenges on Sam and his family, and their continued struggle for improvement. Tabitha: "This whole process has been draining for her. But Tabitha tears up as she tells me why her fight for Sam matters."

1. Understand your rights: Familiarize yourself with the laws that protect disabled students.
2. Seek legal advice: If necessary, consult with attorneys who specialize in educational law.
3. Document everything: Keep detailed records of all interactions with school officials.
4. Explore all options: Consider both formal complaints and mediation to resolve issues.
5. Build a support network: Connect with other families facing similar challenges for mutual support.

Students with disabilities often face a tough time getting the services they need at school. When they can't get them, many families seek help from the federal government. And, right now, the Department of Education is swamped with a record number of discrimination complaints. The backlog is leaving families across the country waiting months, even years, for help.

NPR's Jonaki Mehta visited one such family, in central Georgia

People

Adrian Florido, Katherine Lehman, Tabitha, Sam

Content Warnings:

None

Adrian Florido
Sam is a six year old with an infectious laugh. He lives with his seven siblings and parents in a small town in central Georgia. Hi, Miss Keesir. I just brought him down and changed his poopy dad. Poor.

Tabitha
Excellent. Sam starts his date with his nurse, Keisha. He refers to her as Robot Keisha in American Sign Language, or Asl. It's how Sam primarily communicates because he's partially deaf. So he has just related her to one of his favorite things, and so she does the robot dance for him.

Adrian Florido
That's Sam's mom, Tabitha. She's a full time parent and former special educator. Since Sam started going to school, he's faced quite a few challenges getting the services he needs, including instruction in ASL. How do you teach a child to learn if they don't even speak the same language as you and you haven't found a way to bridge that gap? On top of language barriers in the classroom, Sam also hasn't been getting special education support and has had trouble accessing the school grounds in his wheelchair.

Tabitha
I think that these stories are tragic for the teachers. I think they're tragic for the students. And I think what we failed to do as a society is not make it tragic for the people who are making the decisions. After years of fighting to get Sam the services he needs to get the public education he's guaranteed by federal law, Tabitha eventually turned to the federal government for help. She filed a complaint with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

When I got to the point where I felt like I couldn't do anything about it, and yet I knew the law was on my side, that's when I decided to file a federal law. Guarantees every student with a disability of free and appropriate public education, which Tabitha feels Sam is being denied. So Tabitha eventually turns to the federal government for help. She filed a complaint with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. When we don't teach him to read, he doesn't have the option to be an explorer through reading.

When we don't teach him to access the building and give him the supports he needs, then he doesn't make those peer buddies. And his world is limited to just his family and not his community. So that's what I'm doing. I'm opening up the world. Consider this.

Adrian Florido
The federal government is seeing an all time high of discrimination complaints, many from families of students with disabilities. Coming up, how one mother is fighting for her son to get a quality education.

From NPR, I'm Adrian, Florida. This message comes from NPR. Sponsor the Capital one Venture x card earn unlimited two x miles on everything you buy. Plus, get access to a dollar 300 annual credit for bookings through capital one travel. What's in your wallet terms?

Sam
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Adrian Florido
Its consider this from NPR. Students with disabilities often face a tough time getting the services they need at school when they cant get them. Many families seek help from the federal government, and right now the Department of Education is swamped with a record number of discrimination complaints. That backlog is leaving families across the country waiting months, even years for help. NPR's Janaki Mehta visited one such family in central Georgia.

Janaki Mehta
It's a lazy summer day for many kids in middle Georgia, but one family of ten is up and at em on a Tuesday morning at 730. It's a messy house, well lived in. Full time parent and former special education teacher Tabitha calls up to her husband, John. Dad, can you bring Sam down? Their youngest of eight children, Sam is rubbing his eyes as he comes down the stairs in his father's arms.

Tabitha
Here comes Mister Sam. Good morning. Sam's got a busy day ahead. He'll have a lesson with his new teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, an occupational therapy session followed by speech and language pathology. Sam is a smiling, wiggly six year old who loves to dance.

Janaki Mehta
Today, he's chosen to wear a purple t shirt with a roaring blue t rex across the back. Oh, he's a dinosaur fanatic. Anything scary and big and powerful. Sam has significant disabilities, including Cree du Shaw syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. He mostly gets around using a wheelchair.

Sams also partially deaf. His primary language is American Sign language, or ASL. Lately hes been practicing his name. Its an outward facing fist stroking one cheek. It stands for Sam Giggles, which he does a lot.

Sam lives in a small town, so were only using first names in the story since he and his siblings are minors. And we want to freely discuss Sams disabilities. Once Sam is done with his morning routine of nebulizers and medications. He signs the word ball to tell his mom hes ready for his favorite activity, playing in his ball pit. Red ball on your head Sams parents and nurse can provide him with much of the support he needs at home, but his education has proven to be a huge obstacle.

Since February of last year, Sam's been doing virtual school. Before that, he was going to school in person, but then there were so. Many issues with transporting. They couldn't transport his equipment. They couldn't have his wheelchair.

At first, there was no school bus with wheelchair access. At one point, Tabitha says the district asked her to leave Sam's wheelchair at school. Throughout the week, Sam's nurse would have to carry him up the steps, put him into a seatbelt. The bus driver and the aide would carry up the bags, and with his. Medical equipment, that's a lot of bags.

Tabitha would often end up taking Sam to school herself, equipment in tow. The newly built school campus is only a few blocks from their home, but she'd often get there to find the four accessible parking spaces blocked by school police cars. She showed me dozens of pictures and drove me to the school lot, and. We find that there's obstacles. Every time we come, Tabitha drives over.

And shows me a crosswalk with a curb cutout for wheelchair access on one side but no cutout on the other. So there's no access for us to cross the street safely. When he was going to school in person, Sam was in a general education classroom along with other pre k students. But he was never given a special ed teacher in that class or special ed supports his school. District acknowledges that Sam primarily communicates in ASL and that his hearing could worsen.

But district reports say Sam's current hearing loss does not meet Georgia's criteria for deaf or hard of hearing, meaning they don't have to provide him instruction in ASL. It's that whole theory of he's not deaf enough. I don't know if you know how offensive that term is, I'm being told, but he can hear. And I'm saying, but he can't hear all of it. NPR reached out to the director of special education in the district.

She said she couldn't speak about Sam's case with me to protect his privacy, but in an email, she said, quote, the district takes each student's individual needs into account when developing individual educational programs for students with disabilities. States and districts have long complained that the onus falls on them for providing services because the federal government has historically failed to provide the funds they promised states for special education. For Tabitha, her frustration led her to file a complaint with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in December 2022. She had a long list of concerns for Sam, like wheelchair access issues and lack of special ed support. Five months later, OCR told Tabitha they would investigate three things, whether Sam was being denied a free and appropriate public education, which is guaranteed by federal law, whether the playground was inaccessible to disabled people and whether the parking lot was inaccessible.

Tabitha
I thought that OCR would be able to handle this, that we would make some forward progress. But the investigation into Sam's case has been going on for a year and a half now. Valuable time in Sam's young life and his education. Over the course of a year in 2022 and 23, the Department of Education received over 19,000 discrimination complaints based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability. I heard from many parents around the country who said their cases took too long to resolve.

Katherine Lehman
I share the frustration that you're hearing from families about how long that takes. That's Katherine Lehman. She's the assistant secretary of education for civil rights. And we also owe them careful evaluation of facts to figure out how the law applies to the particular concern, and that is invariably a complicated process. Layman says OCR's investigators are overwhelmed with more than 50 cases each part of the problem is a backlog from the pandemic, but it's also also about money.

Last year, Congress flat funded our office, and that meant we are not able to bring on new people, even though we are now seeing close to double the cases we were seeing ten years ago. There is one option Lehman says has made faster resolutions, early mediation. Now parents and districts can easily opt for a meeting with an OCR mediator instead of a formal investigation. For Tabitha and John, mediation didnt work out in a past state complaint. So this time they opted for an investigation.

Janaki Mehta
Some of their concerns with the district have deepened since they filed. They have seen some progress. The school eventually provided a bus with wheelchair access. Last year, Sam got an ASL interpreter, though the district has since taken that service away. And just a couple weeks before I met him, Sam started Zoom lessons with Jessica, a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Jessica
Okay, your turn. Design backpack. Good backpack. You remember that in the lesson? I watched Sam read a story with Jessica and signed his responses to some of her questions.

You read today and you matched. It's magic. He has learned more sign in the last three weeks, faster than he's ever picked up sign language before, Tabitha says. That's all great but it's only for 5 hours a week. Imagine if that was every day like it's supposed to be, and all day like it's supposed to be.

Janaki Mehta
Now Tabitha is considering suing the school district, but with a single income and a family of ten, she doesn't know if they can afford a lawyer. This whole process has been draining for her. But Tabitha tears up as she tells me why her fight for Sam matters. There's a certain reality you face where you're grieving your child and they're still here. I totally want to give him everything while he's with us.

What's your dream for Sam? Like, what do you want for his future? If Sam's future is wide open, that's my dream. Like, I want him to experience what every six year old gets to experience.

As we drive back from the school, Sam signs to his mom through the rearview mirror. Yes, signing swim right now. Splash, splash, splash. At the small gated pool in their backyard. Off comes Sam's orthosis braces and shoes.

Off come his socks. Can you help me take off your socks? Put them on. Sam slides to the edge of the water and sticks in his bare feet.

When Tabitha tries to convince him to go inside the house, Sam instead signs what any six year old splashing in a swimming pool on a hot summer day would more. More. You want in more? Just a little bit more. Okay.

In middle Georgia, I'm Janaki Mehtha, NPR Newsheen. This episode was produced by Janaki Mehta and Mark Rivers. It was edited by Stephen Drummond and Adam Rainey. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigun. Thanks to our consider this plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and help keep public radio strong.

Adrian Florido
Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors. Learn more at plus dot npr.org. dot its consider this from NPR. I'm Adrian Florido.

Scott Detrow
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Trials in multiple states, state and federal charges, plea deals, witness testimony, gag orders, the trials of former President Trump are really hard to keep straight. And thats why we created Trumps trials, a weekly podcast where we break down the biggest news from each of his legal cases and what it all means for democracy in about 15 minutes. Im Scott Detrow. Listen to Trumps trials from NPR.