NJ: Short Term Objectives to Stay!!
By Bob Witanek http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org advocate@studentadvocate-nj.org 908-881-5275
In a tremendous victory for students, parents, advocates, families and supporters of NJ public school students with disabilities, the just released version of NJ code revisions will maintain short term objectives for special education students!
However, we need to demand that the board remove the words "where applicable." (In a previous misunderstanding, I thought the "where applicable" was deleted but it was actually added giving districts one more thing to hold over parents heads.) See below for information as to how to write to demand the removal of those words.
"Individualized education program" (IEP) means a written plan [developed at a meeting according to N.J.A.C. 6A:14-2.3(i)2] which sets forth present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, measurable annual goals and[, where applicable,] short-term objectives or benchmarks . . . “
I hereby invite all of the parents, students, supporters, advocates, organizations and individuals who signed petitions, wrote letters, rallied in front of the NJ Department of Education building, spoke inside at the testimony sessions, called in their comments or otherwise stood up to demand that short term objectives, along with other protections, be maintained in NJ code to *stand up and take a bow!* The list is long and not limited to The NJ Student Advocacy Union, the Statewide Parents Advocacy Network, ARC of NJ, Special Education Leadership Council, A Parents Initiative for Every Childs Education, the many local parents groups that made this a priority, the 50 Strong for Our Children Campaign, the 100 Letters for Our Children campaign, the 2000 Strong petition for student rights, the NJ Student Advocate Website (http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org ) , the NJ Student Advocate newspaper, the musicians who played at the “Playing and Singing for Our Rights” concert this past Saturday, thousands of parents and other supporters who stood up to be counted, proudly bask in a moment of joy of this partial victory that has the potential to improve the lives of 225000 special education students currently enrolled in NJ public schools and hundreds of thousands more to follow!
Another issue on the 11 point petition – launched almost exactly a year ago on March 30, 2005 - that we might prevail upon is the point regarding the length of time for which a student can be remanded to an alternative learning environment. The amount of time which would have been increased from 45 calendar days to 45 school days (from 6 weeks to 9 weeks) is now slated to stay at the current length of 45 calendar days. This change is another victory for our advocacy movement.
Another issue from the petition drive that was not part of the prior draft include 3-year IEPs – NJ is not currently looking to participate in the 3-year IEP pilots. However, shortly before the petition drive was launched – Barbara Gantwerk sent a letter to school districts asking their input as to whether NJ should attempt to impose 3-year IEP’s. Thus our efforts could have also prevented that travesty from occurring.
There is one other point on the petition drive that has not been in much contention: it looks like the state will not increase the age at which transition support must be included in the IEP to age 16 as federal law now allows.
So 4 of the 11 petition points are looking good at this point.
These victories are the result of the sum total of all of the efforts, from all the varied perspectives, in all of the styles, that have transpired. There is no telling what would have been different if there had been any less activity on our part or if anyone who has taken a position on the issue had changed anything at all that they have done.
That said, we still have a great deal of work to do. The other 7 points on the petition are still unresolved. On the issue of recusal of the regular education teacher from the IEP meeting, according to the current draft, districts now must get 10 days written advance notice to dismiss the teacher. They are not supposed to do it on the spot at the meeting. However, there is enough wiggle room that the current draft provides to allow districts to get away with dismissing the regular education teacher.
Other petition issues that we still stand to lose include mid-year progress reports, stay put, current manifest determination protections, frequency of notification of parental rights under IDEA, forced state mediation hearing and a 30 day delay awaiting a school decision for such a hearing and the two-year statute of limitations of district legal accountability. Each of the 7 points not addressed in the latest draft are of extreme importance and deserves our full focus. We need to be particularly concerned about the discipline related changes, manifest determination and stay put, as they could exacerbate the gross racial inequities in NJ special education and how discipline is meted to special education students across NJ.
Furthermore, given improvements in this draft over the last one, there could be a backlash from school administration associations to try to push back.
Therefore we need to maintain full court press. The NJ Student Advocacy Union will continue with it plans to mobilize for a demonstration outside the hearings on May 17 and to call upon parents and supporters to testify at the hearings.
http://www.studentadvocate-nj.org/Mobilize_State_Hearings.htm
Let’s make this mobilization huge!
We urge all to write to
the NJ Board of Education to demand that all 11 points of the petition be
heeded, while also making mention of appreciation that some of our points are
being addressed. Send to:
Members of the State Board of Education, New Jersey Department of
Education
State Board Office Riverview Executive Plaza, Building 100, P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625-0500
Faxed to: (609) 633-0267
E-mailed to: Diane Shoener, Director, State Board Office
diane.shoener@doe.state.nj.us ,
statebd@doe.state.nj.us
cc. Commissioner Lucille Davy
Lucille.davy@doe.state.nj.us ,
comments6A14@doe.state.nj.us
You can call in your concerns to: (609) 292-0739
The point is that these improvements in the draft are there because of our actions – we need more action to yield further improvements and to defend and protect those gains we have made through our diligent focus on improving NJ special education code revisions for 225,000 special education students. If the life of one special education student is improved because of our actions – it was all worth it. If the lives of thousands are improved, the effort was worth it times 1000!
For more information about the latest code, see Diana Autin of SPAN’s preliminary assessment at this link:
http://www.studentadvocate-nj.org/diana_autin_of_span_preliminary.htm
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