NJ Dept of Education TRENTON NJ
My name is Ilise L. Feitshans and I am a long-time resident of Haddonfield New Jersey. I have a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, Cum Laude 1979, my JD from Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. 1983, and a Masters of Science (ScM) from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. I am the parent of a gifted learning disabled individual who has fought for his rights but is frustrated by obstacles to equal opportunity and achievement that are embedded in the social service and educational infrastructure of this state.
I fully support the position taken by SPAN in each of the issues it raised. I endorse the views expertly expressed in the comments regarding standards for unilateral placement as raised by my colleague, Jerry Tanenbaum, Esq, Chair of the Haddonfield Committee for Children with Special Learning Needs, so there is no need for me to explore those issues further. I also agree with Bob Witanek and the thousands of families who have signed his petition that among these objections are the elimination of short-term goals, the possible selection of New Jersey to become a pilot state for multi-year (IEP) changes, in the way discipline matters are handled and the maintaining of “stay put” measures.” As a staff member for the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities noted, “the list hits the items that disabilities advocates have concerns about regarding the IDEA”
In addition to those concerns, the petition addresses a concern that manifest determination rules can be weakened, making more likely that an administrator will use tools to suspend or expel a child with a behavioral disability, when in fact such actions rarely address the student’s underlying problems. Equally threatening is the proposal that would increase the age for transition service from 14 to 16. In fact, transition planning should start earlier, because higher education is so much more expensive than it was and so many new opportunities are available to all students, regardless of deficits or abilities. All students need more time to plan their course of study, their proposed life path and financing their studies. The proposed change is also inconsistent with the New Jersey Department of Labor Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, which starts transition planning at age 14, with a distinct goal of employability. It would be efficient and useful to have all the planning team working together at the same starting time. It would be efficient and useful to have all the planning team working together at the same starting time and counter-productive to have different start dates for different parts of the same transition team. .
II. Looking Beyond Disability to Provide Equal Opportunity
The need to scrutinize these changes and think very carefully about their implications in practice for the future is very great in this moment in history. Throughout our state, inadvertent abridgement of special needs services and student rights is quite real. Many students who have rights do not get to realize their potential because of the abridgement of those rights. Failure to implement IDEA and its fundamental tenets, such as those described by Chariman Tanenbaum of CCSLN, undermine all the good deeds we do.
IDEA reauthorization once again brings to the fore a great social problem As one commenter noted in a recent article that was circulated to parent support groups on the web, “Unfortunately, it appears that Jim Crow laws are alive and well for children with special needs. Three decades after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed, the 2004 version of the reauthorization of the act passed by Congress has parents of students with disabilities in NJ concerned.”
The concern is garden variety prejudice, unchecked that is growing like weeds that overtake our school system. Inequality blooms and tolerance for individual difference wilts and fades away; we all suffer from the loss of the enrichment of contributions by disabled people when special needs of students are not nurtured. Parents who never dreamed of complaining about teachers or administrators suddenly find themselves at odds with a school district and nothing less than their child’s education and thus survival is at stake. Parents who never dreamed of suing a system find themselves in court, thinking about leaving the system for expensive private schools and ill-prepared to do battle with seasoned experts when they intuitively know that their family is right and the schools could do a better job.
Winning civil rights is not a spectator sport,. But family resources are inefficiently spent attempting to implement necessary services and protect the rights to equal opportunity that the law already expects will be provided in daily life. We need regulations that will use to power of the state to effective promote and implement special needs services and prevent covert discrimination against the students who use those programs. We therefore should follow recommendations of the Haddonfield conference, Identifying Gifts and Disabilities So No Child Is Left Behind (March 8 2003) which demanded the presence of a parent advocate/ inclusion specialist in each school district as a watchdog to check and balance the accountability of school districts and parents. Those recommendations will ensure implementation of IDEA regulations in every classroom in this State.
III Revised IDEA Regulations Should Include Enhanced In-Service for teachers; Public Discussions of Difference Regarding Disability to Promote Tolerance and the Establishment of the Office of Parent Advocate/ Inclusion Specialist as a Watchdog
1. In-service LD/Special Needs training on school time (not federal holidays or after school) in tandem with mandatory Masters degree training before the fifth year of teaching (as required by many states) with inclusion and special needs training taught to teachers as part of the core curriculum for certification.
2. Extracurricular activities as a part of IEP components, there should be in-class anti-discrimination programming for students in all subjects, including physical education, using the coursework as a vehicle to counter existing prejudice.
3. Establishment of the Office of Parent Advocate/ Inclusion Specialist Following the Model of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (JAG Corps) in-house watchdog to monitor the integrity of the special education system within each school district. A detailed description of this role is attached as an Appendix.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter,
Respectfully submitted,
Ilise L. Feitshans JD and ScM
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