From the October 30, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *6   THE CARTER CASE:  A SPECIAL-ED DILEMMA FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS   A
-> 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision that requires school
-> districts to reimburse parents of special-needs children for any
-> private school tuition if the public school system is seen as
-> inadequate has caused financial stress to many school districts
-> (Belluck, N.Y. TIMES, 10/27).  The case, Florence County School
-> District 4 vs. Carter, was viewed as "a blow to public schools,"
-> when, in a unanimous decision, the court decided to award parents
-> public funds when they transferred their special-needs children to
-> private schools, even ones not approved by the local school
-> district (See DRC 11/11/93).
->    "I think a break-the-bank strategy is a really bad strategy,
-> but I don't see any easy way out of this one," commented Norman
-> Fruchter, director of the Institute for Education and Social
-> Policy of New York U.  "The ability to demonstrate that kids
-> aren't getting what they need in the public system is one that
-> any parent with a good lawyer can make," he added.
->    The Carter case refers to a suit brought by the Carter
-> family of S.C., who rejected a public school education plan for their
-> daughter and sued the school system for the cost of
-> attending a private school, reports the paper.  Since then, many
-> affluent parents have hired lawyers to fight for private-school
-> placement of their special-needs children.  New York City School
-> Board members are so disturbed by the legions of parents seeking
-> reimbursement for private school costs that they accuse them of
-> "educational gold digging:  getting a free private school
-> education when many of them could pay for it on their own,"
-> writes the paper.  According to the paper, the number of cases
-> has "multiplied" each year since Carter:  in the first year, the
-> system paid for only two children, the next year there were 20; then
-> 135, and in the year that ended last June, 210 cases,
-> costing more than $3M.
->    Parent Phyllis Saxe, whose daughter attends a private school
-> takes umbrage at the criticism.  She compares the allegation to "when
-> people look at you when you have one of those handicapped stickers on
-> your car.  Like I couldn't wait to have a handicapped child so I
-> could get one of those stickers.  It's only the money that the Board
-> of Ed is worried about, not the way they educate your child."
-> Education experts note that in New York City
-> special education costs make up 25% of the school system's
-> budget.
->    "It's a leading indicator that the existing system is out of
-> whack," said Robert Berne, vice president for academic
-> development at New York U.  "You can't blame the parents of
-> disabled youngsters for taking advantage of the situation.  It's the
-> rules of the game that are flawed, not the motivations of the parents
-> who are trying to do the best for their chidlren.  If the system was
-> working, a much smaller number of kids would need to go outside."
->    The TIMES reports that if more special-education children
-> continue to pour out of the public school system, the system will
-> become "less flexible in dealing with the wide range of
-> disabilities."  Fruchter:  "If you pull kids out of the
-> mainstream, you make the mainstream less and less capable of
-> dealing with disabled kids' needs."
->    In New York City, a child first is evaluated by a team of
-> teachers and psychologists.  The team decides upon the best
-> school program for the child, reports the paper.  However, if an
-> appropriate public-school program is not available within a
-> certain time limit, parents are permitted to send the child to a
-> private school, "but only a school that is approved by and
-> primarily paid for by the state," notes the paper.  Under Carter,
-> parents can be reimbursed for any private school, regardless of cost.
->    Often parents win tuition reimbursement cases on technical
-> points -- the school system misses a deadline, or forgets to
-> include a parent in a meeting about their child.  According to
-> the TIMES, New York's school board has been sponsoring training
-> sessions for special education teachers and psychologists so they
-> "stop making mistakes and will be able to document 'evidence that
-> would support our case' about each child."
->    Lawyer Regina Skyer summed up the parent's view:  "Parents
-> wouldn't be running out of the system in droves if the schools
-> were doing their job."
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