The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Cautionary tale in one district shows how others get special education right

November 29, 2015 at 3:40 p.m. EST
Teacher Rosemary Genuario uses an iPad to work and communicate with autisitc students at Belle View Elementary School in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County in this file photo from April 2012. Washington area school districts often do far better with special education services than schools elsewhere. (Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post)

Jane Ledford was 5 years old when her parents, Marian and Ed, enrolled her in the Albemarle County, Va., school system. She had had health problems since birth. She wore glasses, was undersize and had chronic ear infections. But she did well in preschool and was deemed ready for kindergarten.

Then, according to Marian Ledford, two teachers from the child’s designated elementary school visited Jane’s preschool, observed her for 10 minutes during her lunch hour in the cafeteria and concluded she was mentally disabled.

Washington-area residents, good at seeing what’s wrong with their schools, can use a reminder of what’s right with them. The Ledfords offer an example.

When Jane arrived at the elementary school, her parents said, she was not allowed to participate in any of the mainstream lessons of the day. She sat in a corner with her aide and two other severely disabled children and their aides. She was exposed to computer-based instruction, with little teacher involvement.

Ledford said that whenever she suggested that her daughter was not mentally disabled, the special-education teacher would either “break down in tears because, in her view, I was questioning her commitment to the welfare of the children in her charge” or she would “lecture me on the small budget the county had given her to do her job.”

When Ledford told the teachers that she thought Jane had a hearing problem, they dismissed it, she said. She had Jane tested and found that she needed hearing aids. When Ledford suggested that Jane might have dyslexia, she said the teachers said no. Testing showed they were wrong.

In October of last year, the school told the Ledfords that it would place Jane in the functional skills program the next year. She would not be taking the state Standards of Learning tests. Expectations for her future would be low. Her parents decided to move to Montgomery County in Maryland.

Kevin M. Kirst, Albemarle County’s director of special education and student services, told the Ledfords after they left the system that “unfortunately my team here at central office was not made aware of these concerns as they were unfolding.” He said his team would “discuss process, behavior and professionalism” with the school’s special- education coordinator. He told me that didn’t mean he thought the staff had done anything wrong.

Albemarle County Schools Superintendent Pamela Moran said that the Ledfords’ account has inaccuracies but that school records cannot be released because of privacy rules.

Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek told the Ledfords in September that she had heard from families “with less dramatic but also damaging results. We have work to do.”

Parents in Montgomery and other Washington suburban districts have legitimate concerns about their schools, and their special-education programs. I have recently described parent complaints about harsh treatment in legal battles over Montgomery special-education placements and one parent’s frustration with a Montgomery high school’s failure to build his special-education daughter’s math skills.

But having watched the region’s suburban schools closely since 1997, it seems to me that special-education services in most districts here are at a higher level than most of the rest of the country, as would be expected for some of the most affluent communities on the planet. Unfortunately, there is no useful comparative data for finding the best special-education programs.

At Albemarle, Ledford said, “I always felt like her teachers were keeping secrets from me.” Montgomery, on the other hand, has been “completely transparent with their discussions and deliberations, always inviting our input and perspective,” she said.

Jane, a sweet, hard-working 10-year-old, is in “a secluded fourth- grade classroom of 12 students with varying learning disabilities,” Ledford said. Jane is given mainstream instruction for science, social studies, physical education, art and music, and she participates in chorus and instrumental music.

Well-funded Washington-area suburban districts do not always get it right, but their special- education students’ chances for success are greater than most and, I hope, set an example for others.