Two top officials in a beleaguered District of Columbia special education program have been relieved of their duties and could face firing after a deluge of negative publicity about the treatment of some of D.C.’s most vulnerable children, education sources said Wednesday.
Ruth Blake, the executive director of the nonpublic tuition program, and Rexie Yancey, the interim executive director of the student hearing office, have both been placed on administrative leave, with pay, the sources said.
Blake is paid $98,550 per year, and Yancey is paid $106,090, according to city records. Together, they are the two highest-ranking officials in the city’s non-public tuition program, which sends thousands of District children to outside schools at public expense.
The Examiner has reported extensively on the conditions in those outside schools, which have faced allegations from neglect to abuse.
More than 2,100 special education students are shipped to outside schools around the country. D.C. children in Massachusetts have been hooked up to electric backpacks. A clinic in Florida that has housed dozensof D.C. has faced more than 400 abuse allegations — from neglect to rape — since it opened in 1992.
The tuition program will cost nearly $137 million next year.
Blake has not responded to several requests for comment. Yancey couldn’t be reached for comment.
But D.C. schools officials have made special education their top reform priority. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and State Superintendent Deborah Gist have called in the inspector general and the attorney general’s office to investigate the nonpublic program.
Got a tip on the D.C. schools? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or e-mail [email protected].
