A federal judge Monday rebuked District of Columbia education officials for ducking their responsibilities to pull themselves out of the city’s special education crisis.
Speaking in a crowded courtroom, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman was briefed on the city’s $7 million to $8 million plan to hire consultants to reduce the schools’ monstrous backlog of special education cases.
City officials told Friedman that they will hire Rebecca Klemm, a statistician who has served as an independent court monitor for D.C.’s disastrous special education system, to help reduce the backlog of children who are waiting for months and even years to obtain special education services.
But Friedman said he wasn’t impressed. He said Klemm was doing a job that Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and State Superintendent Deborah Gist are paid to do.
“I very much worry that the responsibility … is being placed on the wrong shoulders,” he said. “I really wonder why all this was farmed out to a consultant.”
Rhee wasn’t in court Monday. Nor was her $195,000 special education “czar,” Phyllis Harris.
Friedman’s skepticism came amid reports from independent monitors that the $210 million special education system is still routinely ignoring federal deadlines on testing and getting services for thousands of mentally ill or disabled children.
“Clearly, we’re not making progress,” monitor Amy Totenberg told Friedman. “It’s an enormously challenging situation.”
Mayor Adrian Fenty has staked the credibility of his administration on turning the schools around.
D.C. is under two consent decrees from class-action lawsuits over its disastrous special education system. Friedman is the judge in both cases.
Peter Nickles, Fenty’s top adviser and D.C.’s acting attorney general, defended Monday’s agreement.
“I can’t tell you how dysfunctional this system was,” Nickles said. “That’s what’s different — [Fenty officials] are working hard to fix it.”
Got a tip on special education? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or send him an e-mail, [email protected].
