Special Education Law Blog

Making Our Voices Heard on Betsy DeVos

Betsy DeVos, a unqualified and terribly dangerous person for public education and special education even more so, cannot become the next Secretary of Education. Keep in mind once the damage is done it will be very hard and likely impossible to undo the damage. If public schools are drained of funding and the US DOE is defanged of enforcement authority, students with special needs and all students will suffer. As always, wealthier districts will ride out the storm, but all but the most affluent districts will be terribly effected. We need to take a stand for the education of our children. She has shown a near total lack of preparation for this job or understanding of special education law. If enough people stand up, we stand a reasonable chance of defeating this candidate. Let's put the Indivisible Guide to work and make sure a fatal blow is not dealt to public education.

Stuttering and Related Disorders

It is difficult enough for young children to be faced with a significant speech impairment like stuttering. As discussed in this blog, the effects of stuttering are often co-morbid with other learning issues. Most children who develop a stutter in their pre-school years fortunately outgrow it.  The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders states that some 3 million Americans stutter.  Stuttering usually develops between the ages of 2 and 6 while language skills are rapidly developing and a child’s linguistic, motor, and emotional capacities are lagging (the so-called Demands and Capacity Model). As a result, approximately 5 to 10% of children will stutter at some point in their lives.  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports reports of remission rates vary from 6.3% all the way up to 80%.  (The large disparity may reflect the manner in which data was collected.)  Boys are affected 2 to 3 times as frequently as girls.  Some data that suggest that African American children may stutter more frequently than whites.  For those persons whose fluency does not resolve, stuttering can interfere with school, employment, and social milieus and lead to frustration, embarrassment, or anxiety.  The worst cases can result in the creation of self-doubt and bullying.   People who stutter know what they want to say.  They simply can’t always get past the repetition of sounds or syllables or blocks associated with the disorder.  Thus, diagnosis and treatment are imperative.

Illinois Needs Do More to Protect People with Disabilities

The following is a statement from the Equip for Equality addressing the hate crime against the man with a disability that happened last week. I am reprinting the statement in full and please write to your Illinois Representative and state Senator to get the Governor to act.

As the federally-mandated Protection and Advocacy system for people with disabilities in Illinois, Equip for Equality is deeply troubled by the recent news of a savage attack upon a young man with disabilities in Chicago. Unfortunately, this incident highlights a tragic, but well-documented fact: People with disabilities are far more likely to be the victims of crime and violence than are people without disabilities. Moreover, research indicates that violent crimes, such as sexual abuse, are not only more prevalent among people with disabilities, but an alarmingly low number of these cases are investigated and prosecuted. See Morano, Sexual Abuse of the Mentally Retarded Patient, 130; Psychiatric News, Aaron Levin, People with Mental Illness More Often Crime Victims, http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/pn.40.17.00400016 . Currently, local law enforcement agencies report to the Illinois State Police on the number of hate crime incidents reported. The data collected does not include the number of hate crimes actually prosecuted.

This horrific attack thus reinforces the need to effectively address hate-related violence against people with disabilities. The State of Illinois has established the Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes for the express purpose of identifying and eradicating discrimination and hate-based violence. The Commission is statutorily required to make recommendations and annually report to the Governor and the General Assembly on the changes necessary to eliminate discrimination and hate-based violence.  However, there are no members appointed to the Commission and no reports have been produced for well over a decade.  Equip for Equality therefore strongly urges:

• The Governor to immediately and fully reconstitute the Commission by appointing a chair and the required number of members and take all actions necessary to ensure that the Commission’s responsibilities are fully carried out. 
• The Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes Act to be amended to make clear that violence based on physical or mental disability falls within the purview and charge of the Commission.
• Law enforcement agencies to be required to report on the number of hate crimes against people with disabilities that are prosecuted as compared to the number of hate crimes against individuals without disabilities that are prosecuted.
• Training to be provided to law enforcement agencies beyond the Illinois State Police on how to identify, respond to and report hate crimes against people with disabilities
• Training to be provided to prosecutors on the proper investigation and prosecution of hate crimes against people with disabilities.

Ms. DeVos: Here Is The Trouble with Vouchers

According to the September 2015 47^th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes toward the Public Schools, only 31% of Americans favor allowing vouchers to be used to pay for private and religious schools.  Numerous other polls show higher ratios supporting use of vouchers, particularly for low-income students in failing schools, for whom many existing voucher programs were initially designed.  Currently, 14 states have voucher programs, all of which are funded by the states.  Only schools in the District of Columbia use federal funds for voucher programs.  Regardless of whether you support or oppose the use of vouchers, with the advent of the educational policies of Betsy DeVos and a Trump administration, we are rapidly and inexorably slouching toward the use of public funds to pay for private and religious schools through the use of vouchers.