Special education complaints jump in Michigan
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — As a teacher, Andrea Lee thought she knew how to ensure her children had access to education guaranteed by law in Michigan.
But she’s the one who’s received a tough education, filing more than two dozen complaints and four legal grievances over the Howell Public Schools’ treatment of her three children with disabilities.
The mother of six has spent more than a year battling with the district over services for her children, her input on their education plans, the lack of make-up education services for one child and the accuracy and completeness district-provided student progress information.
“As a teacher, I truly believed in the system,” said Lee, who has previously taught special education through a staffing company.
“I believed in the ethics. I believed, I trusted. And that trust wasn’t destroyed overnight. It was a gradual takedown brick by brick.”
Such battles are increasingly becoming common for parents of nearly 212,000 Michigan students who receive special education services. Since 2018, state investigations stemming from parent complaints jumped 21%, while the overall population of special education students has increased just 3.6%, records show.
Michigan has one of the nation’s highest rates of special education drop outs, and advocates say the system is stacked against parents — making them fight for services that are supposed to be guaranteed by law.
Experts like long-time advocate Marcie Lipsitt predict the situation may grow worse as President Donald Trump works to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, which distributes funding for special education and helps uphold rights of disabled people.
Lee describes a series of compounding issues with the district last school year about her three children: a 16-year-old who struggles with reading fluency and generalized anxiety, and twin 14-year-olds, one with autism and another who has issues with reading fluency and until recently had special education services.
In response to Lee’s formal complaints, the Michigan Department of Education determined the school district violated some rules. Other complaints didn’t result in violations.
Lee said she has no faith the district will follow state orders and is preparing a lawsuit.
Howell Public Schools is standing by its practices.
“Howell Public Schools is committed to meeting the needs of every student and working in partnership with parents to support their success,” the district told Bridge in a statement. “We take parent concerns seriously and follow all state and federal educational requirements, as evidenced by state decisions that have recognized the good work Howell has done to support all students.”
How the complaint process works
Lee’s challenges come as advocates argue the state is long overdue for reform. Statewide, about 15% of the public school population has an individualized education program or personalized plan for those with disabilities.
“It does ultimately start to feel like it’s a rug that we’re just kind of sweeping things under for how kids with disabilities are treated in our system in this state,” said Heather Eckner, director of statewide education for the Autism Alliance of Michigan.
Michigan remains in a battle with the federal government for the guidance it gave to school districts about what services students with disabilities should receive during the pandemic. This investigation stems from a federal complaint filed by Lipsitt in March 2021.
She told Bridge she has filed more complaints to the state since March than the previous 10 years because there is no accountability on the federal level.
If parents disagree with their local school district’s decisions about their child, they can have informal discussions, a facilitated meeting or mediation. Parents can also file a state complaint, due process complaint or federal complaint.
But advocates and experts say each path has their drawbacks. The state complaint is free but advocates say the state does not do enough to ensure districts correct themselves after a violation is found. Going through a due process system is expensive, and the federal complaint process takes a lot of time. With the federal staff cuts, the federal process is likely to be even slower.
Lee has not chosen the due process route, anticipating it would cost $40,000 to $50,000 per student.
“No David ever decides to pick a fight with Goliath just because they’re bored,” said Lee, who has previously taught special education through a staffing company.
“But unfortunately, in my viewpoint, when justice is sleeping and desperate behavior roams, unfortunately little David has to pick up his proverbial stone and aim.”
The scope of the problem
If a parent feels their child isn’t getting the proper services or support they need, a parent may pay out-of-pocket for services. Sometimes, students leave the public education system altogether: The state graduation rate for those with disabilities is 60.97%, compared to 82.8% of all students.
Bernadette Minaudo pulled her son from Fenton Public Schools after she said staff members said her child was misbehaving because he wanted to have bad behavior, rather than his disabilities affecting him. Her son has Tourette syndrome, ADHD, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, mood disorder and dyslexia and fine motor impairment.
“If the Michigan Department of Education is not even doing the right thing for my child, it’s not going to matter like what county I go to,” Minaudo said. “Because there’s no accountability for these schools.”
MDE defended itself in a statement to Bridge.
“Once the MDE Office of Special Education identifies noncompliance in investigation of the complaint, it is responsible for issuing a final report and tracking and monitoring the district’s implementation of the corrective action activities ordered. MDE takes the responsibility for accountability seriously, its own and that of intermediate school districts and local school districts, and has mechanisms in place to ensure timely correction is verified and closed.”
The department uses 12 full-time staffers and nine contracted staff to investigate state complaints.
When the state issues a corrective action for a district, there’s longer-term work that should occur, said Kirsten Myers, president of the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education.
“Often, the real work happens after the corrective action is completed, through ongoing training, process adjustments, and proactive monitoring to prevent the same concern from re-emerging.” Myers said in an email. “That longer-term follow-through is essential to translating a single resolution into meaningful, systemwide improvement.”
A longstanding issue
A decade ago, Gov. Rick Snyder created the Special Education Reform Task Force after then-Lt. Gov. Brian Calley raised concerns about the topic.
“Disputes over Individualized Education Programs may result in adversarial and expensive, drawn-out legal confrontations between families and school districts,” the final report to the governor says. “When a parent believes their child is not receiving the public education they are entitled to, in the least restrictive environment, there should be better, more affordable options.”
Calley told Bridge this month that while the state has made progress in other aspects of special education in the last decade, the dispute process has not improved because “we do not have an effective or functional department of education. It’s literally structured in our constitution to not work.”
MDE said in a response to Bridge that the recommendation is referring to the due process complaint process, which MDE does not administer.
Calley told Bridge the “recommendation is a call for those with authority to step up and do the right thing for these kids.”
He said parents feel “the Department of Education is another opponent” in getting education for their students with disabilities.
MDE said it has fact sheets on various special education topics and is encouraging school districts to share the resource with parents. Also, parents, districts and advocates can call a toll-free number 888-320-8384 or email the state at mde-ose@michigan.gov with questions about special education.
Advocates, parents face barriers
Among Lee’s allegations is that her children’s schools have kept her out of key decision-making for their education plans, refused to provide 5.75 hours of education makeup services known as compensatory services for one child and provided documents with missing or incorrect student progress information.
Liz Abdnour, an attorney that represents parents of students with disabilities, said Lee’s complaints as described by Bridge are “very common.”
She said the state complaint process is “pretty parent-friendly and timely” but even if the state issues a corrective action plan for a school district, the education department is “not properly overseeing their corrective action plans to ensure that the school actually fixes the issue.”
If a parent chooses to file a due process complaint, Abdnour said there are several barriers: parents will likely be unsuccessful unless they can hire an attorney. She said attorney and expert fees are costly and the administrative hearing officers “do not have the training in special education that they need to do these hearings.”
If a parent doesn’t like the officer’s decision, the parent can appeal it to state or federal court.
The compounding effect of these barriers mean students may be missing out on services they need.
Lee said that when she started filing complaints, she hoped they would lead to her children getting the services. But now, it’s “more than just my kids. This was more than just a ‘did I say something wrong?’ This was (an) institutional, this was a system that was broken.”
Lee said she wants other parents to know they have rights and there are formal processes to challenge what school districts decide.
Jan Lampman, an advocate through the Michigan Alliance for Families, said she has seen some success with the state complaint process or with mediation.
She said there can be an information or communication gap that makes it hard for the parent to advocate for the child.
“Sometimes what happens is parents can see their kiddo struggling, they’ve got this medical diagnosis. But they don’t realize that what they really have to go to the school with is have a conversation about ‘how is whatever is going on with my kid getting in the way of them accessing the general education?'”
What now?
School and state leaders have long pointed to a gap between what the state and federal government provides to educate these students and what it costs to fully fund this education.
State leaders put $500,000 in the state budget to pay for research into what it would take to fully fund special education. The Autism Alliance of Michigan is leading this work and plans to make its recommendations by the end of October.
Michigan schools continue to face teachers shortages, too.
“School districts reported higher vacancy rates for special education teachers than any other type of teaching position, with many districts reporting more than 10% of their special education positions vacant,” according to a recent report from the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University.
Lampman said she would like to see MDE be a resource to school districts that are struggling to find a solution with special education. For example, she said small districts may rarely encounter a specific type of disability or may have trouble finding a qualified person to provide therapies to students. She said the state could partner with schools to help them solve issues.
“We really need to raise expectations for the outcomes of kids with disabilities in Michigan,” Eckner said.
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This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.