Last night, Joshua Starr came to a special meeting of the Special Education Advisory Committee. For the first time in 12 years, a Montgomery County Superintendent met with parents to share his views on special education. I'm posting the following so that Josh can do some reading, and get filled in on the history of special ed in MCPS so he knows "how we got here" and why it was so important for him to show up last night. Here's the email I sent him this morning:
Dear Josh:
Thank you for coming to the Special Education Advisory Committee last night. For the first time in 12 years, our superintendent reached out to our community and spoke frankly with us. I am looking forward to continued dialogue. I have been very closely involved with MCPS special education for the last 22 years as a parent, advocate, attorney, committee member, volunteer, etc., and if you'd ever like an "oral history" of the last 20 years of MCPS special education, and how we got to where we are now, I'd be happy to chat with you at any time.
That said, I wanted to pass along the links that I suggested you visit so that you can begin your research on "where are we" in MCPS special education, and "where do we need to go", particularly with regard to regaining parental trust and "buy-in."
The link to the Office of Shared Accountability report on the phase-out of the Learning Centers:
http://sharedaccountability.mcpsmd.org/reports/list.php?selection=810
The link to MSDE reports on special education dispute resolution: (scroll down to "reports")
http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/earlyinterv/complaint_investigation/
The link to the special education legal fees report through March of last school year:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/agenda/2010-11/2011-0616/8.1%20Legal.pdf
The outside legal services contract that provides that outside counsel will be paid $6,000 a day (yes!) per day of litigation is not online, but I have a copy of it, and will be happy to share it with you. The absurd result is that in many instances, MCPS spends more money fighting families over services than it would cost to provide the services in the first place.
Sincerely,
Lyda Astrove
Lyda! You are the best. Thanks.
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