New York Magazine has just published an article called The Autism Clause. The article details the "cottage industry" of parents’ lawyers suing to have children with autism placed in for-profit private schools at a cost of millions to the City of New York. While the article does get some facts right about special education correct (e.g. parents have the burden of proof at due process hearings), it proceeds from the simplistic assumpton that parents simply need to "file and win." If it were only that simple for parents around the country. I do not practice in New York, but this premise is just a gross oversimplification of the trials that parents go through to receive an appropriate education for their children.
The article does mention in passing that it is "the rare autistic child who receives specialized behavioral therapy, even though the New York State State Department of Health recommends it ‘as an important element of any intervention program.’" Such interventions are not the icing on the cake, they are the cake ! However, this point gets lost in the overall theme of private schools and parents’ attorneys getting rich at the public’s expense. The righteous outrage that is implictly heaped upon "savvy" parents and their attorneys should be reserved for the the fact children with autism still need to sue to get what other parents and children can take for granted–an appropriate education.
It is not as if autism is a newly discovered disability, nor is it that the research-based methods of educating children are new. The Autism Clause is an escape clause for the City of New York to shirk its responsibilities for children with autism. New York is not an isolated case; it shares shameful company with major cities like Boston and Baltimore. From first hand experience in the City of Chicago, the autism programming, in the main, is wholly inappropriate. Poorly trained staff making due with ill-equipped facilities and lacking in any meaningful interventions to address a child’s needs.
With articles like this one, it is obvious again that we are losing the public relations battle in Congress, the courts and in the press. We need to fight back on all public fronts and get the message out that parents do not sue because they want some swanky new for-profit school at the urging of some dollar-driven parents’ attorneys.[Contrast this premise with the reality of school district attorneys and their outrageous fees.] They sue because the public school system especially in big cities are broken and have been for years leaving parents no other choice. The real story is the rank disregard that public schools have for children with special needs, and the fact that there are effective teaching strategies that have been identified which schools have not adopted. Parents should be applauded for their heroic efforts in fighting for their children’s futures, and schools should be pilloried for forcing these suits and failing in their essential mission–providing an education.