U.S. Dept. of Education says California elementary school discriminated against disabled children

From the San Jose Mercury-News in California:

Millikin School in Santa Clara, the fifth-highest scoring elementary school in the state, illegally discriminated against disabled students by discouraging them from attending, a federal investigation has found.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights said the Santa Clara Unified School District has been forcing special education students who need a resource aide to choose between getting an aide or attending Millikin, which does not routinely have aides in the classroom.

In addition, district literature about the school suggested that students with learning disabilities were not qualified to attend Millikin, the investigation found. But federal law requires that disabled students have an equal opportunity to participate in programs unless they are not qualified to attend.

At Millikin, only 3 percent of students are classified as special education students; at the district's 16 other elementary schools, special-education students range from 12 percent to 17 percent of students. Of the 12 special-education students at Millikin, 11 receive only speech and language services, but not other assistance for learning handicapped students. The other child had been bused to another school for special-education services, but was recently assigned an aide.

Millikin is a districtwide alternative program that holds an annual lottery for admission.

To resolve the violation, the district has agreed to revise its materials, notify staff that the school cannot exclude students based on disability, advise parents of their rights and submit to continued federal monitoring.

"It's been a nightmare," said a Millikin parent who has fought for special-education services for her autistic child. She didn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation. District staff had repeatedly suggested her son attend another school, she said.

The mother of another child who attended Millikin said teachers threatened to expel her son for his academic performance. She ended up withdrawing him and sending him to another school.

"What most people don't realize is the price to be paid for high STAR test scores," said the mother, who also asked not to be identified. She said teachers brought her son to tears, ridiculing his work. "They call up parents and say, 'Your child doesn't belong in this school.' "

Santa Clara Superintendent Steve Stavis welcomed the agreement. At Millikin, "It wasn't clear that the students were going to be accepted with open arms," he said. Discouraging special-education students at school was not deliberate but, he said, "was an unintended consequence of the way they did business."

Millikin is a "back-to-basics" school where teachers stress order, give directions and students listen. It is focused on test performance, and last year its students scored 991 on the annual STAR test; five years ago it scored a perfect 1,000.

School officials had claimed that accommodating special-education students who need aides would fundamentally alter Millikin's program and be too expensive — claims the Office of Civil Rights said were unfounded.

In fact, what's known as the "direction instruction" method often works well for autistic children, who need classrooms to be quiet and well-organized, parents of special-education students said.

"It's a public school," said the mother of one autistic child. "They ought to be able to accommodate everyone."