Danish town says it spends thousands to send teen with dyslexia to class via taxi

From The Copenhagen Post in Denmark:

Local authority was forced to pay 700,000 kroner more than necessary in what mayors say is one example of forced overspending

Kalundborg local authority has revealed that it is forced to pay nearly half a million kroner per year in taxi bills to send a 13-year old boy to Ballerup – a distance of 93 kilometres – each day to spend an hour in a special class for dyslexic children.

The revelation is the latest in series of forced overspending brought forth by local authorities as the government prepares the country for deep cuts – amounting to 24 billion kroner – to turn the economy around.

The head of education for Kalundborg local authority, Poul Edvard Larsen, recognised the costs were ‘absurd’ but said the authority had been ordered to send the boy to the school by a special complaints committee for remedial education.
The authority had originally offer the boy remedial classes in his own school in Kalundborg in western Zealand at a cost of 100,000 kroner a year. The boy’s parents were dissatisfied with the offer and brought their case before the committee.

Instead, the authority has ended up paying close to 800,000 kroner annually, including 300,000 kroner for one-to-one classes at a special institute for dyslexic students in Ballerup, and nearly half a million in travel costs.

The Kalundborg case is just one of many that KL, the union of local authorities, has brought to the government’s attention. KL believes that current social welfare legislation is putting an unbearable strain on local authority budgets.

According to KL, local authorities have repeatedly lost cases brought by citizens with special needs before the welfare complaints committee. These cases typically concern housing, daily taxi trips or provisions for the disabled.