Dissatisfied With Special Education Program, Family Returns Son’s Diploma

[The Straight Story]

Dissatisfied With Special Education Program, Family Returns Son’s Diploma

A Chicago family is returning their son’s high school diploma and sending him back to school at age 21 because they say his special education program was subpar.

Abraham Esquivel’s family says he has emotional and learning disabilities and functions at the level of a 10-year-old. They cannot understand how their son earned passing grades in classes ranging from psychology to chemistry since he was absent frequently and students were often seen sleeping or wandering around when they visited his school. What’s more, he hasn’t had homework since 2008.

Even Esquivel himself says he didn’t deserve the grades he received.

Dissatisfied, the family returned Esquivel’s diploma to Chicago Public Schools along with a letter indicating that they don’t believe he was ready to graduate. Now, Esquivel is headed back to school where he’s legally entitled to receive services until he’s 22.

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/06/18/return-diploma/9107/

[treestar]

1. There was a lot they could have done before this

Special Ed students have a lot of rights.

They could have challenged the situation all throughout the 12 years.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Yes I would say the same thing

Where has this family been?

This is just a lot of dramatic hoopla at this point. I guess they were craving their 15 minutes of fame.

[mzteris]

4. unfortunately, some people believe

what the teachers tell them without question.

They teachers said he was fine and gave him passing grades, you'd be among the first to start bitching if the parents "questioned their ability".

[AngryOldDem]

6. Most definitely,

If you don't stand up for your child, no one else will. Speaking from experience, special ed is a partnership between teacher and parent. At times it's hard. But anything of worth hardly ever comes easily.

[jaxx]

3. Schools Struggle to Educate the Severely Disabled

I read this earlier and it also speaks of the education of the developmentally disabled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/education/20donovan.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1277046617-7rYnzGPLlbPWl3trbwb7Dw

[asdjrocky]

5. My question is where were his parents when he was in school?

Did they get involved? Did they look at his work? Did they ask everyday if he had homework and if not, why?

This has a real bogus ring to it.

[Bluerthanblue]

7. I don't understand why they waited until he graduated to complain

about their son's achievments.
Didn't they have IEP meetings and wasn't their input invited/allowed? Most school systems I'm familiar with require them at least yearly- Parents have to sign off on the goals for the year, the methods which will be used to evaluate the progress, and if they disagree on what and why-

I'm a single mom and my youngest has a LD- even though he's in the public system my responsibility to be sure he's doing ok doesn't end.

I'm glad he's going to continue to work on his education, but he's got to be a willing participant with parental support, otherwise I don't believe much will change.

:hi:

(hope your daughter is feeling MUCH better)

[SheilaT]

8. Functions at the level of a ten year old

and gets passing grades in psychology and chemistry? It would be interesting to see what text was used in these classes, just what was taught.

It's as if there are two distinct species of parents: one which is overinvolved and too often actually does their child's homework themselves, and the other which is totally uninvolved and only discovers after the kid has completed school that no learning occurred.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. One of the problems with special ed

is a classroom environment which too frequently teaches at the level of the person in the group with the most profound learning disability.

The difficulty in doing otherwise encourages teachers to keep parents at arm's length. It gets worse as kids get older. By the time parents realize that the school has given up, it's too late to do anything.

I'm a big advocate of, if at all possible (not "practical", but "possible") education in the general ed classroom, with classroom supports and pullout services for deficits identified in the IEP.

[femmocrat]

10. Another problem is that we are not allowed to fail Learning Support students.

We are required to adapt the lessons so they can be successful. No more pullout services either--- everyone is mainstreamed now, including the most severely handicapped.

Welcome to public education where every child will be "proficient" by 2014-- one way or another.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. The opposite extreme is also a problem, Jeff

With more and more kids being mainstreamed for (sometimes) too much time, they are getting instruction at a level too high. I'm a huge believer in high expectations for special ed kids, especially the LD kids. But we can raise the bar too high if we aren't careful.

I also find it shameful that we subject kids with disabilities to way too much testing. For that matter, we overtest ALL of our kids.