Florida School District Drops the Ball on Special Education
Monday, September 27, 2004
Linda D. Montalbano

School lawyers across this nation are getting rich fighting to make sure that disabled children don't obtain a free appropriate public education. Here in a complaint I don't expect the Florida Department of Education to ever investigate and respond to are just a few quotes from the leaders in the movement to make sure that no child receives special education services.

Our states return money to the federal government every year because they don't comply with IDEA requirements and must return the money that our disabled children need. While they violate IDEA only about a 1/3rd of disabled children ever obtain some kind of high school diploma. There is money to pay for disabled children's programs but the school districts must write IEP's that are written based on testing and evaluations that show the child needs services. Instead our school districts are busy evading doing testing in suspected handicapping areas and paying their lawyers to justify what they are doing.

Complaints to State Education Departments can be made by anyone from anywhere. In Manatee County Florida school staff admitted they discriminate against children diagnosed with ADHD because it will cost money to address their disabilities. I filed a complaint based on the news article on behalf of all the children of Manatee County. We all know that this practice is all over the country but here in Manatee County Florida the school staff freely admits they practice discrimination against children with ADHD. I am sending you my complaint and in the complaint is the news article.

I believe that all of you who read the article and suspect that your school district is doing the same thing can make a complaint to your state education department cite the news article and my complaint and voice your concerns you believe or suspect it is happening to your child and/or in your school district and/or in your state. You can also file your own complaint against Manatee County Florida by doing an e-mail complaint to: Eileen.Amy@fldoe.org and cc the complaint to the Florida Commissioner of Education: commissioner@fldoe.org.

Maybe if organizations, parents and friends from across the United States make complaints about this open admitted discrimination policy of Manatee County Florida maybe the Florida Department of Education may investigate and order them to stop and implement IDEA services to children diagnosed with ADHD. A little cutting and pasting in an e-mail and you can make a complaint and help me get the message out to the Florida Department of Education that people care about children and are not going to sit back and let people openly discriminate.

Linda D. Montalbano

September 22, 2004
Chief, Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services Florida Department of Education
325 W. Gaines St., Room 614 Tallahassee, Fl 32399-0400

Dear Ms. Amy or anyone else who at this time may accept a complaint in the Florida Department of Education and answer it.

I am filing a formal complaint against the Manatee County School District on behalf of all the children of the district. I am doing this as a concerned citizen of the State of Florida. I am asking that you investigate if children in Manatee County School District who are diagnosed with ADHD are being singled out because they have ADHD and being denied all their rights under IDEA because they are diagnosed with ADHD.

I read a news paper article on September 22, 2004 on the internet. The article is:

Suit seeks special ed for child
By TIFFANY LANKES
tiffany.lankes@heraldtribune.com

MANATEE COUNTY -- A mother suing the School Board for failing to provide special education to her son will try to force the district to provide services while her case is under way.

Parent Joanie Derry is suing the district because it ignored an administrative judge's order to provide special education for her son, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The district appealed the judge's ruling in June, arguing that the child's condition is not affecting his ability to learn.

Derry's lawyer, Timothy Weber of St. Petersburg, said the two cases could drag on in court for years.

In the meantime, Derry wants the district to fulfill the administrative judge's order and provide special education for her son.

"They're in contempt of court and they know it," she said.

A judge will hear both sides of the case during a hearing at 3 p.m. Thursday in a federal courtroom in Tampa.

Weber said he wasn't sure how long it would take the judge to make a decision on Derry's request. If the judge denies the child services, Weber said he'll push to move the two cases along more quickly.

"If they're not going to give him (special education) now we're going to be kicking and screaming for this to go through," Weber said.

Attorneys for the school district could not be reached for comment.

School officials decided to appeal the judge's ruling because they said providing services to Derry's son would open the door to special education for thousands of children with ADHD diagnoses, forcing the district to spend millions.
The district has already enlisted the services of four lawyers to help fight the case, with contracts as much as $50,000.

"How much money does the district intend to spend to make sure this kid doesn't get an education?" Weber said.

I have the following concerns I would like investigated as a system wide systemic problem in the Manatee County School District.
1. The following statement:

"School officials decided to appeal the judge's ruling because they said providing services to Derry's son would open the door to special education for thousands of children with ADHD diagnoses, forcing the district to spend millions."

I believe that the school officials are discriminating against children who have been diagnoses with ADHD. They are admitting they don't want to provide services to children diagnosed with ADHD. They are admitting they don't want to address these children's unique needs because it may cost them "...millions."

2. ADHD falls under Other Health Impaired as a classifiable disability under IDEA:
Sec. 300.7 Child with a disability. (c) Definitions of disability terms. The terms used in this definition are defined as follows: (9) Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that-- (i) Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia;

The school staff is admitting they don't want to provide "...services to Derry's son would open the door to special education for thousands of children...". Right now "...thousands of children who are diagnosed with ADHD are not even being considered for special education services according to Manatee County School District staff. These are already diagnosed children with no IEP's to address the unique needs of their disabilities.

3. We have diagnosed children with known behaviors that without interventions, modifications and behavior plans are most likely facing school discipline policies with a disregard that their behaviors are a manifestation of their disability. Each time one of these diagnosed children faces a discipline action against them their rights to a manifestation determination hearing is being violated. As already diagnosed children they are already identified as having a disability but I suspect the school district is not giving them their rights to a manifestation determination hearing each and every time the child is facing detention and suspensions from school.

4. If this school district has a Zero Tolerance Policy these children are denied their rights because they are not provided the protections of IDEA and 504 as identified disabled children.

I am also stating I do not want anyone in the Florida Department of Education who is involved with the Weatherly Law Firm investigating this complaint. I find great concern that the statement:

"School officials decided to appeal the judge's ruling because they said providing services to Derry's son would open the door to special education for thousands of children with ADHD diagnoses, forcing the district to spend millions."

Since this statement sounds so much like the following:

"You pay that price for one child, 10 other parents are going to line up for that same service," says Weatherly."

As one of their clients was noted in a news article:

"Other school districts, such as Knox County, Tenn., have faced criticism for paying Weatherly's high fees. But they have vehemently argued that he actually saves taxpayers' money in the long run. His firm specializes in cases where children and their families claim districts should pay for expensive special education services or private school placements. The districts argue that paying for a special service once sets off a chain reaction, where other parents ask for the same thing.
And Manatee County School District is willing to spend thousands of dollars to prevent children from receiving services as this statement states:
"The district has already enlisted the services of four lawyers to help fight the case, with contracts as much as $50,000."

Sounds just like my school district in Highlands County in it's pursuit to evade educating minorities and disabled children and will spend and do anything to evade implementing IDEA. I as a taxpayer in the State of Florida just want to make sure that school districts are not just "bleed...dry" or "tumbled toward bankruptcy" like Palo Alto-Eastern Menlo Park Ravenswood school district in California is facing because they are clients of the Weatherly Law Firm.

Their former Superintendent Charlie Mae Knight stated "The majority of the money went to the lawyers. The money for the children was very, very small."

I would like to see the money go towards addressing the needs of disabled children.

Since I know that the Florida Department of Education and several school districts in Florida are all co-clients of this law firm I am concerned that Manatee school staff statements quoted in the news article are so much like the Weatherly Law Firm philosophy. James Lobozzo, Jr. our school lawyer in Highlands County stated to me in a letter dated, July 2, 2004 that:

"Mrs. Julie Weatherly has presented materials for instructional consultation to the school board and other Highlands County staff members for annual updates on matters affecting IDEA; payment for such instructional consultation is generally made by Florida Diagnostic Learning and Resource System (FDLRS), serving a four county area, and all of the four counties are joined together for purposes of such presentations."

I believe that all staff in the Florida Department of Education trained by Weatherly Law Firm has been instructed in ways to assist the school districts of the State of Florida to evade implementing IDEA. The school district staff of Manatee County knows they can openly admit they discriminate against diagnosed children with ADHD because they know they can get away with it.
I also don't wave the 60 day time line for this complaint. It would be nice if you answer this complaint and comply with the 60 day time line but I don't expect you to comply since you are refusing to answer most of my complaints.

Linda D. Montalbano