‘Benny’s special education creates special challenges’
August 29th, 2007‘Tab for controversial school exceeds $700,000′
The San Diego Union-Tribune carries an extended feature about “the most expensive special-education student in the San Diego school district.”
Benny Walker, who is described as “severely autistic and mentally retarded,” now attends a residential program in Canton, Massachusetts.
Because of legal mandates, San Diego Unified and other public agencies are paying the bill. Benny’s tuition and housing at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, where an aide is assigned to him full time, cost more than $270,000 for the 2006-07 school year. The cost since 2005 has been $732,930.
Benny is one of 17,015 special-education students in the San Diego Unified School District, the state’s second-largest. His case – while extreme – underscores the struggles faced by parents of profoundly disabled children and the extraordinary costs society pays to educate and treat them.
The Rotenberg center is controversial because it uses electric shock to modify behavior — a practice that has been called inhumane by disability advocates and mental health professionals. (See related story, “School of Shock,” in Mother Jones magazine.)
The Union-Tribune story is accompanied by dozens of reader comments, many quite emotional and critical of the school district, Benny’s parents, and parents of children with disabilities.
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on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am and is filed under autism, costs, disputed treatments, intellectual disabilities, special education.
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