From Examiner.com:

Despite promising to address the needs of its special education students within federally mandated deadlines, the District of Columbia has allowed its backlog of unserved children to grow by more than 200 [almost 30 percent] in three months, The Examiner has learned.

Federal law requires that students be evaluated for special education needs within 60 days of a request and that children get services within 45 days of an evaluation.

An analysis written by a committee of public school and private experts has found that there are 935 students in the D.C. public school system who are still waiting for help. Nearly 400 of those have been waiting for at least five months beyond federal deadlines.

The deepening special education crisis puts D.C. at risk of being held in contempt of court because city officials promised in a consent decree that it would meet federal deadlines in at least half of its special education cases by June 30.

See earlier Washington Post story here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 8:14 am and is filed under special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.