From the [Allentown, PA] Daily Call, with video:

Twenty-one-year-old Cameron Bell is among thousands of students with disabilities who will lose their minimum-wage jobs when they leave high school this year. Cameron, who has Down syndrome, has reached the maximum schooling age for special education students.

Experts say the economic downturn and the shifting offshore of low-wage jobs are placing new, daunting barriers before this group, who traditionally have a harder time getting jobs than do their peers without disabilities.

”It’s a struggle,” said Marcie Hrycyszyn, Cameron’s teacher and the school-to-work coordinator [for the Bethlehem Area School District.] ”Mailroom jobs were always plentiful for my students. But they are now being taken by people who have been laid off or college grads.”

A report from Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute finds that only 16.8 percent of Americans with disabilities are employed, down from a high of 28.8 percent in 1989.

Earlier post here.

Weak state oversight is blamed

From the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch:

A federal audit of special education programs in Ohio has concluded that some school districts were blatantly violating the law and failing to properly educate students with disabilities. The deficiencies were attributed to weak state oversight.

Among problems found by U.S. Department of Education auditors:

• One district was segregating all middle school students with disabilities in separate classrooms away from peers;
• One district allowed teachers to limit the number of students with disabilities admitted to their classrooms;
• The state lacks procedures to adequately track special-education spending, and doesn’t seek to ensure that eligible kids with disabilities are included in regular-education classes.

From the Chicago Tribune:

The Chicago Public Schools has announced plans for a “major reorganization” of the district’s special education program, promising to eliminate problems that critics say are preventing the city’s most vulnerable children from getting the educational services they are entitled to receive. “A special need should not prevent a child from learning,” said a district spokeswoman.

Among the changes that have been promised for the 45,000-student system: a system to track student progress and parent complaints. Officials also promised to make the $850-million-a-year system more “parent-friendly.”

“They are systemically preventing kids from getting services,” said Peter J. Smith, assistant professor of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Chicago. “I could give you story after story after story. It’s so ridiculously off the reservation that there’s just no question that they’re not doing what they should do. It’s not even close.”

From the New York Daily News:

A space crunch fueled by the creation of charter schools in New York City is disproportionately squeezing students with disabilities, say parents and advocates. They say less space means that kids with disabilities may have less one-on-one instruction time, therapy sessions in the back of classrooms, and cramped conditions for students who use wheelchairs.

At eight of the 15 buildings making room for new or expanding schools next year, at least a quarter of students receive special education services.

School officials say each of the district’s charter proposals “leaves special education students with ample space.”

From the [Morris County, NJ] Daily Record:

A group of Northern New Jersey high school students is organizing to encourage more effective integration of students with disabilities alongside their typical peers.

Even though federal law encourages the inclusion of students with disabilities, members of the group say they often see missed opportunities in both academic and social settings throughout the school day.

The two dozen teenagers are planning a rally this spring and have spoken to the state’s Board of Education, calling for better integration as well as a statewide curriculum focusing on disability rights.

Students need to learn to work and play together in school in order to help tackle the reality of the adult world — a 70 percent unemployment rate in New Jersey for people with disabilities, said … Stephanie Jennis, a Montville eighth-grader.

“If we’re taught from kindergarten awareness of disabilities, by the time we’re adults and become employers we will know how to modify things to employ people with disabilities,” Stephanie Jennis said.

From the Muskegon [MI] Chronicle

A change in state law is forcing Michigan school districts to halt their practice of awarding diplomas to students with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

A handful of districts statewide, including Muskegon and Muskegon Heights, had been awarding diplomas to students who had completed an “adaptive curriculum” in the special education program. Those students will now receive a “certificate of completion.”

“It’s telling school boards they can’t do what they’ve been doing,” said Linda Riepma, executive director of secondary education for Muskegon Public Schools.

Some educators have raised concerns about the new state requirements, calling them too rigid and overly focused on academics. Detractors fear the new standards may drive up dropout rates among students who know they can’t make the grade.

From the Montreal Gazette, CBC News:

A French family is making a public appeal to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds after their application for permanent residency was rejected because their seven-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy.

Rachel Barlagne was deemed “medically inadmissable” because her disability would pose an “excessive burden” on the state. According to court documents, the “excessive burden” amounts to $5,200 per year for special education.

“We hope the immigration minister understands our situation and takes steps to allow us to stay,” David Barlagne said outside Federal Court in Montreal, where his lawyers are fighting to keep his family in the country. “We are determined to do whatever we have to to stay in Canada.”

Earlier post here.

(Photo from CBC News)