From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

A ruling by an arbitrator in response to a teacher complaint could force the Cleveland school district to hire hundreds more special education teachers.

Cleveland’s union contract requires that each inclusion classroom be team taught full-time by a general education teacher and a special education teacher. Presently, the district more often pulls students with disabilities out of their classrooms and sends them to a central location for extra help. The arbitrator’s decision could force the district to hire up to six new teachers per school.

A compromise agreement is expected.

Board let Wendy Portillo keep tenure after allowing students to ‘vote out’ child with Asperger’s

Editorial writers at the Palm Beach [FL] Post say it was a mistake for the Port St. Lucie school district to allow Wendy Portillo to return to the classroom.

Portilllo led her kindergarten students in voting 5-year-old Alex Barton out of her classroom. Alex has Asperger’s syndrome. After a suspension, the school board has voted to let Portillo keep her professional contract and tenure, and to allow her to return to work this fall.

The editors say the district must provide teachers with training and support to help them understand and accommodate the needs of children with challenging behaviors.

See also:

• School board reinstates teacher who let class ‘vote out’ student — South Florida Sun-Sentinel
• ‘Wendy Portillo really does deserve a break’ — Anthony Westbury in TCpalm.com
• Teacher who let students vote autistic child out of class is reinstated — WPBF-TV, West Palm Beach

From the New York Daily News:

Teachers at the prestigious Eagle Academy for Young Men in the Bronx have accused the principal of ordered them to inflate the grades of students with disabilities. They said they were instructed to change failing grades to passing for some students who hadn’t done any work and hadn’t attended class.

The New York Education Department is looking into the allegations.

Principal Osei Owusu-Afriye did not dispute that some grades were changed, but said the students had not received instruction that fit their individual educationp plans. He accused the teachers of being “disgruntled.”

From federal documents, the Washington Post, WJLA TV, Washington:

Federal authorities have identified Dawn Marie Hamilton, a special education teacher at Loudoun County’s Park View High School, as the teacher who was implicated in the 2002 death of 14-year-old Cedric Napoleon in Texas.

Legislators at a congressional hearing on the use of restraints in schools were told yesterday that Cedric died after a teacher put him in a face-down restraint hold and sat on him for more than 15 minutes.

Hamilton, who has been teaching in Park View since 2007, was placed on paid leave this week pending an investigation after federal authorities notified the Virginia Department of Education of her involvement in the case. Hamilton was not arrested or indicted in Cedric’s death, which was ruled a homicide, but an administrative judge found the teacher used “excessive and unnecessary force,” according to Texas records. She holds a Virginia teaching license.

Loudoun school district officials said Hamilton passed a background check before being hired, and was considered a “teacher in good standing.”

From the text of the letter from the Government Accountability Office:

One of our cases involves a teacher, Dawn Marie Hamilton, who had a Texas administrative law judge sustain a finding that there was reason to believe she physically abused her student, Cedrick [sic] Napoleon, by restraining him until he died. This teacher was placed in the Texas Central Registry — a listing of individuals found to have abused and neglected children. Before the administrative law judge issued her final decision and order, Dawn Marie Hamilton’s Texas teaching certificate expired. We found no indication that the Texas State Board for Educator Certification took punitive action or implemented further measures that would link this finding to her expired teaching certificate.

Legislators were told there is no federal registry that would allow school districts to share information about people suspected or convicted of abusing children.

Here is the letter from the GAO to the Virginia Department of Education, which names Dawn Marie Hamilton as the teacher who was implicated in the death of Cedric Napoleon.

And here is the letter from the American Association of School Administrators saying that Hamilton has been placed on administrative leave from her job.

See also report from WJLA TV, Washington.

From the Washington Post:

Federal data show a widespread shortage of certified special education teachers, coupled with high attrition rates and a rapidly growing student population. At the same time, colleges are not producing enough graduates to meet the demand. The result: students with disabilities are far more likely than their typical peers to be taught by uncertified or inexperienced teachers.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Educators reached for the tissues this week when Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin delivered the keynote address at the Council for Exceptional Children’s national convention in Seattle.

Her message: A big thank-you to those who speak up on behalf of people who can’t speak for themselves. “I know,” she told the crowd, “that I am here today because people like you listened to me.”

Matlin, who is deaf, praised educators for their work encouraging children to follow their dreams. “I will always be listening to my children and any child that wants to be heard,” Matlin signed to the crowd. “In the end, silence will be the last thing the world will ever hear from me.

“And I know and can feel that it’s the same for you.”

(Photo from Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

From Education Week:

More than three decades after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, transition planning continues to be a challenge for students, parents and educators.

With about half of students with disabilities planning to pursue postsecondary education, many are finding it tough to navigate without the active IDEA-mandated support that was provided in high school.

Transition planning can vary widely from locality to locality, which leaves parents to piece together what they can. “Here’s what I’ve learned: It’s all about networking,” said one mother. “You have to tap every avenue you can possibly identify.”