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Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Special Ed Advocates Don’t Give Up The Fight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some critics of the state’s new special education rules haven’t given up their battle against the sweeping changes going into effect this school year.
Special education advocate and activist Carmen Allen has petitioned the State Board of Education to rescind the rules approved in June.
Allen, vice president of Educate America! — a not-for-profit advocacy group based in Cumming — was one of the most vocal opponents of the rule changes, which state officials said were necessary to keep Georgia in line with new federal standards for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Allen and others are convinced that the guidelines — governing not only which students are eligible for special education services, but also how those services are delivered — limit the rights of the more than 184,000 children with disabilities in Georgia’s public schools.
“If Georgia expects to ‘Lead the Nation in Student Achievement,’ then we, as a state, must set high expectations of ourselves, not lower them,” Allen wrote to state Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox in late July.
Officials at the State Department of Education are recommending that the board, which meets today and tomorrow, deny Allen’s request. They say her concerns and those of others were considered before the changes were made.
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