Special education legal fight is fraught
Maryland parents lose over 85% vs. districts
It’s rare for the parents of students with disabilities to prevail in legal battles against Maryland school districts. In the past five years, they’ve lost more than 85 percent of the time, state education department documents show, even after investing tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours in pursuit of a better education for their children.
Advocates, families and attorneys say the trend is alarming and discourages people from fighting for the rights that kids are guaranteed under federal law.
School systems are required to provide and pay for a range of specialized services — anything from speech therapy sessions to tuition at a private facility — to ensure that children with disabilities are properly educated. When parents dispute what’s being offered, they can file a complaint and take their case before a judge.
It’s a draining and complex ordeal that costs families time and energy and leaves their children’s education in flux. In recent years, roughly 100 families have gone through a so-called special education due process hearing.
Judges have routinely sided with the school systems.
“I wouldn’t wish this upon anybody,” said Sarah Friedman, a
parent who went through due process. “My daughter was let down first by the school system and then by the judicial system.”
Advocates say the odds discourage countless other families — especially lowincome families — from attempting to go through with a due process complaint.
“Families see the data, and it’s like, why would we even try?” said Maureen van Stone, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Project HEAL, a medical-legal partnership.
“This is not what you want when children with disabilities are guaranteed these rights by federal law.”
Other states avoid such asymmetrical rates. A study examining due process hearings in Texas found districts prevailed in roughly 72 percent of cases from 2011 to 2015. A similar assessment in Massachusetts found school districts won in a little more than half of the due process hearings over eight years.
Van Stone said she understands “not every case is a winner.” Still, she argues the lopsided success in Maryland should sound alarms.
A representative of the judges who oversee these cases said every judge is impartial and assesses each situation on its merits.
A senior official in the school system that fields the most complaints said districts work tirelessly to settle problems outside court to best serve kids.
Still, some parents question why they so often lose in the fight for what they see as their children’s legal right to “a free and appropriate” public education — and why lawmakers in Annapolis have quashed legislation they say would’ve helped level the playing field.
A last resort