Allegations leveled at child's hearing

Lakeland parents say school altered grade cards, doctored
documents

By CINDY BEVINGTON

Kendallville News Sun, October 19, 2000

LaGrange - Altered grade cards. Doctored and backdated documents.
Irregular procedures, secret meetings and untrained personnel working with
a child with Down syndrome.

These allegations against Lakeland School Corp. by Amy and Ben Sutton,
parents of a child with Down Syndrome who attends Parkside Elementary
School in LaGrange, highlighted a mediation hearing between the Suttons
and the school system on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The hearing, held in LaGrange, took place at the parents' request after they
rejected the school's plan to put their 7-year-old son, Benjamin, in a special
education classroom for the majority of his school day, beginning this year.

A special hearing officer, appointed by the Indiana Department of
Education, conducted the hearing. Indiana University associate professor
Thomas J. Huberty said he will consider documents, testimony and other
arguments by the two parties to determine the best placement for Benjamin.

He also will decide whether school personnel followed proper procedures in
making their own determinations as to Benjamin's placement.

Benjamin is a first-grader who completed kindergarten in a regular
classroom at Parkside. The Suttons want his education to continue in a
regular classroom, with supports such as an instructional aide and special
modifications and adaptations to the curriculum that would help him
succeed in that setting.

School officials say Benjamin's development is so 'severely delayed' the
only way the school can serve him is to assign him to a special education
teacher most of the day in a 'resource room.' The room is home to children
in grades K-5.

Monday, on the first day of testimony, Amy Sutton accused school officials
of altering Benjamin's kindergarten grade cards to support their position.
She also accused them of changing Benjamin's IEP - individual educational
plan - after she had already signed it, and then backdating it to look as if the
plan had been made the same day she'd signed it.

Additionally, she said school officials held private meetings to discuss
Benjamin's IEP and to determine his placement without telling her, and
without her input, in violation of state rules regarding IEP's.

In kindergarten, he was doing 'extremely well' the first three nine-week
periods, she said. "Then, at the end of the fourth nine weeks, I noticed
several of his grades had been changed from 'mastery' to 'in-progress' for
the previous reports. "I also thought he was graded excessively harshly in
the fourth nine weeks."

School officials used the grade cards as partial evidence that Benjamin
needs to be in a self-contained classroom for children with special needs,
rather than in a regular classroom all day long.

Sutton testified that she met with Angola attorney Randal Forbes about the
legality of changing the grades, and discussed it with Lakeland
Superintendent Russell Hodges. After the hearing closed Wednesday,
Sutton said that about 10 grades had been changed. Before the changes
were made, she'd made copies of the first three nine-week report cards and
mailed them to several people, including officials at IDOE.

The school's attorney, James Abbs, did not address Sutton's allegation of
grade changing in cross examination or through any witnesses he called to
defend the school.

Most of the school's defense centered on whether officials followed proper
procedures in calling and ending IEP meetings - termed 'case conferences,'
and school officials' attempt to work with the Suttons on Benjamin's
placement.

Several school officials also testified that they believed Benjamin belonged
in a self-contained classroom most or all of his school day, and that the
school's offer to put him in the self-contained room at least 55 percent of the
day was a generous offer.

School officials also admitted that several people involved in making
educational recommendations for Benjamin, including Parkside Principal
Gloria Preston and Benjamin's first-grade teacher Marlene Weaver, had no
experience or training in working with or teaching children with Down
syndrome.

Monday, the Suttons' attorney, Julie Carter, called experts on Down
syndrome to testify that these children do better when included in a regular
classroom with their peers.

The experts also gave numerous adaptation methods that could be utilized
in Benjamin's first-grade class to help him succeed.

At the close of the hearing, Huberty said he will make a determination as to
Benjamin's placement by Dec. 4. "I'm fully aware somebody's not going to
be happy with my decision," Huberty said. "But it's not the school's concerns
or the parents' concerns that are most important here. It's what's best for
Benjamin."

Coming Sunday: The News-Sun will take an in-depth look at this week's
due process hearing, its implications, and how other northeast Indiana
schools address special education needs.