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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > July > 05
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Special ed in a small town
I’m on vacation for a few days in northern Michigan (not the Upper Peninsula, which the locals call the UP). The Leelenau Peninsula, north of Traverse City, is a great lakefront getaway. But the local, year-round population is small and, as such, budgets for government services are modest.
In Northport, the small town where my brother and his wife have a cottage, they had a long-running debate about whether to install a sewer, which will cost each landowner in this tiny town of less than 700 full-time residents a pretty penny.
Recently, I stumbled across school-based example of the challenge of maintaining services in small jurisdictions like Northport.
Special education is a sticky issue for all school districts. Living up to the federal requirement that all student receive an appropriate education can cost a district significantly. In Dayton, for instance, there are a small number of profoundly handicapped students that cost the district more than $50,000 each for services each year.
And when disputes arise about what services are needed, the ensuing court cases can be very costly for everyone involved, including the school district.
Christine Samuels, who writes about special education at Education Week, recently highlighted Northport on her blog as an example of this.
It seems the district has had to set aside more than a quarter million dollars to fight a legal case over a special education student. That is a chunk of change when the total district budget is just $3.5 million. And get this — the suit was filed by a member of the school board, who is essentially suing himself!
I bet school board meetings in Northport are plenty lively these days.
(Image credit: Flickr.com)
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