Hillsborough schools neglect students with emotional, behavioral disabilities, groups say

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Hillsborough schools neglect students with emotional, behavioral disabilities, groups say

By son, Times Staff Writer Published Wednesday, October 1, 2008 9:21 AM

TAMPA — Hillsborough County schools neglect students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, isolating them and punishing them excessively, according to three civil rights groups.

That culture of neglect violates federal law, deprives those students of a chance to learn and puts them on a path to jail and prison, advocates say.

The accusations come in the form of a 20-page complaint from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities and the NAACP.

Today the groups are scheduled to announce they are filing the complaint with the Florida Department of Education. It is being made on behalf of students with disabilities in Hillsborough, the ninth-largest school district in the nation. Another coalition of civil rights groups is expected to make a similar complaint against Palm Beach County.

The Hillsborough complaint focuses on students with emotional or behavioral disabilities, including autism, not those who are physically impaired.

The groups want the state to investigate the School District and force Hillsborough administrators to hire a nationally recognized expert to help develop a training program emphasizing positive ways to support students with disabilities.

Hillsborough schools spokesman Steve Hegarty said today that administrators haven't seen the complaint, but look forward to seeing it and discussing it with the groups filing it.

Citing data from the 2005-06 school year, the groups noted that only 39 percent of students with disabilities graduate from Hillsborough schools, compared with 75 percent for all students.

The group also said Hillsborough schools referred 1,881 students to the juvenile justice system, mostly for minor offenses, in 2006-07. That's the most in the state, though the overall percentage of delinquency referrals that were school-related was consistent with the statewide average, according to the complaint. Hillsborough's number of referrals for 2006-07 also was down 20 percent from the previous year.

Punishing students with disabilities instead of providing them with services that promote positive behavior "appears to occur more frequently with students of color," according to the complaint.

That, the NAACP contends, contributes to a significant racial disparity for out-of-school suspensions in Hillsborough County.

In the complaint, the groups offer six case studies of students who did not receive the "free appropriate public education" that is required by federal law. To protect their privacy, the students were identified by their initials.

One was identified as J.M., a 10th-grader at Exceptional Student Education Center in Plant City. The 15-year-old is classified as educable mentally handicapped and has an emotional behavioral disability.

As a kindergartener in 1998, she was placed in a special class and received additional help outside of class.

But, according to the complaint to the state, the school district never planned to provide her with any social work, psychological or counseling services until 2006. And from 2006 to this year, as she was suspended from school and the bus repeatedly, and charged with hitting school employees four different times, school officials did not give her more help managing her anger.Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn “10 hidden secrets” from . Learn Now