From Examiner.com Columbia by Robin Hansen
The California Department of Education (CDE) held a large conference at taxpayer expense. The real agenda: How to keep special needs children from getting the instruction and services that they need while giving the impression their needs are being met. The CDE was very careful to keep this conference away from the public eye and to only invite school district personnel from around the state. The formal title of the conference was called “A National Update of Case law 2008 to the present under the IDEA and Section 504/ADA”. The keynote speaker was Perry Zirkel, a university professor of education and law at Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. Mr Zirkel is a notoriously well known pro-district/anti-parent speaker. He charges $3000 per lecture plus expenses. Of course his fees paled in comparison with all the money being spent on all the school personnel who came from all over the state to hear him speak. At one point during the presentation, one administrator asked what he should do about a parent who was requesting a service that the district did not offer, Mr Zirkel, told the inquirer, “Just sue the parents”. Fortunately, one parent did manage to slip through the cracks. This parent was horrified to see the collusion between the state and districts joining together against the very citizens who pay for theses services? In fact, when another conference goer found out this parent was present, the response was “What are YOU doing here?! Who let you in? ” Read the full article
comments