Federal investigation prompts District 93 to change Special Education program
BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) – Bonneville Joint School District 93 is making some changes to their Special Education program after concerned parents filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
The parents – who asked their names be omitted from this article – toured the Rocky Mountain Middle School Special Education Room before their daughter was set to attend there. Their daughter has been diagnosed with autism.
The parents say they took issue with some of the cleaning and hygiene tasks the SPED students would perform at school such as brushing teeth, cleaning door handles, folding rags and wiping tables. They also say SPED students were being excluded from general education classes.
That's when they decided to reach out to the Office of Civil Rights. In the emailed complaint the father wrote, "I believe that what is going on in this school is illegal and discriminatory and respectfully request that the Department of Education investigate the special education program at RMMS."
The complaint was then emailed to District 93 Superintendent Dr. Scott Woolstenhulme. He responded, "I... wish that I had known about these concerns so that we could try to resolve them with you. I was not aware that students in our special education classrooms at RMMS were being required to perform janitorial services at the school."
Woolstenhulme tells us that within the SPED curriculum, each SPED student has an Individualized Education Plan to ensure children with disabilities receive specialized instruction within their learning.
Other parents who currently have their children enrolled in Rocky Mountain Middle School SPED program did not share the same beliefs with the concerned parents previously mentioned.
Starla Willden, a parent of a child who will be attending his third year at RMMS, tells us, "He is supposed to work on Life Skills... I love this program and all the teachers... They're not belittling or treating our kids like second class citizens."
Regardless, the Office of Civil Rights did take issue with the hygiene and janitorial practices the students were performing.
Prior to the investigation's conclusion, however, D93 requested to voluntarily resolve the allegations in the complaint. The Voluntary Resolution Agreement states that this will end SPED students, "performing cleaning and laundry tasks for the school, including washing and folding rags, wiping down door handles, and wiping off tables in the cafeteria, unless these tasks are shared equally by students at the school," and will not require SPED students, "to conduct daily dental or other personal hygiene tasks, that are not required of other students, unless the tasks are specifically required in a student’s Section 504, Individualized Education Program."
Another part of the district's voluntary resolution was to inform all RMMS staff to not discriminate against SPED students and to educate them, "in the regular educational environment to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of each student." By July 31, D93 must also provide the OCR with a training plan in place for new staff at RMMS that must be approved before exercising.
Lastly, District 93 must, "convene an IEP team meeting for each student in the self-contained classrooms at RMM School. The IEP teams will review the IEPs of the students to assess, for the 2021-2022 and
2022-2023 school years." This will determine if the hygiene or janitorial services inhibited SPED students' learning. If so, "the IEP team will determine whether the student needs compensatory services."
Woolstenhulme tells us, "We're always looking to do things better. And if there are things that we're doing where parents have concerns, we certainly want to hear those concerns so we can evaluate what we're doing and talk about if there are changes we need to make."
