U.S. Inquiry on Autism Finds Bias in Area Schools : Thousand Oaks: Investigators say Conejo district risks losing funds. Officials agree to move toward integrating the students and provide aides.

Educators in Thousand Oaks have systematically discriminated against autistic students and must correct the problem or risk losing federal funding, federal civil rights investigators have concluded.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District has agreed to make the recommended changes by January and move toward integrating autistic students into mainstream classrooms and providing necessary aides.

Spurred by a complaint from parents, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that the school district had failed to comply with portions of the Federal American Disabilities Act and special education laws.

“Most parents are not aware to the extent they have the federal government backing them,” said Barbara Bergstein, a lawyer who represented five Thousand Oaks families in the case. “They just don’t know their rights under the law.”

Special education programs are governed by a web of regulations, which require individualized plans for students and efforts to place them in mainstream classes, when possible. In a ruling released to families this week, federal investigators found that the district failed to: notify parents of autistic children of their educational rights, provide a consistent plan for integrating eligible autistic children into mainstream classes, and offer one-on-one aides to autistic children even though it provides such aides to students with physical disabilities.

Although admitting no violations, the district has agreed to review its policy regarding autistic children and bring it into compliance with federal law.

“They are asking us to do certain things, and we will do them,” Supt. Jerry Gross said.

Under the agreement, the district will set up meetings with parents of all autistic children in the district and send letters notifying them of their rights.

The district also must update its special education policy, telling parents that mentally disabled children can be placed in mainstream classrooms unless the district shows it does not have the resources to educate those children.

And finally, the district must provide specialized training for the special education workers who determine whether children should be mainstreamed.

The civil rights office will track the district’s actions and the parents who have been notified to make sure the district is complying with the law.

Bergstein, a Sherman Oaks lawyer, said the finding amounted to a slap on the wrist, as long as the district brings its policy into line in a timely manner.

But she said it signals to school districts that they must comply with federal rules. “It has far-reaching implications,” said Bergstein, who took the case, in part, because she has an autistic child in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“I would hope that it would transcend autism and service all children with special needs.”

Autism is a mental disorder often marked by an inability to interact socially, language problems and repetitive behavior. Some autistic children function at normal or high intelligence levels, while others are severely disabled.

The department’s ruling comes as Barry Gabrielson, the parent of an autistic child, awaits the outcome of a complaint filed with the state Department of Education last year.

The state supported Gabrielson’s claim, but the district has appealed that finding.

State officials denied the appeal and are meeting to decide what action, if any, to take.

Gabrielson, who also led the federal crusade, alleged that his son Stephen, a highly functioning autistic child with an average IQ, was being denied an education by his exclusion from mainstream classes during the 1994-95 school year.

Last year, Stephen was in a special day class at Aspen School along with several severely mentally and physically disabled children.

After the complaint was filed with the state, the district agreed to put Stephen in a mainstream class with a teacher’s aide.

This week, Stephen celebrated his eighth birthday among his friends in a regular class at Walnut School.

“Now everything is fine and dandy,” Gabrielson said. “We moved him to a school with a fine principal and teacher. But look what we’ve had to do to get our child into the regular classes. This should never happen to any parent in the district.”

Bradley Baker, principal at Walnut School, said this is the first year special education students have been included in his mainstream classes with the help of aides.

“[Stephen] is doing very well with the amount of support he’s getting,” Baker said. “He’s receiving enough support that he doesn’t take away from the other kids.”

The federal finding does not require the district to integrate every autistic child into mainstream classes, but does require it to notify parents of that option.

The ruling comes as the district released a study of special education parents, indicating that 90% of them say they are receiving satisfactory service from the district.