Special Education

Re “Disabled Pupils Get Their Day in Court,” Oct. 13: As an attorney representing parents and children whose special ed needs were undiagnosed or inadequately diagnosed by various school districts, I have witnessed that once appropriate educational placements and services were provided, the students’ academic, behavioral and social performance improved and even flourished. Unfortunately, your emphasis on the cost and hassle to the school districts (a legitimate concern considering the seriously underfunded federal mandate) left your readers uninformed about most of the learning disabilities that exist and the teaching tools and services that can be employed to successfully address them. True, these are sometimes costly. But what about the later costs to society when the affected student becomes an adult who cannot read, write or do simple math? Your article did not even touch on this aspect of the issue.

Your article had school district officials and others deriding zealous, perhaps at times even overzealous, parents fighting to obtain special education resources for their children. The district’s complaints should be directed at Congress, not the parents. The latter should be applauded--not derided--for fighting to get their children the best educational opportunities the law provides.

ANDREW KOENIG

Ventura

*

I really enjoyed your well-written article on special education. Imagine, Congress inserts one word, “appropriate,” in the law regulating the education of the disabled and the world changes! Congress, of course, doesn’t fund the new requirements, and eventually lawyers (the guys we love to hate) get into the act, because the school districts will dodge their responsibilities as long as they can. Tell me, in the entire education code of the U.S. is it possible that nowhere does it say that education for the majority of students--the nondisabled--must be “appropriate”?

Somehow this whole scenario seems to typify the U.S. in the ‘90s in a nutshell. Now, all I have to do is figure out if it’s good or bad!

RICHARD SHILLING

Pacific Palisades