RALEIGH -- The state Department of Public Instruction has ordered the Wake County school system to develop an alternative program for special-education students who receive long-term suspensions.
In a report made public Monday, state investigators faulted Wake for not having an adequate replacement for Richard Milburn High School, an alternative school that served long-term suspended students before being shut down last year to save money.
In lieu of Richard Milburn, run by a private company contracted by the school system, investigators found that about 200 suspended students are receiving less than six hours a week of instruction at home from visiting teachers. The report concluded that Wake wasn't providing these students with the guaranteed legal right of a free and appropriate public education and must develop a program for them by the start of the 2010-11 school year.
"If they don't have the time and the money, they'll have to find it," said Jason Langberg, a lawyer for Advocates for Children's Services, a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina, which had filed the complaint that started the state investigation.
Michael Evans, a Wake schools' spokesman, said district officials are reviewing how to comply with the orders in the state report.
Wake annually issues more than 1,000 long-term suspensions, meaning those students are out of their regular school for the rest of the school year. Many of those students are also classified to receive special-education services that are protected under state and federal law.
For several years, Wake had hired Milburn Schools, a national company, to run a high school to educate long-term suspended students. The students received instruction both from teachers in a classroom and through an online program.
Closing is budget move
But to save money, Wake terminated the contract. Richard Milburn was replaced with the district's SCORE program, through which long-term suspended students take online courses in a school. The report said SCORE didn't meet the needs of students with disabilities, resulting in many special-education students' getting home instruction instead.
Langberg said it was unrealistic to expect that these suspended students could keep up academically when they're getting less than six hours of week of instruction at home.
Without Wake's money, Richard Milburn High shut down this school year. But Milburn's parent company filed an application to operate the school as a charter school. It's one of seven applicants whose representatives will meet with state Board of Education members.
The report also found that many of the special education students receiving home instruction this year had been suspended multiple times and had not been promoted several times. Wake was ordered to develop an individualized plan for each of these students.
"They need to follow federal law or else they'll hear from plenty of lawsuits," Langberg said.
