Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CLARINDA, Iowa (AP) — A private academy for troubled youths in Clarinda uses a "cut-and-paste, one-size-fits-all" approach to treating and teaching its special education students that deprives them of an adequate education, state officials allege.
The Iowa Department of Education released the findings of its investigation of Clarinda Academy last week and ordered the school to make improvements and offer additional educational services to children who were ill-served by the school's practices in the past 14 months, the Des Moines Register reported (http://dmreg.co/1tLumDK ).
The department investigated after the nonprofit group Disability Rights Iowa filed a complaint about the school in June. The group said the academy was providing boilerplate instruction and treatment to children with special needs, instead of individualizing educational services based on a child's abilities.
"This a textbook example of shoehorning children into goals," the Education Department report states. "A boilerplate description of services that attempts to be all things to all students, in the end, will do nothing of consequence for any student."
Within the past 12 months, the department found similar problems at the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo and the State Training School for Boys in Eldora.
"We don't know why that is happening," said Nathan Kirstein, an attorney and investigator with Disability Rights Iowa. "But it's starting to look like the children involved in our child welfare and juvenile justice system are not well-served when it comes to their education."
But Kirstein said it seems like Clarinda Academy is more than willing to address the problems.
"This case seems to be one of ignorance of the law, rather than intentional violations," he said. "I think they were just ignorant of all the requirements of our federal special-education laws."
The academy didn't respond to the Register's attempts to get comment.
___
Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
