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MONTAGUE -- A local battle is brewing over the education of special needs students, with several Montague parents joining together in protest of the Montague school district's limited number of special education options.

"These people need a lawyer. It's a nightmare," said Meg Snyder, a Montague resident and local childcare provider who moderates the Montague Buzz blog, where dissatisfied parents have taken to airing their grievances.

As a district, Montague educates students from kindergarten through sixth grade, sending older students to Port Jervis Middle School and High School in Port Jervis, N.Y. According to New Jersey Department of Education spokesman Rich Vespucci, it is the only municipality in New Jersey to send students over state lines on a daily basis for public education.

Longtime Montague resident Kathy Bullis said she and other parents have complained over the years that special education students are given the choice to attend only Port Jervis High School or Orange-Ulster BOCES career academy in Goshen, N.Y., due to Montague's out-of-state contracts. Recently, some parents discovered a more desirable option in Kentwood Academy -- a state-approved private school for the learning disabled in Lake Hopatcong -- and they're now fighting for the right to enroll.

"I went to Montague and said, 'Find me this perfect placement.' It was here all along," said Bullis. "(Kentwood) was exactly what I was looking for, for my son."

In the 1990s, Bullis fought for two years to get Montague School to release her son Rod from the BOCES program, opting instead for home schooling and a spot in the Vernon school district's special education program. She discovered Kentwood a few years ago and has seen vast improvement in her son's communication and interpersonal skills since his enrollment there.

Now 21, Rod is about to age out of the special education program in Montague, and Bullis wants to get back the years he lost in an ill-fitting individual education program placement in New York by extending his stay at Kentwood. The Montague Child Study Team and administration, who did not return several calls for comment, will not negotiate with her or the handful of other parents who are being denied transfers to Kentwood, despite allowing a handful of students to attend there in the past.

Lisa Wlodarski, mother of 18-year-old Christopher, a BOCES student, said her son, a high-functioning autistic, hates his long bus ride back and forth each day and hasn't been able to excel in his educational placement in New York.

"Maybe for some kids it would work, but for Chris it doesn't," Wlodarski said. "He hasn't learned one thing vocationally except how to mop and sweep. He needs the right education and I don't believe he can get what he needs up there. It would be much easier for us as a family to make contacts in Jersey for him. He needs skills that can help him in life."

Annamarie Macari, mother of two special needs children, moved to Montague in 2005 and was surprised at the lack of special education options made available to her family. In her previous school district in Hudson County, parents were given at least three educational options, and a member of the Child Study Team actively toured the facilities with her until they could agree on a placement. If the student's Individual Education Program requirements weren't a match with the offered schools, more facilities were made available, she said.

"You're supposed to make sure the placement is an appropriate one. Montague thinks that (New York) contract washes them of responsibility. They're out of compliance left and right," Macari said, noting that her now 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, was immediately enrolled at Port Jervis upon moving to Montague, without the parental consent required by New Jersey administrative code. "How is a child supposed to progress? They're entitled to a fair and appropriate public education. They're not providing that."

Roger Pittenger, father of 13-year-old Roger Jr., said he simply wants to keep his son close to home. He would like to send the teen to Kittatinny Regional High School instead of Port Jervis, noting that Kittatinny is only around six miles away from his home, but was denied that request.

"Why is my kid going to school in New York when I live in New Jersey? Montague School's only doing it because they've got contracts," said Pittenger. "It's a big money thing."

Kentwood Academy psychologist Ira Yorn said that in 40 years of working in the special education field, he's never come across a conflict like this.

"Montague is a unique situation. They have that contractual obligation with Port Jervis," Yorn said. "You're between a rock and a
hard place."

Vespucci noted that due to the different ways of interpreting state code and the subjective aspects of special education, disagreements between parents and administrators are not uncommon.

"If a parent disagrees with a placement decision, there is a whole process that parent can follow. Sometimes the placement decision is changed, and sometimes it stands," he said, explaining the steps of appealing the decision, beginning with mediation and an independent evaluation of the placement by a qualified person not employed by the
district.

However, parents say Montague has not been cooperative when they attempt to follow the guidelines. Macari recently requested an independent evaluation for her 3-year-old son Andrew, and was served legal papers denying her request.

"Instead of them addressing us directly, they sent an attorney after us, wasting taxpayer money. We still want these things addressed," Macari said. "They're denying me my rights to do that. It doesn't seem that they know the law."

"It's a very emotional issue about how to handle a special needs child," said Vespucci. "The parents are very close to it and very close to what they'd like to see their child get and what their child is entitled to. The decision should be made (based) on what the child needs. If the parents feel that the child's needs could be better met somewhere else, that's why they have the rights to appeal."

Unfortunately, Bullis noted, the appeal process is an expensive one. She has gone through several pro bono legal programs and has yet to find a lawyer who wants to deal with an issue of this scale and complexity. The fact that some parents are considering a class-action suit against the school has made it even more imperative to obtain counsel.

"I'm still desperately trying to find legal representation because I'm running out of time," Bullis said, explaining Montague's pressure to have Rod graduate this summer. "All these people standing behind me are going through the same thing. Once I get through this, I hope it can set a precedent."

"This is the second time I'm going through this and I've been here only four years. I'm not hopeful, but I want to be," said Macari. "It's so bizarre to me. You don't leave a child in a program that's not working for them. I'm at a loss at what to do now. We're only trying to do what's in the best interest of our children."
Created: 4/11/2009 |