Editorial: Fix Federal Law on Special Education

February 12, 2010

Legislation to protect black students hits Amity for having too many white students with autism.

The unexpected consequence of a well-intentioned federal law is financial penalties against the Amity school district because it has too many white, autistic students.</p&g t;

Under the federal law, the district — which operates the middle schools and high school for Orange, Woodbridge and Bethany — must divert 15 percent of the money it receives under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to reducing the number of white students with autism.

Amity can hardly put these students out on the street. John Brady, the school superintendent, says he won’t try to convince parents to change the special education classification of their children. "We could not do that in good conscience," he says.

Amity is likely being penalized for its good performance in educating children with autism, which may have convinced parents to move to one of the district’s towns. Certainly, it is suffering because its student body is 90 percent white. Amity’s educators control neither the district’s racial makeup nor diagnoses of autism that are made by doctors.

The federal law that gives Amity a choice between throwing out children with autism or losing federal aid was intended to protect poor, black students. Lawmakers feared these students were being shunted into special education classes in disproportionate numbers and without sufficient justification. It was never thought a district like Amity would be penalized under the law.

But, having reduced the issue to numbers, the U.S. Department of Education would presumably be pleased if Amity suddenly classified many of its black students as having autism. At least on paper, this unjustified action might put the autism numbers back in proportion.

Amity’s best hope at the moment is that U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, can convince the Department of Education to exempt Amity from the law. She also wants to amend the law so that districts in Amity’s circumstances do not face the loss of aid for the perverse reason that they have done a good job educating s tudents with autism, whatever their race.