EDUCATION • May. 31, 2007
By Anat
Rubin
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - More than a decade after Los Angeles school officials agreed to improve access and services for students with disabilities, they have failed to bring school facilities into compliance with state and federal laws, according to a new independent assessment.
In a scathing progress report released Wednesday, an independent monitor said the district had not improved basic accessibility for disabled students, even in newly built schools, and misrepresented its progress in court-mandated tracking logs.
Facility-improvement obligations are one part of a 2003 modified consent decree requiring the district to provide services for students with disabilities.
The district was to spend $67.5 million to renovate existing facilities and to ensure that new construction is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The federal monitor, Frederick Weintraub, reported the district misinformed his office on spending for improvements. A field audit of 17 existing schools and four new schools found that every site had serious accessibility issues with parking, restrooms, ramps and drinking fountains. His report also reprimands the district for failing to provide documentation of improvements officials claimed were made or were in progress.
A representative of the school district insisted the district has made improvements.
"The district takes this report very seriously," Kevin Reed, the school district's general counsel, said. "The facts on the ground are not yet documented in the manner they need to be to satisfy the independent monitor."
According to Catherine Blakemore, an attorney with Protection and Advocacy Inc., which brought the original lawsuit, some of the money earmarked for improvements was spent on construction that did not meet federal standards.
"They built bathrooms you can't get a wheelchair into, purchased bleachers and lunch benches with no seating for people who use wheelchairs," Blakemore said. "If you could do everything wrong, this would be the recipe."
Reed said that aspect of Weintraub's report "is a very significant concern that we will look at closely."
"There are indications of some serious issues like that that will absolutely get attention," he said.
Blakemore's organization, a nonprofit group that advocates for people with disabilities, brought the lawsuit against the district with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in 1993. The resulting consent decree was modified in 2003 to include benchmarks. Weintraub's report is the first to focus on the district's facilities.
Progress reports for other benchmarks outlined in the modified consent decree, such as improved assessment placement and educational services for disabled students, have been mixed.
"They reduced the suspension rates for students with disabilities, for instance," Blakemore said, "but they have made no progress integrating kids with more significant disabilities into the general school population."
Blakemore said the district will have a difficult time achieving these other goals until they improve site access.
"If you buy lunch benches without access to wheelchairs, it's going to be kind of difficult to integrate this population," she said.