SchoolWorks Successes
2011
"Annie's story"
Hi, I'm Annie. I've been in foster care for seven
years. My attorney, Lynn, has been my advocate the whole
time. I've had a rough time and lived in 24 different
foster homes. My life wasn't very stable even before I was in
foster care. My dad left me with a neighbor, and she took care of
me for more than a year.
I've gone to 9 different schools. I didn't attend the same
school for an entire year until the 6th
grade. Lynn made sure that I stayed at that school for the
7th and 8th grades, too, even though I moved
foster homes at least six times while I was there. Lynn had
to go back to court one time because DHS wasn't obeying the judge's
order that said I could stay. That was the best time in my life.
I had really good grades and I was a teacher's
aide.
While the rest of my life continues to be up and down, I've
stayed in school and still get good grades. I'm a high school
senior now. I'm not sure what I want to do
yet. I like both art and medicine, and I plan to go to college
next year after I graduate. Through all of the
foster parents, case workers and other adults who have changed,
Lynn has been the one I could count on. She helped make
it possible for me to do well in school.
"Owen's story"
Hi, I'm Owen. I have this thing called ADHD. It
makes school harder for me. In middle school I got extra
help, which made it easier. But when I went to high school,
they said I couldn't get extra help anymore. My parents tried
to get them to keep me in special ed., but my school wouldn't
do it. My parents didn't have any insurance then either, so I
couldn't get my medicine for a while. Things got bad after
that. I got in a lot of trouble at school, and even got
arrested.
I don't like telling people I'm in special education, but it
really helps me. After I was arrested, I got two lawyers -
one for court and one to help me with school . One of my
lawyers, Brian, went to the school and had them test me again. They
didn't listen to my parents, but they listened to Brian! He
knew what to say to my teachers.
My parents and me had to move before the testing
was finished, so I had to transfer to a new school. Brian
got my new school to finish the testing, and I got back into
special education. My mom and dad were amazed cuz it
only took Brian like a week to get my new school to
do everything.
I have my medication again and my school helps me get
my work done. I'm not getting in trouble like I was
for a while, and I'm almost finished with my probation,
too. Getting in trouble wasn't the best way to get
help, but we got Brian, who helped make things right
again.
"Eddie's story"
My name is Eddie. I've had a hard time in
school. Moving around just made it worse. I went to four
different schools in two years. When they put me in a
"special" school, I didn't like it, so I stopped going. My
parents are immigrants who don't speak much English. They
didn't know how to help me. I got some help from my lawyer,
Whitney, last year, when I was getting expelled after another kid
started hitting me and I fought back. She represented me at
the
hearing, and I got to stay in school.
I called Whitney for help again because I wanted to go to
school, just not the last one they put me in. She called and
got me back into my neighborhood school. I couldn't believe
it!
They were supposed to call me, but when they didn't, I went and
registered myself anyway. It was great. Now that I'm in
a regular school, I have the chance to play football again, too.
Whitney helped me get back into school twice, and she helped me
start counseling so that I could deal with my problems, too.
"Kenny" is a 12 year-old who began 6th grade
this past fall at a new school. Kenny is a student with a
disability and on an Individual Education Program (IEP) for a
psychiatric condition, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD). Even though he arrived at the school with a current
IEP that included special instruction in the core academic areas of
math, reading and writing, the new school did not provide him any
of the services or accommodations he was supposed to receive.
The school, in fact, did not even have a special education teacher
for the 6-8 grades.
Kenny was at least three grades behind academically, but he was
placed in regular classes with no support. When his foster
mother realized Kenny was struggling in school, unable to do his
homework and becoming reluctant to even go to school, she
called the SchoolWorks program for help. She knew that
SchoolWorks could help because it had helped other foster children
in her home before. A meeting with the school was requested
and the information about the lack of educational support for Kenny
came out. Kenny's SchoolWorks attorney worked with the school
to get Kenny's schedule modified and to obtain more support and
instruction at his academic level until a special education teacher
was assigned to their school. She then approached the school
district with a request for compensatory education to provide the
instruction Kenny had not been provided earlier in the school
year. Kenny's attorney negotiated additional services
from the district to help make up for the support he had not
received.
"Jenny" has been in and out of foster care all
of her life. She is in special education and has struggled in
school to the point that she needed a therapeutic school placement
at the beginning of high school. With advocacy and support
from SchoolWorks she was later able to transition to a regular high
school. Last year she was a senior but she did not have
enough credits to graduate with her class. She started this
fall eager to complete high school as a fifth- year senior.
She had a schedule that would allow her to complete high school by
completing one additional semester.
After Jenny began the school year, the school told her she
couldn't graduate under the diploma requirements that had been in
effect from the beginning of her high school years through last
spring. The school told her the requirements to graduate had
changed for this year, and she had to meet them. If she had
to meet the new requirements, she couldn't earn enough credits to
graduate with one additional semester, and perhaps she might not be
able to meet them with an additional year of school. Jenny
knew who to call about this issue because her SchoolWorks attorney
had helped her at various times throughout high school. Her
attorney researched the law around the new graduation equirements
and was able to determine that fifth-year seniors were allowed to
graduate under the requirements that were in effect when the
student started high school. After discussions with the
school district administration, they agreed and notified all of
their high schools that fifth year seniors could graduate under the
old requirements. Jenny's call to her lawyer helped not
only herself, but also other students who would have been
affected by the district's
misunderstanding of the new requirements.
2010
"Ralph" is in foster care and in the process of
being adopted, but his adoptive mother had been struggling to get
his school to provide an appropriate education for him. Ralph
has a history of many behavior problems, and his school had
relegated him to spending his days in a small room, removed from
other classmates. He saw his teacher for only brief instances
each day. Most of
the day, he had an aide watching over him.
For Ralph, this was a recipe for failure. He became easily
frustrated. The school was also physically restraining Ralph
unnecessarily and in ways that violated state policies, adding to
Ralph's toxic experience at school. This pattern repeated
over a period of months. SchoolWorks became involved and
demanded that the school come up with a better plan for
Ralph. The district agreed to obtain training for its staff
in Collaborative Problem Solving. Ralph's SchoolWorks
attorney also persuaded the school to use physical restraints only
in instances where Ralph's behavior might pose a risk to his safety
or the safety of others and to implement a behavior plan that
focuses on positive interactions and incentives.
After the plan was implemented, the use of physical
interventions with Ralph dropped by 93%. His attorney also
convinced the school to allow Ralph to spend part of the day in a
special education classroom with other students. While the
school staff feared that this would have disastrous results,
instead Ralph thrived in his new class. By the end of the
school year, Ralph was successfully attending classes with other
students and the school plans to continue to transition Ralph to
more mainstream classes in the fall.
