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[quote=Anonymous]Fascinating thread.  Lots of things going on here.  I'll try to add my thoughts in an organized manner.

I, for one, am incredibly happy that BASIS is being investigated.  It's about time.  I appreciate that they were very clear about what their academic program would be like and I hope that the academic rigor that was clearly going to be a part of the curriculum discouraged parents of kids who would have extreme difficulty dealing with that rigor.  I think that most of my fellow special ed parents are aware enough of their DC's strengths and weaknesses.  I'm sure some families made the wrong decision, it can happen.

I do know for a fact, however, that BASIS set out to get rid of at least 2 special needs kids who could have done the work with some accommodations.  They are both whip smart and, in different ways, were driven away from BASIS in a manner that was quite calculated.  In one case it was endless refusal to do testing, establish a unified help plan (rather than just relying on the teachers each helping out if they could).  In the other, BASIS admins specifically refused to follow the accommodations in the IEP.  Flat out said they would not follow the legally mandated document.  I was in the room and heard it all.

It doesn't matter if they claim not to have enough money or if they in fact don't have the budget for it.  They could have chosen to be a private school.  Charter schools don't get to pick and choose.

I also know of at least 2 solid students (not A's at BASIS mind you, but perfectly capable of B's and C's) who happen to be low income AA who were driven out.  I wonder if BASIS expelled anyone.  I don't know about it if they did.  But at the 1st report card time, I knew those 2 students and those parents knew of at least 10 more who had received across the board failing grades.  In 1 of the cases I sat with the report cards, letter telling the parents that their kid would fail the grade, CJ, and syllabi for all the classes.  There were NO indications of any grade ever lower than one 67% in the CJ.  No warnings of missed homework, no requests for a meeting, nothing.  The report card was all F's.  This student went for the after school tutoring every day.  He reported to her mother that he was never approached by a teacher and that many of the teachers seemed to be working on their own grading and course prep.  Now, he is shy, but surely if he were on the verge of failing every single course, 1 of the teachers would have thought to approach him and offer help.  I know this kid to be excellent, hard working, from a great family who just happens to live in subsidized housing.  He most likely would not have scored Proficient this year, after coming from an extremely mediocre DCPS, but he would have next year if given the chance.  His parents summarily removed him and returned him to DCPS, as did a number of other parents, after the 1st report card (well after count/funding day).  Oh, and when the mother went in to ask about the grades and the "this student will fail letter," she was told that it was a mistake and that all the grades would be changed immediately.  OK, so they either were trying to weed out economically disadvantaged AA kids, or no one checks over the report cards before they go out.

DCPS was under a federal mandate for special ed violations for years.  Everyone knows that.  DCPS's lacking in this area is why a lot of parents look around for other options.  Many of us don't have a lot of money so private-pay private school is not an option.  We are currently paying almost $300 in co-pays a week for therapy.  We are no longer middle class by Washington standards at all.

One can argue that there's no way many of the economically disadvantaged kids in the District have enough money proportioned for them to adequately meet their needs.  Special ed is very complicated which is why there are specialists.  The special ed coordinated BASIS had, at least at the beginning of the year, don't know what might have happened afterwards, had no special ed education, no special ed experience.  So for some reason BASIS chose to pay a salary to a person who, in terms of resume, had no relevant experience for the job.

There are a lot of special ed kids for whom BASIS could be a great fit.  Many of them appear to have stayed and done well.  There are other kids for whom the BASIS curriculum is a perfect fit, but they need a few accommodations to make it work perfectly.  I didn't ask to be blessed with a kid who fits in that category, but so it is.  I would love to try to figure out an alternative, but we have had to make public schools work for us somehow up till now.  We have thought of moving, but our jobs are centered here.  We have thought of moving to the suburbs, but both kids would be devastated and the suburban schools have their own problems.  At least in our neighborhood they have friends and I have a support network.  We have already taken out money from our house.  We have already cut our budget significantly from a budget that was already pretty tight.

I'm sure there are more things that I could say, but I get so angry when I think about what they almost got away with, I can't stand it.  For the record, I do think that now that BASIS has been nailed for what they did, they are realizing very quickly that they have to clean up their act.  Hence the new head of school, new special ed team.  Kudos to them for recognizing that they messed up and starting to fix it.  It doesn't do much for the kids I know personally who were damaged emotionally by their actions.[/quote]

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