MEDIA ALERT: Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Parents descend on Board of Education to Demand Changes to Special Education
WHAT: CPS parents respond to WBEZ report on secret special education manual which lead to service denials, delays and cuts
WHERE: CPS Board Headquarters, 42 W. Madison
DATE: Wednesday, October 25, 2017
TIME: 9:30am
CPS parents demand Board of Ed ditch damaging secret special education manual and fire Claypool
Parents from around the city will come together to demand that the Board of Education take action to fix the special education crisis they have manufactured by implementing a secret manual to delay and deny services for kids in special education, something that parents have been bringing to the BOE’s attention for over a year Sarah Karp at WBEZ reported on extensively last week.
Parents will share a letter, signed by over 1,000 concerned parents and citizens in just one week, calling on the mayor and CPS to halt their use of this abusive manual and fire CEO Claypool who paid crony consultants $14M to devise the plan.
“Parents have been bringing their concerns to the BOE for over a year outlining many of the issues mentioned in the WBEZ report and the appointed BOE has dismissed and insulted parents over and over,” said Terri Roback Smith. “Forrest Claypool has even told parents to “prove it” when parents have informed the BOE about reduced services.”
Parent Mary Fahey Hughes brought many of the concerns to Mayor Emanuel during public comment at the city council meeting just two weeks ago and was ignored by the Mayor.
“Parents demand that the secret manual is scrapped and stakeholders with knowledge about special education be called upon to review and revise special education policies,” said Fahey-Hughes. “Claypool paid $14M to cronies to manipulate data to create cost-cutting policies. It was a professional con job.”
Other parents will share their stories of service delays and denials and parents will then speak at the BOE meeting to present their stories and demands to address the flawed policies.
Speakers:
Laurie Viets, Beard Elementary
Christine Palmieri, Blaine Elementary
Karen Dankwah, Andrew Jackson Elementary
Lottie Steel, Blocks Together
Will they listen or continue to show disrespect for those who share their concerns? The reports of the obvious dismissal of public commenters struck me as the height of arrogance. One wonders what "public service" means to them. What public are they serving?
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