Here's my current gripe about the school system-- 2e-specific.
In order to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to the school program, Section 504 requires that schools provide accommodations. So, if a student with a disability needed an accommodation or related aids and services to participate in the field trip, those services must be provided.
For example, in Quaker Valley (PA) Sch. Dist., 39 IDELR 235 (OCR 1986), a girl with a neurodegenerative disorder that affected her motor, sensory, perceptual, and language functioning was denied the opportunity to go on field trips and participate in a swimming program. Due to “safety concerns”, the school principal had unilaterally made the decision to exclude her from six field trips with her third grade class, including a trip to a television station. She was the only student excluded from the field trips. In school the girl was provided with accommodations, such as an escort to assist her when walking and holding her hand. But no consideration was given to providing similar accommodations on the field trips or in the swimming program. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined that the “safety” considerations were not justified and that the girl should have been provided with accommodations to ensure her participation in the field trips and the swimming program. Additionally, OCR determined the school district violated Section 504 because it did not notify the girl’s parents of the upcoming field trips, while the other children’s’ parents were notified.
On the other hand, OCR has found that there are times when schools, after individual consideration, may exclude a student from a field trip if the student’s participation presents an unacceptable risk to the student’s health or safety. But the school must be able to justify that determination. In North Hunterdon (MD) Pub. Sch. Sys., 25 IDELR 165 (OCR 1996), OCR determined that the school district was justified in excluding a student from a field trip when the student had several seizures on the same day as the field trip.
Well, the above pretty much sums up why I think it is a ridiculous waste of time to teach pigs to sing. Clearly I'm merely annoying them, since I've been trying to wrestle this sucker to the ground for about 8 years at this point.
You know that they just don't get it when field trips are announced with disclaimers about
your child's disabling condition making them "not a good idea" or with admonishment to "be careful" because hazards will be present. The latter with a sly, mocking tone, indicating that the teacher writing it thinks quite little of the legitimacy of my child's very real hidden disability... By the way, it's not even been five years since national counsel
helped me put these people into a headlock over pervasive non-inclusive and dangerous field trip policies that were endemic and systematic. They (and we) introduced a VERY carefully crafted statement that went along with ALL field trip announcements, only this year, apparently, there is now a push to do an end-run around it. ONLY my child's disability is mentioned. ONLY hers. I've looked. And you'd better believe I've documented it.
Niiiice. REAL nice. What
is that? Is that
retaliation because we told them no more using us for marketing??
Is THAT it? Because don't think that OCR isn't going to get print-outs of screenshots over this. I've HAD it with these turkeys.
