By Alisha Roemeling, The Register-Guard,
April 16, 2016
A federal judge has ordered the Eugene School District to provide nearly 600 hours of compensatory schooling to an autistic teenage girl whom the district failed to properly evaluate and appropriately educate, and who as a result spent two years at South Eugene High School with little to show for it.
Grace Williams said she and her parents asked the district repeatedly to place her on an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, but the district took nearly two years to do that. During her two years at South, Williams said, she earned 1.5 credits. In Oregon, a student must earn 24 credits, or on average six a year, for a high school diploma.
U.S. District Judge Michael McShane has ordered the district to provide Williams, now 19, with 570 hours of compensatory education as part of his March 29 ruling that the district denied her “free and appropriate public education” between September 2012 and May 2014, and repeatedly violated the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“There is no dispute that the district violated the (law) in several ways,” McShane wrote in his judgment. “At times, the violations were so egregious that plaintiffs felt the district intentionally retaliated against them.”
School district spokeswoman Kerry Delf said the district will obey the judge’s ruling.
“The Eugene School District strives to provide a quality educational experience for every child,” Delf said. “The district will continue to serve the student.”
Delf had no additional comment about the ruling. She would not comment on whether the district would appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The suit, filed by Williams and her parents in December 2013, sought continued education for Williams but no monetary damages. However, Grace Williams’ mother, Mary Beth Williams, said the family expects to sue later this year or next for compensation for emotional damages.
“This (the current lawsuit) is just for her current and past education,” Mary Beth Williams said. “She suffered emotionally, as well.”
Mary Beth Williams said the family has spent thousands of dollars on an attorney for the case. Following McShane’s ruling, the family has asked the district to pay at least $70,000 in attorney fees.
That ruling is pending.
The suit identifies Grace Williams and her parents by initials only. However, Grace Williams, Mary Beth Williams and Eric Brunner-Williams agreed to be identified for this article.
Grace Williams said she wants to advocate for other students going through similar problems.
“My story isn’t something that is an isolated event. There are a lot of kids badly treated by the school district, and if we don’t tell people about it, then they’re going to keep hurting kids with disabilities just like myself.”
“Grace’s bill”
Grace Williams is no stranger to the limelight. Driven by her struggles with the school district, she brought her concerns to Salem last May to testify before the Legislature on what became known as “Grace’s bill.”
The bill, signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown in July, requires truancy notices to inform parents or guardians of their right to request an evaluation for an IEP for their child. An IEP, developed for each public school child eligible for special education, is intended to help children with disabilities.
“Grace’s bill” directs districts across Oregon to determine if a child has a disability, and whether truancy or unexcused absences stem from that. The bill prohibits scheduling an attendance conference with parents until an IEP evaluation has been conducted.
Williams, diagnosed with autism shortly before her sophomore year of high school, enrolled at South Eugene High School for the 2012-13 school year in hopes of a new start.
Williams and her family had just moved from Ithaca, N.Y., where she endured emotional trauma after being sexually assaulted on school grounds, at age 13, according to Mary Beth Williams. Two years after the assault, in March 2012, Grace was hospitalized for depression after two suicide attempts, her mother said.
Upon arriving in Eugene, Grace and her parents were reassured by South Eugene staff that the high school was “the perfect place for her,” Mary Beth Williams said in a phone interview.
The parents asked the district to evaluate Grace Williams for special education services so she might obtain an IEP, but the district denied those requests for more than a year, according to state education and federal court documents.
In November 2012, after several months at South, Grace Williams began to struggle, academically and emotionally, her mother said.
Mary Beth Williams said her daughter started having emotional meltdowns at school and began to miss class as a result.
“She gets upset and cries, and she really can’t be reasoned with,” Mary Beth Williams said. “I don’t want to say catatonic, but when she’s in that state you can’t really reach her.”
IEP established
Mary Beth Williams said her daughter is considered gifted and smart, making it difficult for others to notice her disability.
“When she was evaluated by the district, she was determined to be gifted,” Mary Beth Williams said. Oregon state law defines a gifted student as one who tests in the 97th percentile or higher in intellect compared to his or her peers.
By February 2013, the district had taken note of the class time Grace Williams had been missing. It sent several mail and phone truancy notices to the family, according to federal court documents. Mary Beth Williams said that after meetings, calls and emails, the district still had not evaluated her daughter for an IEP.
In April 2013, Mary Beth Williams said she called Cheryl Linder, the district’s director of educational support systems, to discuss Grace Williams getting an IEP.
“All we heard back was that she wasn’t eligible and they would get back to us,” she said.
The following school year, Grace Williams enrolled in the International High School program at South in hopes it might have smaller class sizes and less stress, Mary Beth Williams said.
By December 2013, Grace Williams still had not been evaluated for an IEP, so her parents filed a complaint with the state Department of Education. The state ruled the school district was at fault and directed it to complete its evaluation by April 1, 2014, court documents show.
During the evaluation process, Grace Williams still was being reported for missing school and was asked to see a truancy officer, her mother said.
When the family opted not to meet with the officer — because it felt completing the IEP evaluation was a higher priority — the truancy officer came to the family’s home and accidentally crashed into the family’s car, Mary Beth Williams said.
The incident upset Grace Williams, who thought her parents were being arrested, Mary Beth Williams said. Grace struck her head, suffered a concussion and “didn’t leave the house for two weeks,” she said.
In February 2014, the district found Grace Williams to be eligible for special education services under two classifications: autism and emotional disturbance. An IEP was established during meetings in May, and the Williams family received the IEP on June 19, 2014, court documents show.
“Everything seemed to be on the right track,” Mary Beth Williams said.
Grace thriving now
For summer 2014, Grace Williams enrolled at the Looking Glass Center Point School, an alternative school on West 11th Avenue that offers academic services “in a therapeutic school environment for middle and high school youth with emotional and neurological and/or behavioral issues,” according to its website.
Grace Williams did not thrive there, however, and hoped to enroll in the fall at Wellsprings Friends School — a private alternative high school in west Eugene that serves teens who have difficulty learning at conventional high schools.
By the time she finished up at Center Point, she was 17 and had lost nearly two years of her high school education, the family contended. Her parents felt she needed additional evaluation; they approached district officials, whose response they considered unsatisfactory.
Mary Beth Williams and Eric Brunner-Williams in September 2014 filed a request for a due process hearing with the state Department of Education to determine how many hours of compensatory educational time the district owed Grace Williams. The case went to an administrative law judge, Alison Greene Webster.
Greene determined the district owed Grace Williams 570 hours of “specially designed instruction” in math, social skills, organizational skills and transition training. But the parties disagreed on whether those hours should be reduced because of the 23 days Grace Williams had been sick before May 2014, and because of the 156 hours she attended at Center Point.
Greene concluded the student’s sick days should not be deducted, but that the 156 hours spent at Center Point were compensatory and could be deducted from the total of 570 hours.
McShane reversed that, saying the district failed to provide placement documents for Center Point and failed to discuss Center Point as being compensatory until one year after the Williams family had accepted Grace Williams’ placement there.
Mary Beth Williams said her daughter is attending Wellsprings and the University of Oregon, and has nearly a 4.0 grade point average at both. Grace Williams receives most of her special education at Asperger Support Network in west Eugene, where she spends about two hours each day.
Time crunch
The district can provide the 570 hours of instruction by contracting with alternative schools and service providers.
The court-mandated time equals about 28 weeks of schooling at 20 hours a week, for example.
The district uses alternative education providers in Eugene, such as Wellsprings and the Riverfront School and Career Center, spokeswoman Delf said. Currently, 368 district students are in alternative education placements, including 37 at Wellsprings.
Oregon school districts receive extra money from the state to cover services for students with disabilities.
For students at Wellsprings, the district typically pays $40 per student per full day of instruction, or about $7,000 for a full school year. The district also contracts with Asperger Support Network, where group sessions cost $45 per hour per student and individual sessions are $75 per hour.
Grace Williams spends about 16 hours a week at Wellsprings and receives about 10 hours of individual instruction a week at ASN, Mary Beth Williams said. Additionally, the teenager takes about six hours a week of classes at the UO.
Grace Williams most likely will not attend a traditional Eugene district school again, as her work at Wellsprings, Asperger Support and the UO all count toward fulfilling her credits for a high school diploma.
But she faces a time crunch to obtain all credits through the Eugene School District before her 21st birthday in September 2017, when she becomes ineligible for district service.
“She only earned 1.5 credits in the two years she spent in the district without an IEP,” Mary Beth Williams said, “so she has to do it rather quickly.”
Mary Beth Williams said her daughter is in school from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. She aspires to be a doctor.
“She’s amazing,” Mary Beth Williams said.
Access the story here.
