Civil rights complaints allege neglect of special needs

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Leaders of the Utah School Safety Commission at the state Board of Education have found themselves addressing an old problem with new urgency. Given the epidemic of teen suicides and the all-too-frequent headlines around the country about mass school shootings, the commission has been looking at safety in Utah classrooms on two fronts — the physical layout of schools and the mental health of students.

The commission will pitch lawmakers in the upcoming session on $160 million in one-time spending for construction and facility improvements at state schools and $30 million in annual, ongoing appropriations for the hiring of mental-health professionals. The governor, in his recommended budget, supported $50.5 million in new funding to support counseling, mental health and other needs in public schools.

Currently, the Utah State Office of Education requires a ratio of 350 students to one counselor. Districts that can’t meet the standard must design plans to come into compliance.

For the 2017-2018 school year, 23.64 secondary licensed school counselors were needed statewide, up from 18.54 the previous year. A state report also noted that 14 of the local education agencies that needed to come up with a compliance plan also had to design a plan the previous year.

Leah Voorhies is a Utah State Board of Education student support supervisor who also serves on the commission. Asked about complaints of inadequate special-education services that can often involve students with unmet behavioral needs, Voorhies was quick to point out that this issue is already adequately covered by federal law.

“Special-education has the most defined procedures," she says, “because they are mandated by federal law.”

But for some Utah families, the current structure sets up a double whammy: long waits for a slow-moving federal bureaucracy to resolve problems arising out of a local system that is underfunded and sometimes marred by poorly trained educators.

Over the past decade, 85 complaints alleging special-education violations have been filed against Utah public schools, K-12, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

The top targets for these complaints were Davis at 12 and Jordan at 10. Tooele School District racked up seven.

The Utah Investigative Journalism Project also obtained records summarizing the resolution of complaints lodged over the past five years.

Of 20 cases investigated, 11 ended in settlements that resulted in new staff training at school districts and, sometimes, cash settlements to aggrieved families.