Special-Ed Tuition a Growing Drain on D.C.

Lafayette Elementary Principal Gail Lynn Main, in a kindergarten class with Martel Johnson and Chloe Leo, says 12 to 15 of her students have gone to private schools in the past three years since she lost a special-ed teacher in budget cuts. (Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

A hearing officer found that the city wasn't providing the services called for in his learning plan and placed him at Accotink, where he received his diploma two years later at a cost to taxpayers of more than $53,800.

Since getting his diploma, Douglas, 22, has done office work and studied graphic arts at the University of the District of Columbia. He is now the plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging that many special education students who should be receiving diplomas are not given the chance to take the necessary courses.

Top-Level Facilities

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The District has been under federal court supervision for a decade for violating the law that gives disabled children the right to a free and appropriate education. One class-action lawsuit involves the school system's failure to provide children with timely assessments, instructional plans and other educational services, and a second suit covers problems with bus transportation and timely payment of tuition bills.

A total of 118 private schools enroll D.C. special education students, with two-thirds of the facilities in the Washington area. About 85 percent of the students are in day programs, and the rest are in residential facilities.

The best of these schools offer computer labs on every floor, small classes, high-salaried teachers and behavioral specialists throughout the building -- most of it financed by D.C. taxpayers.

Rock Creek Academy rents five floors of a glistening office building on Connecticut Avenue NW. Its 251 students attend at the District's expense, and Rock Creek has received $25 million in D.C. funds over the past two years, more than any other private school.

Almost every inch of Rock Creek's bright white walls is covered with painted murals featuring the faces of students. The school recently created shiny new workbooks for a literacy program that uses hip-hop music as the basis for reading and writing exercises. While the city's public schools are cutting back on the arts, Rock Creek is teaching special education students to play drums and guitars and design artwork with the latest professional graphics programs.

"We find that a lot of our kids do well in the arts and music classes, more so than in academics," said Richard K. Henning, Rock Creek's president and owner.

Need for Limits on Costs

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At Rock Creek and several other private schools, the District has little control over what it's being charged.

Maryland has established rates for private providers of special education services. In Virginia, the providers set their rates and school systems contract with them. The District has done neither.

A school doing business with Maryland or Virginia will not charge a higher rate for D.C. children. But about 25 percent of D.C. students enrolled in private schools are in facilities with no Maryland or Virginia children, and D.C. school officials have been warned in several audits about the need to establish limits on what they will pay.

School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said past efforts to negotiate contracts failed because the private schools knew that the District could not easily remove students from a facility after hearing officers had placed them there. Instead, Janey and the school board have asked the D.C. Council for the legal authority to set rates, as Maryland does, believing that this will give the city more leverage.