District Backs Off Plan to Pull Students From Accotink Academy

The District backed down from plans to pull special education students from a Springfield private school this week, repeating its concerns about the quality of instruction but giving in to demands from parents that their children be allowed to continue to attend the school.

D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles sent a letter Wednesday to Accotink Academy saying that the 170 D.C. students who attend the school would be allowed to remain there this year if their parents so desired. But he said that the District would monitor the school this year and move students if the school fails to meet D.C. benchmarks, and that if parents wanted their children moved, the District would accommodate them.

The school's founder said the saga wasn't over.

"I'm glad for the parents' sake," said Elaine N. McConnell, the longtime Fairfax supervisor who started the school in 1964, "but I feel like our reputation has been smeared, and I want some restitution."

She said that she would do "whatever's necessary to clear our name," and that the school's teachers were highly qualified.

The school, which has worked with District students for more than 15 years, was told in an e-mail last week that the students were going to be pulled over the next several weeks. That would have spelled the school's closure, McConnell said, because the bulk of its students come from the D.C. schools.

But many parents strongly opposed the decision, saying they were satisfied with the school's instruction and questioning the timing of the move, which would have come a month into the school year.

The District has nearly 9,300 special education students, including those in public charter schools, and about 30 percent of them are enrolled in private schools because the District can't meet their needs. The cost to taxpayers in tuition and transportation is about $200 million a year. Accotink Academy has been receiving about $10 million a year from the D.C. school system, according to District figures.