Lawyers Weekly on special ed litigation

Mass Lawyers Weekly recently ran a frontpage article about the rise in special education litigation. So sad. It's tagline was, "With school resources dwindling, special education disputes attract lawyers." Can it get any worse? So, let me understand what is going on in our schools: there's less money for teaching and learning and we need to spend more on lawyers and litigation. How sad is that--such a wrong approach. Rather than working cooperatively among teachers, parents, and students, we have a stream of new lawyers ready to sue schools. www.masslawyersweekly.com. Check it out!

I am quoted in the article,

"There isn't even data about how much special education litigation costs the schools, says Miriam Freedman at Stoneman, Chandler & Miller in Boston, a former BSEA hearing officer who now represents schools and is the author of a recently published book on the subject, "Fixing Special Education."

"Most cases settle," Freedman says. "Well, how much is that costing? No one is keeping tabs on that."

But event without precise numbers, she adds, it is clear that there has been an increase in special education litigation--and that is a problem.

"All of this litigation is bad for schools, bad for kids, bad for education, and even bad for parents," she says.