Part I: Michigan Proposes New Special Education Rules--You're in the Twilight Zone!

Michigan's Special Education System is Under Fire by the Michigan Department of Education

I was first apprised of the proposed changes to the state's special education rules about a week ago. I hadn't heard anything about them before that. I'll bet you haven't either. Perhaps you, like me, were more focused on local school initiatives, or on your paid work, your family, or the wintry weather.

Even those of us who try to pay attention to the state's endless list of education-related legislation have had a "pay no mind" attitude to rules. Rules, essentially, guide the implementation of legislation. They can be changed, with a much less public process than legislation. [It is a public process--in the sense that it requires public notice, there is the opportunity for public comment, etc. But it is a less public process in the sense that it often escapes notice.]

In researching this post and the next one, I found myself at the web site for the Michigan Department of Education's Special Education section, on the page devoted to public comment for the changes to MARSE--the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education.

And there, I found a very interesting, SEXY video. JUST KIDDING! Really it's kind of dry. (I've been told if you put the word "sexy" in your blog posts you bump up your readership!)

But it's only five minutes long, and it explains the rule making process in a way that is clear, and at the same time makes you think that there is nothing to worry about for these rules.  That--by the way--is not at all true, as I will explain in tomorrow's post.

For today, I would like you to watch this sexy, dry, mundane, essential, scintillating, slightly terrifying, stupendous video. It was there that I learned about the state's Office of Regulatory Reinvention--who makes these names up? NOW do you see why I thought I was in the twilight zone?





Essentially, when the Michigan Department of Education decides to revise rules, they run it by the Regulatory Affairs Office at MDE and the Office of Regulatory Reinvention--which is part of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).

[By the way, the Office of Regulatory Reinvention is sending out press releases that say things like: Office of Regulatory Reinvention Eliminates 1,500 Rules, Implements 100 Recommendations Making Regulations More Efficient.]

The Office of Regulatory Reinvention would have you believe that the main points of the special education rules revisions are that

The rules are being revised in order to incorporate currently used terms and law numbers to protect the rights of students with disabilities by: 1. Aligning Michigan administrative rules with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its implementing regulations, 2. Providing consistency with other state offices and departments, and 3. Clarifying inconsistencies with other rules or regulations. (Link)

But that is not true. It is much, much more.

The rules would change the implementation of special education in our schools in ways that go way beyond providing consistency. Advocates tell me they would gut the system and make it much harder for kids to access special education services.

But here is the main thing. I'm writing about rule making because it happens behind the scenes--this is not a legislative process. The public commentary on the rules is open only until March 13th, 2014. They will not take comments by email or fax. Mailed comments go to a PO Box (which means, I'm told, that mail can't be sent certified). Bowing to pressure, MDE recently added the option of giving commentary using an online form, but the comments are set up in a very specific way which is--frankly--a pain in the butt to use. And there are only two public hearings planned for these revisions. Coincidentally, both of them will be held on the same day!

Wait--there's more! There is a small legislative component to this. The rules get forwarded to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which is made up of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats from each chamber. But they can only reject the rules under very specific circumstances. So even though I'm listing the legislators names here, the legislators should not, and cannot,  be the primary focus of complaints about the rules. Those comments have to go to the bureaucrats who are writing up the rule revisions.

JCAR Members

State Senators Senator John Pappageorge, Chair in 2014 Senator Arlan Meekhof Senator Jim Marleau Senator Tupac Hunter Senator Bert Johnson State Representatives Representative Tom McMillin, Alternate Chair in 2014 Representative Jim Stamas Representative Amanda Price Representative Harvey Santana Representative Douglas Geiss

And there is a meeting of JCAR coming up Wednesday, March 12, 2014, but I don't believe it is the main one where they will be discussing the special education rules, because public comment on the rules is open until Thursday March 13th. 


If you can't wait until tomorrow to read the details of the rules and find out action steps for public commentary, here are a couple of preview links:

Blog post by Marcie Lipsitt
Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates action alert

Read Part II--how to comment, and what to say, here.

Consider subscribing to Ann Arbor Schools Musings by Email!

Olympics Redux

Some people are calling these the Title IX Olympics because there are more women than men competing. Here is what the Title IX blog has to say about that. [Partial summary: Title IX is a US law and the Olympics are an international competition.]

On the other hand. . . the New York Times reports that by the second Saturday in the Olympics, forty years after passage of Title IX, U.S. women won 27 of U.S.'s 41 gold medals, 54 of its 95 total medals. And that is due to Title IX.

You can read about my experiences with Title IX here.

And, I usually hate ads. But I have to admit that I really like the Proctor and Gamble ads--behind every Olympic athlete there is a mom. OK, I know that is not always true--sometimes it's a dad, aunt, uncle, coach, mentor. . . but most of the time it is true. . . and it definitely touches a chord for me even though non of my children will be Olympians. I have put in my time driving kids to athletic practices and events, though. 
Did you catch any of the Olympic race walking? It was amazing. It reminded me that at my high school track meets, in New York, we had race walking. But track meets in Ann Arbor don't appear to have race walking. I wonder why that is?

You might have noticed that my blogging has slowed down a bit. You can blame that on the Olympics too. I'm staying up far too late watching them. Which reminds me, the Paralympics are coming up next. I am looking forward to watching them as well, although the coverage is not nearly as extensive (read about it here). As those of you with children with special education needs know, disability rights is still a frontier that needs a lot of activism.

And that reminds me--the Michigan High School Athletics Association has taken an important step in allowing students with disabilities to access athletics. Because of the advocacy initiated by an Ishpeming parent, and support from lots of parents, teachers, and coaches around the state, MHSAA has changed its rules. MHSAA rules state that if you turn 19 before September 1, you can't do high school sports. And now, we finally have a limited waiver for kids with certain disabilities. This is something that a lot of other states have already done. Many thanks to dad Dean Dompierre, and his son Eric for paving the way for others.

News Hits

Milan schools are thinking about whether they should drop the Big Reds name and the Native American logos associated with it. I guess another alternative would be to keep the name (which arose from their red uniforms!) and change the logos (which arose from the name Big Reds).

I just found out that the Washtenaw County parks have more than one accessible playground. At Independence Lake park there is an accessible playground and fishing pier. Rolling Hills has a new accessible playground. Rolling Hills also has a new braille description of a walk in Sassafras Woods, available for a loan.

Ann Arbor school's technology millage campaign is kicking off this week. Read more about it in this annarbor.com article. Or if you prefer, look at the Ann Arbor Citizens Millage Campaign website.

The Michigan Islamic Academy is suing Pittsfield Township over its denial of the Academy's rezoning request for property on which they had planned to build a school, based on religious discrimination. The Council on American Islamic Relations has joined the lawsuit, and the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a formal investigation as well.

Last, but not least! The groups collecting signatures to put the emergency financial manager law on the ballot have collected enough signatures to bring them to Lansing to be validated. They have collected over 218,000 signatures and need the state to certify 161,000 of them as legitimate in order to get the voter referendum on the November ballot.