Family of Autistic child wins lawsuit against school distric

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ASPartOfMe
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14 Feb 2018, 12:48 am

Family of child with autism prevails in lawsuit against DougCo schools

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A family in Highlands Ranch has won a lawsuit against the Douglas County School District.

They accused the district of not providing an adequate education for their child, who has autism.

The ruling means the district will have to reimburse all the money the family spent for private school -- unless they appeal.

The lawsuit was filed back in 2010. Jennifer, who asked us not to use her last name, noticed her son was lashing out at a Douglas County Elementary School.

He was screaming and tearing his clothes off. She felt like they weren't doing enough to help her child, Endrew.

"As a parent of a child with autism, you know there’s going to be struggles and challenges," Jennifer said, "but I didn't realize how good it could be until he got into the right environment and until he got the right type of therapy… we were struggling for so long, why?”

After he walked away from campus one day, she moved her son to a private school.

She says everything changed after that. He's now a senior at Firefly Autism and doing much better.

Endrew was pulled out of public school toward the end of fourth grade. He started at Firefly right after that. Tuition for that school is upwards of $70,000 a year.

By law, a public school is supposed to provide a free adequate education to special needs students. Jennifer sued and after several appeals, she prevailed.


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“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


League_Girl
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14 Feb 2018, 12:58 am

My mom also had a lawsuit against my school district in 6th grade but chose to not sue them and gave my school staff three weeks to figure it out and make things right.


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starkid
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14 Feb 2018, 1:13 am

So they can afford a better education for their child but choose to take millions away from other children via this lawsuit against a school. Kind of selfish.

Their child was escaping school grounds and having outbursts; sounds like he needed much more than a "free adequate education." He needed a special school and he got it, so why sue? Public schools often aren't equipped to handle serious behavioral issues and shouldn't be expected to.



EzraS
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14 Feb 2018, 5:26 am

Right, public schools should provide the same types of occupational therapy methods as high end private special needs schools. I guess my parents should have sued because I wasn't able to handle a semester of public school. Flipping ridiculous.



League_Girl
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14 Feb 2018, 4:10 pm

Public schools not protecting a child from bullying, refusing to give the child the education they need can result in behavior. All my school had to do was enforce rules on all students and that would have helped me out a lot and my school refused to follow my IEP because they probably thought I was normal and just needed tough love. All that did was it resulted in me being frustrated and having behavior and the fact they expected me to toughen up when kids were picking on me, I also got into fights with them too as a result of bullying. It was not rocket science to enforce the rules on all kids than just on me only and not let kids harass me. Then finally when I got diagnosed and my mom involved my therapist and the person from the school district, then things were better and I did't have behavior anymore.

Surprise surprise I was cured of my behavior. How do we know this wasn't the case here in the story?


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Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed.

Daughter: NT, no diagnoses.