Editor’s note: This commentary is by Marilyn Mahusky, a staff attorney with Vermont Legal Aid’s Disability Law Project.
[T]he central purpose of proposed State Board of Education Rule 2200 is to ensure equity and equal opportunity for all students, including students with learning differences. It is about inclusion and prohibiting exclusion based on disability by independent schools that accept public funds.
Students with disabilities comprise about 15 percent of Vermont’s student population. This includes students with a range of learning differences from mild to severe. These students live in our towns and communities; they are our neighbors, perhaps even our own children and grandchildren.
In at least one instance siblings were separated when an independent school in Vermont asked the sibling with a recently diagnosed learning difference to leave.
The Education for Handicapped Children Act, the forerunner of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, was passed by Congress in 1975 to remedy the exclusion of children with disabilities from our public schools. Prior to passage of the Education for Handicapped Children Act, students with disabilities were warehoused in segregated schools and denied access to an education. As a nation and as a state, we have come a long way. One of the last barriers to equal educational opportunity in Vermont is the unequal treatment of students with disabilities in accessing an independent school education.
As the opponents of SBE Rule 2200 have expressed, Vermont has a long tradition of independent schools. Many towns no longer operate public schools, and tuition all of their students to other schools. In Plymouth, for example, most of the students use their public tuition dollars to attend the public schools in Woodstock. By comparison many of the students in and around St. Johnsbury and Manchester send their students, and their public tuition dollars, to independent schools. Over 85 percent of Burr and Burton Academy students and 65 percent of St. Johnsbury Academy students are publicly tuitioned. Without doubt, independent schools play an important role in our educational continuum.
However, children with disabilities are often excluded from the independent school option. Students with disabilities are not permitted to apply, or are asked to leave after acceptance when a disability comes to light. In at least one instance siblings were separated when an independent school in Vermont asked the sibling with a recently diagnosed learning difference to leave. This kind of discrimination violates the spirit of inclusion in our society, and the civil rights of individuals with disabilities. Our schools and communities benefit when we include people with disabilities in all aspects of our lives and ensure equity and equal opportunity. SBE 2200 makes equity and educational opportunity a reality for all students.
