THE GORILLA: WAITING FOR NEXT YEAR – OR NOT
June 28, 2004

Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's a little like wrestling a gorilla.
You don't quit when you're tired,
you quit when the gorilla is tired."
- Robert Strauss
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We find it ironic that this weekend we suddenly started thinking about "next year," even as this year winds on. We do not know how this Congressional session's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] reauthorization process will work out. We do not know if we are going to see the House and Senate Bills go to conference. We do not know if some form of either bill will end up in a late year, lame duck omnibus bill. We do not know if next year's Congress or president will be more or less favorably disposed to the needs of students with disabilities and their families than the present Congress and president are. Finally, whatever the legislative outcome of this year's IDEA reauthorization effort, we do not yet know how, if at all, the balance of power within the community of people with disabilities has changed because of the apparent divisions within our "own" ranks on what legislative strategies best serve our children, as opposed to other power brokers in the special education and legislative processes.

But we realize now, more than ever, that next year really matters, regardless of how this year works out, because the gorilla is not yet tired.

Next year, the parents of 6.5 million children [perhaps more] will sit down in the little "mom" chairs at the long tables, and try to create meaningful Individualized Education Programs [IEPs] for their children with all the balance of power on the other side of the table.

Next year, "gossip law" as stated by the school officials will rule the IEP Team meeting, as it has every year since 1975, because parents still will lack resources to help them properly prepare for the meeting.

Next year, the perception of available resources – or lack of same – and the shoehorning of children into existing programs will again trump identifying and addressing the individualized needs of the children.

Next year, children with disabilities will receive disproportionate disciplinary attention while receiving insignificant basic positive behavior support.

Next year, school district legal teams and contracting law firms will renew competitive legal contracts paid for with millions of taxpayer dollars. Too few private lawyers will emerge to assume the legal responsibilities of the 6.5 million families who will lack sufficient resources to pay them.

Next year, school districts will feel continued pressure from No Child Left Behind performance indicators, and will seek ways to minimize or marginalize the performances of students with disabilities.

Next year, school codes of conduct and administrators well versed in the terminology of "social maladjustment" will be used together to justify excluding more students with disabilities from fully included, mainstream participation in their public schools, primarily because the students are acting upon or because of their disabilities.

Next year, schools will offer "take it or leave it" IEP programs to families whose children have truly complicated educational needs, and the families will "take it" because they have no time or resources to test the school's decision using present administrative due process mechanisms.

Next year, a new Congress will immediately hear from powerful school board, school administrator and teacher lobbies that will complain about how IDEA's burdensome administrative requirements and restrictive disciplinary provisions hinder the schools' opportunity to educate students with disabilities.

Next year, parents already consumed by individual family needs will struggle to give Congress 1/10,000th of the input provided by the school lobbyists, and the chances are good that the individual Congress members and their staffs will misunderstand or ignore the family input.

Next year, parents and families again will be outmanned and outgunned by "the professionals."

All of these predictions will hold true regardless of what happens with this year's IDEA reauthorization. We parents fool ourselves if we believe the fight ends with the end of the Congressional session or the election of a new Congress and president. We will not change the problems we face simply by changing the faces who seem to be the problem.

Families across America have come together in a big way over the past 15 months to hold our own against the gorilla that would gut IDEA. We still do not know whether we have dodged a bullet. We do know, however, that much to the chagrin of those who favor proposed IDEA changes, we have more than held our own in the reauthorization struggle, and have had a significant impact in the outcome, whatever the outcome might be.

For us parents, the biggest challenge right now is realizing – perhaps daily – that the gorilla is not yet tired. Our systems depend on Congress and fair laws to drive the educational process. But it is still about how those laws – whatever they might say – are implemented at the local level. It also is about having the power and resources to hold local implementers accountable for their decisions and actions when we believe they run counter to our children's demonstrated needs.

Next year will bring on something completely new for everybody. But we need to remind ourselves that we all must bring our fighting spirits with us, for we are going to meet the same gorilla. Hopefully the alliances we parents and families have built this year will be strengthened next year and in the years to come. Hopefully next year we will find new ways to define and address the problems in special education programming that both schools and families agree exist. Hopefully next year we can come to the table as equal partners with the schools, with all of us sitting in the same sized chairs.

This has been one tremendously hard year for families. We have a right to be tired. Remember, however, that the gorilla is still fighting.

Tricia & Calvin Luker, today's parentvolunteer@ourchildrenleftbehind.com