Today marks another sad milestone in the 12+ year long saga of obtaining a 504 plan in the Fox C-6 School District.
It was 11 years ago today (May 1, 2009) when Dan Baker, who was the 504 Coordinator for the Fox C-6 School District at the time, signed a Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR).
In the May 2009 Resolution Agreement, Fox C-6 agreed to make changes to the district’s Section 504 Manual. Some of those changes were to remove language that did not comply with Section 504 and replace it with new language and submit those changes to ED OCR by June 9, 2009. Those changes to Fox’s 504 Manual were not made. These changes were required after ED OCR opened an investigation following a complaint filed in the fall of 2008.
The agreement also required Fox to do another 504 evaluation by a specific date and submit information from the 504 evaluation to OCR for review.
For the next 5 years, Fox's attorneys refused to make some of the changes to the district’s 504 Manual. They also fought along with administrators, the reinstatement of a Section 504 Plan that was removed in September 2008.
OCR did not enforce the May 2009 Resolution Agreement as part of their job description states. They allowed Fox C-6 to drag things out for years. Then in June 2014, Fox switched law firms when the internet defamation scandal became public.
March 2018 - Fox Agrees to Update 504 Manual Again
In March 2018, Fox agreed again to update the district’s Section 504 Manual and include in the manual the exact language provided to the district by OCR. Fox also agreed to remove language that did not comply with Section 504. The district also agreed to include in the Section 504 Manual at least two examples of students who would qualify for a Section 504 plan.
Checking On Fox's Updated Section 504 Manual
Since August 2018, I've been checking in with Fox’s current Section 504 coordinator as to when Fox’s new Section 504 Manual would be made available to the public. In August 2018, I asked for a copy of Fox’s current Section 504 Manual so I could compare it to the new Section 504 Manual when it became available. I was provided a copy of that manual and it was pretty much the same manual that we had received in 2008.
Fox’s current Section 504 Manual is not available on the district website. I asked about that in August 2018. I’ve been told since then that Fox’s new Section 504 Manual will be available on the district website when it is completed.
2 More Years Have Passed
It’s now been more than 2 years since the Fox agreed again to update the Section 504 Manual. The update still hasn’t been completed. I’ve been told that the district is waiting on OCR to review the document and provide feedback to the district. I’ve also been in touch with OCR numerous times over the past two years on this issue. I've been told by OCR several times that they hoped to complete that task soon. OCR has a history of not returning emails or phone calls after things begin to drag out like they have with Fox.
OCR's Monitoring of Fox's Resolution Agreement
OCR is responsible for “monitoring” school districts to see that they comply with their Resolution Agreements. However, it was easy to see 10+ years ago that OCR doesn’t really do much “monitoring”. The parents have to monitor and check up on OCR to see if they will ever do their job and check on their school district to see if they are doing their job. This has been well documented on my blog.
When will the parents, teachers and staff get an updated Section 504 Manual from Fox?
Probably never.
I’ve often wondered why our school board members don’t check into things like this.
Fox currently has 3 school board members who were directly involved with or are related to someone who was directly involved with the 504 issues in our district.
We currently have two school board members who were on the school board when former superintendent Dianne Critchlow “resigned” from the district amid the cyber bullying scandal. They are not seeking re-election in June.
In the meantime, I’ll keep checking up on this issue since the district is still being "monitored" by OCR and has been since May 2009.
Fox's March 2018 Resolution Agreement with ED OCR