There are a lot of articles related to trying to improve transparency in the Fox C-6 School District for the community. It was incredibly easy for former superintendent Brown/Critchlow to keep the community in the dark since BOE meetings weren't audio or video recorded during her tenure. The only record of patrons concerns were a few words noted in the board meeting minutes and any criticisms were certainly not going to be documented.
There are also a lot of articles related to attorneys and school district tactics used to remove and repeatedly deny the reinstatement of a Section 504 Plan. Efforts to get the 504 Plan reinstated led to bullying and retaliation from administrators and attorneys. It certainly wasn't what I had expected from the school district I grew up in and my parents had worked in for nearly 80 years combined.
You may find it interesting that Fox was billed legal fees to review this blog. Fox was also billed to help Fox with a "press release" that appeared in the Post Dispatch in August 2010 to tout their winning of a Due Process Hearing.
You may find it interesting that Fox was billed legal fees to review this blog. Fox was also billed to help Fox with a "press release" that appeared in the Post Dispatch in August 2010 to tout their winning of a Due Process Hearing.
Due Process Hearings are inherently easy for school districts to win. School districts get to choose the Due Process Hearing Officer to hear the case and act as a "fair and impartial" judge. Parents, advocates and attorneys who represent parents are very familiar with just how "fair and impartial" those decisions are. And, legal costs for parents can range from $10,000 to upwards of $70,000. So being forced to go to Due Process to get a 504 Plan reinstated was done pro se. We were told by a couple of attorneys that the decision had already been rendered.
OCR Issues at Fox
Why did it take the Kansas City OCR office 8 years to figure out whether or not Fox C-6 was providing Individualized Health Care Plans (IHCPs) to students with disabilities instead of Section 504 Plans as required by law?
It took nearly a decade to correct the problems at Fox regarding the identification of students who qualify for Section 504 Accommodation Plans.
It took 11 years for Fox to update their 504 Manual that Fox originally agreed to have updated by June 2009 per the May 2009 Resolution Agreement. Fox C-6 signed another Resolution Agreement in March 2018 after an 8 year District Wide Compliance Review investigation of the district. It's very obvious that there were issues with the Kansas City OCR's handling of the District Wide Compliance Review investigation. The Atlanta OCR office completed a District Wide Compliance Review investigation of the Memphis City School District in only 2 years for the exact same issue.
Who would ever believe that it really took KC OCR 8 years to investigate a school district just to find out if they were providing IHCPs to students instead of 504 Plans? I would say the answer is no one. That's why this blog exists.
I saw a problem with the Kansas City OCR office. I was concerned in 2009 when it took more than 6 months after filing a complaint with OCR for them to negotiate a Resolution Agreement with Fox C-6. That's when I did some research and found out that the Chief Attorney in the Kansas City OCR office at the time was a former school district attorney for the Kansas City Public Schools. That's why I asked the Washington DC OCR Office who would be handling the District Wide Compliance Review when I learned that Fox was chosen as 1 of 2 districts in the entire country in 2010 to have a District Wide Compliance Review regarding this issue. I've covered this topic in detail asking year after year how much longer it was going to take before OCR finished their District Wide Compliance Review of Fox C-6.
In 2020, I learned that the number of 504 Plans provided to students at Fox more than tripled between 2013 and 2020 according to numbers provided to me from Fox's 504 Coordinator.
The number of 504 plans nearly doubled after the signing of another Resolution Agreement in March 2018.
The increase in the number of 504 plans provided to students in the district was credited to "nurses, counselors and administrators have been through multiple trainings on the 504 process over the last several years which has really improved our 504 operations" and that "the last few years we have looked at more kiddos who may potentially qualify for 504's than any time in the past".
Number of 504 Plans in Fox C-6 by School Year in Tyler Student Information System
2013-2014
--- 83
2014-2015 -- 129
2015-2016 -- 131
2016-2017 -- 160
2014-2015 -- 129
2015-2016 -- 131
2016-2017 -- 160
2017-2018
-- 160
2018-2019 -- 277 Students Eligible / parents refused -- 36
2019-2020 -- 324 Students Eligible / parents refused -- 42
2018-2019 -- 277 Students Eligible / parents refused -- 36
2019-2020 -- 324 Students Eligible / parents refused -- 42
It sounds reasonable to think that training and considering more students eligible for 504 plans would increase the number of 504 plans in the district.
The difference between a 504 Plan and an Individualized Health Plan is that a 504 Plan is an enforceable agreement and a complaint can be filed with OCR when the plan is not followed. Albeit, from experience, it may take your regional OCR office more than a decade to process your complaint. An Individualized Health Plan is not an enforceable agreement and can easily be ignored or not followed.
Interesting Articles To Think About
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Office for Civil Rights
The Office for Civil Rights has a search page for anyone looking for school districts that have signed Resolution Agreements with the Office for Civil Rights. This happens when a school district is not fully in compliance with civil rights laws Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by recipients of Federal financial assistance (FFA) as well as Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title II) which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public entities.
Below is a link to OCR's search results for school districts that have signed recent (2012 - current) Resolution Agreements with the Office for Civil Rights.
