Alleging Retaliation on Behalf of Students with Disabilities from AmericanBar.org

Below is a link to an article with one of the best written and most important paragraphs that I've read on retaliation as it relates to Section 504 law that I found on the American Bar Association website.

I found the article after being contacted by a parent recently who withdrew her child from our school district due to retaliation. She wasn't the first parent in our district to do so.

The Conclusion paragraph from the article does a very good job of stating what can happen in a school district when your school board doesn't do its job of proper oversight of school district administrators. It's what happened at Fox during the Critchlow era and the mishandling of Section 504 issues in our school district. It's also the reason that led to the ousting of a former superintendent and her husband and the demotion of a former district 504 Coordinator / assistant superintendent and another assistant superintendent. It also led to the ousting of the law firm and a state audit of Fox's school district finances.

All school board members past, present and future should read the paragraph below as well as the full article on retaliation. I spent a number of years reaching out to Fox's school board members for help but very little was done until online defamatory posts were traced to school district administrator's homes in our district. I had mentioned it numerous times to Fox's school board members over the years but was ignored.

The 2019 American Bar Association article covers retaliation in Section 504. It's something that I'm very familiar with and have had years of first hand experience dealing with school district attorneys, an elementary school principal, assistant superintendent and Section 504 Coordinator as well as Fox's former superintendent. I've also witnessed first hand the lack of enforcement of Section 504 law by the Kansas City U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

Section 504 law and Fox's school board policies prohibit retaliation. However the law and board policies must be enforced or there's no reason to have them in the first place.

Below is the Conclusion from the 2019 American Bar Association article on Alleging Retaliation on Behalf of Students with Disabilities:

CONCLUSION

"Retaliatory conduct of teachers and school administrators can have lasting consequences on families. When schools inhibit parent advocacy, they risk not meeting the disability-related needs of the child, leading to lack of progress and, in some instances, medical and psychological harm. Actions that criminalize parent advocacy through truancy referrals, seeking civil restraining orders, filing false abuse or neglect claims, or taking other acts to “push out” the family from the school have reverberations in the community and dire consequences for the family. Public schools must accept and work with all children and all of their caregivers, regardless of how difficult it might be. Thus, severe actions against those they serve should be taken as a last possible resort and only after there is a review of all policies and procedures, teacher training, and a proactive attempt at parent engagement, and finally, only if it is for a legal, legitimate, and nonretaliatory reason.

Bringing forth viable and strong claims of retaliation will promote change because it will force schools to assess their behavior, return to parents and students the power to assert their rights, and inform and educate the courts and public that disability-based discrimination in public schools is a continuing problem. However, retaliation claims must be strictly alleged and meet the evidentiary standard to be successful."

Alleging Retaliation on Behalf of Students with Disabilities

AmericanBar.org

A Lesson for School District Administrators

During the Critchlow era at Fox C-6, one of the biggest problems I recognized and tried to bring to the attention of our school board and some of our retired administrators was the lack of honesty, integrity and transparency.

As I’ve been working on articles to address some of the issues that were swept under the rug for years, I sometimes find that I’ve already documented the issue years ago.

As a principal in our district is set to retire at the end of this school year, I thought it would be a good idea to point out why it’s never a good idea to tell parents in an email that:

“I think we have come up with a great plan and I’m feeling very confident that we will be able to handle anything that comes our way!!!!”

and then a year later when things on the “great plan” weren’t followed, tell the parents during a 504 team meeting that the email you sent them contained “just my notes” and that the items in the “bulleted list” that was sent “weren’t actionable items”.

From a parent’s perspective, this is one of the quickest ways to destroy a parent’s trust in a school leader.

An article I wrote in May 2016 documented this topic in more detail. My article covered several other issues that occurred in our district at the time as well, like the state audit. It's also why I’ve had parents reach out to me over the years thanking me for documenting what we went through in trying to get a 504 plan for our daughter. It's important for the community to know the facts instead of what they were led to believe.

It's also a great example as to why it’s important to have a written 504 Accommodation Plan instead of an email from a principal or just an Individualized Health Plan (IHP). 

Individualized Health Plans are not legally binding agreements and therefore aren't enforceable like a written 504 Plan. That’s why school districts don’t like 504 plans.

This example is also the very reason why the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in Washington D.C. opened a District Wide Compliance Review investigation of Fox C-6 in March 2010.

The District Wide Compliance Review looked at whether or not Fox was issuing Individualized Health Plans to students with disabilities in our district instead of providing them with 504 Accommodation Plans. Considering the fact that Fox had recently taken away our daughter's 504 Accommodation Plan and provided us with an Individualized Health Plan in 2008, it was very obvious that it was happening at Fox.

In March 2010, a District Wide Compliance Review investigation was opened for the very same issue in the Memphis Tennessee School District.

The biggest difference between the two investigations is that it only took 22 months for the Atlanta Georgia Ed OCR office to complete their investigation of the Memphis Tennessee School District and issue a Resolution Agreement.

It took the Kansas City Ed OCR office 96 months to complete the investigation of Fox C-6 and issue a Resolution Agreement.

It makes you wonder what the difference is between the two OCR offices.  I can assure you that I looked into what those differences were.

You can find my 2016 article here:

Trust Me I'm a School Administrator

Improvements in Transparency Helps the Community Perform Oversight

Nearly a decade ago, I was writing articles about some of the issues that our community was facing under superintendent Dianne Brown Critchlow. Between December 2010 and July 2015, I spoke at more than 20 school board meetings during the 3 minute public comments portion of the meeting because I could bring “concerns” to our school board as a whole because in 2010, school board members didn’t have individual email addresses like they do now. It took several years of me requesting for that to happen. I wrote articles on my blog and provided examples to our school board of what other school districts were doing in the area such as posting bill payments online for their community as well as board meeting packets and board meeting minutes within days of a school board meeting. Many of the school districts that Dianne liked to compare Fox to also posted audio or video recordings of their school board meetings online for the public to review. Asked to Pay For Bill Payments and Board Packets When I asked for copies of bill payments so I could review them to find out how much Fox was spending in legal fees in order to get around writing a 504 plan, I was asked to pay to get copies of the bill payments via my Sunshine Request because the law allows a school district to charge to provide copies of documents. However, other school districts were posting their bill payments online and were available for free. I pointed this out to our school board members at the time during public comments and via email. It took years for that to occur and it wasn’t until the very end of Dianne’s tenure before that started to happen. One thing that wasn’t posted online was the credit card statements. I asked our school board members during public comments at the February 2014 school board meeting as to whether or not they were being provided copies of the credit card statements with the board packets and bill payments each month for review since Fox had paid more than $2.1 million in credit card bills in the first half of the 2013-2014 school year

It became obvious that they hadn’t been getting copies of the credit card statements when I made a Sunshine Request to get copies of the credit card statements and I was asked to pay between $160 and $170 to provide me copies of those statements. It wasn’t until my Sunshine Request was fulfilled in the fall of 2014 that I noticed that copies of the credit card statements were FAXed to the district. Apparently, getting copies of those credit card statements for the school board was a problem too. Bill Payments Missing from Board Packets I'll never forget the comment I received after a school board meeting from former board member Dan Smith when I asked about posting the bill payments online. He told me that it would lead to more questions from the community. That was a pretty interesting response given the fact that bill payments are public records. Even after the board packets started getting posted online, the bill payments didn't get posted with them. When I asked about that, I was told that they didn't get posted because there were students names on the checks and that it was a privacy issue. It soon became apparent that the bill payments needed to get posted online with the board packets in order to keep the public informed about what was being spent by our school district each month. For ease of access for the community, I started posting copies of school board meeting minutes for the public to review and for me as well for quick access over on my blog. During the 2014-2015 school year, board meeting minutes started to get posted more quickly for the public and archived on the district’s website. I had to pay to obtain many of the board meeting packets in the early days when I made Sunshine Requests for copies of them even though they were already in PDF format. Below is a link to where you can review board meeting minutes and some board meeting packets dating back to the 2001-2002 school year. There's some history documented in those board meeting minutes and board packets of what went on at Fox during that time. There just wasn't a lot of detail. At least not compared to being able to watch video recordings of BOE meetings and being able to download board meeting packets from BoardDocs.

Fox C-6 School Board Meeting Minutes and Packets

Here’s a link to an article written in April 2014 about those missing credit card statements.

What About Those Bill Payments and Credit Card Payments

Changing Your School District's Culture Is Not An Easy or Fun Task!

As school board elections are approaching again on Tuesday April 6th, I’ve been looking back at some of the articles I’ve written over the past 10+ years covering some of the issues in the Fox C-6 School District that needed to be addressed.

School board candidates could learn a lot about just how difficult it is to change the deep rooted culture of a school district and how much push back a person can get when asking for change.

Cease and Desist Letter

In August 2012, I was sent a cease and desist letter for my efforts to bring about more transparency at Fox and bring Fox into compliance with Section 504 Law. In the spring of 2013, three more parents in our school district were sent cease and desist letters. An article was written about the cease and desist letters in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. 

Defamatory Posts For Speaking at Board Meetings

Then there were the defamatory comments posted online about me that were traced to some of our administrator’s homes and a cell phone. The online posts would appear within hours of making Public Comments at a Fox C-6 school board meeting.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch article linked below covers the cease and desist letters that Fox C-6 sent to parents in the district.

The article notes that former superintendent, Dianne Critchlow said:

 "everyone has the right to criticize the district but not spread untruths"

From the get go in dealing with our former superintendent, she made false statements at one on one meetings, board meetings and in emails to me and our school board and even in the news, which have been well documented.

The Post Dispatch article also noted the following quote from former superintendent, Dianne Critchlow:

"You don’t have the right to make up lies and defame someone’s character,”

Apparently, the statement above did not apply to her or her husband.

Our former superintendent should have been more interested in improving transparency and following federal law instead of anonymously posting defamatory comments online that were directed at parents who were trying to hold her and our school board accountable.

Letters sent to Fox dissidents highlight school tensions

STLTODAY.COM

School Board Members Associated With 504 Issues in the District

It’s interesting to note that 5 of our current school board members were either directly involved with some of the issues I was addressing in our school district or are related to individuals who were directly involved with those issues such as the removal of a 504 Plan and efforts to get the 504 Plan reinstated. It prompts the question as to why these individuals decided to run for a position on the Fox C-6 Board of Education.

No Audio or Video Recordings of Meetings at Fox

I asked the Fox C-6 school board numerous times over the years during the Critchlow era to audio or video record school board meetings because of the lack of detail Fox's board meeting minutes.

Fox C-6 school board meetings had been audio recorded prior to Dianne Brown Critchlow's time as superintendent. She couldn't explain why they weren't recorded anymore. She said the last time they were recorded was when Jim Chellew was superintendent.

Examples Of What Other Districts Were Doing Compared to Fox

I brought numerous examples to our school board of what other school districts in our area were doing with regards to audio or video recording school board meetings and posting school district bill payments online for the community to review. I asked for audio and video recordings of board meetings because the public wasn’t getting the truth or the facts about several issues in our district. At the time, Fox didn’t post bill payments on the district website which made it difficult for anyone in the community to help with oversight of school district spending. It also made it very easy for some of our administrators to misuse taxpayer dollars.

The responses from our superintendent are well documented in the articles I've written over the years. The article linked to below was posted a year before the ousting of Critchlow and her husband and the demotion of two assistant superintendents. It serves as a good reminder as to how bad things can get when there’s very little oversight by your school board and district employees fear retaliation from administration.

11 Years To Comply With an ED OCR Resolution Agreement

In May 2009, Dan Baker signed a Resolution Agreement in which Fox agreed to update the district’s 504 manual by June of 2009. It wasn’t until May 10, 2020 that Fox’s 504 manual was finally updated and posted on the district’s website. It took Fox more than 11 years to update the district’s 504 manual. It's hard to comprehend, but very well documented.

Kansas City ED OCR Slowed the Process As Well

It took Ed OCR nearly 16 months just to respond to the district with their review of the district’s updated 504 manual. 

Ed OCR had already reviewed the document in 2018 and asked for a few minor changes to the document in the fall of 2018. During that 16 month delay, I made several calls to the Ed OCR attorney who was listed as the contact person for the 2018 Resolution Agreement.

In the summer of 2019, the OCR attorney told me that their office was understaffed but they hope to complete their review of the 504 Manual prior to the start of the 2019-2020 school year. Of course, that didn’t happen. OCR didn’t notify Fox until February 2020 that their recent changes to the 504 manual finally met the terms of the May 2009 and 2018 Resolution Agreements.

ED OCR Failed Students At Fox For More Than a Decade

It would be safe to say that ED OCR’s enforcement of the May 2009 and March 2018 Resolution Agreements with Fox probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t kept calling OCR’s directors and attorneys for more than a decade checking on the progress of their enforcement of the Resolution Agreements. It’s a great example of just how easy it is for school districts to get around Section 504 law for years.

I need to write about my conversation with the ED OCR attorney in May 2020 when I asked her why it nearly a decade to complete a simple District Wide Compliance Review and why OCR wasn't following their case processing manual to bring about enforcement.

In the meantime, a lot of legal fees were billed to the district for responses to OCR requests and refusals by district attorneys to change the language in school board policies and the district’s 504 Manual as requested by OCR.

There were also legal fees for 504 meetings, Due Process Hearings and for helping with a "press release" article that appeared in the Post Dispatch in August 2010 after our Due Process Hearing as well as legal fees charged for reading my blog.

In all, Fox spent more than $100,000 in legal fees between 2008 and 2020 because of the removal of a 504 plan and subsequent refusal to reinstate that 504 plan. The amount of legal fees is based upon my review of bill payment records posted online and obtained via Sunshine Requests. The tactics used and the amount of effort to get around Section 504 law was quite amazing.

Superintendent Dr. Nisha Pitel has done a great job over the past couple of years highlighting our staff and students. I was very disappointed when she announced that she would be leaving our district.

Superintendent Dr. Fregeau's Meet and Greet Presentation to the Community

At the same time, I'm very encouraged by the choice of Dr. Paul Fregeau as Fox's next superintendent after watching his meet and greet presentation on Fox's YouTube channel as well as what I found and read on the Decatur Public Schools website. I highly recommend watching Dr. Fregeau's meet and greet presentation.

One significant point during Dr. Fregeau's meet and greet presentation was when he spoke about his integrity and promised the community that he would never embarrass the district.

Dr. Fregeau had done his homework and had either read or heard about the problems that had occurred during the Dianne Brown Critchlow era at Fox and the embarrassment she brought to our community and the Fox C-6 School District.

The July 2013 article linked below documents some of the pushback I received for my efforts to improve transparency in our district and hold people accountable. It also puts into perspective just how much has improved since Critchlow was ousted in 2014.

School board meetings weren't audio or video recorded during Critchlow's tenure. I recorded them when I attended and when I spoke during public comments in order to have an accurate record of what was said at the meetings and the responses I received, if any.

Fox Has a New Website But the Same Old Problems

2021 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

Read about the Fox C-6 school board candidates on the Leader newspaper's online VOTERS GUIDE for the April 6th, 2021 school board election:

2021 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates

Voters Guide

School board elections can greatly affect whether or not people will be held accountable for their actions. A great deal of that depends on who the candidates are friends with or who they have worked with in the past.

Below are links to some of the past Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guides:

2020 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c-6-schools-two-seats-are-open-in-race-with-plenty-of-experience/article_0bf290c2-88d0-11ea-8536-ff5bcc9726b3.html

2018 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/fox-c--school-district-crowded-field-seeking-pair-of/article_79e7d016-2d37-11e8-8445-5f6b2d04c71c.html

2017 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--schools----at-least-one/article_0853e54c-10ce-11e7-af5a-3721123fbf27.html

2016 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--schools-all-four-candidates-say-district-is/article_73e33700-f5d0-11e5-983f-cfac20f8507d.html

2015 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--school-district-six-candidates-line-up-for/article_868dca38-d3f7-11e4-82eb-17747b9f37a7.html

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/five-vie-for-three-seats-on-fox-c--school/article_76d657c2-bc38-11e3-aefa-0017a43b2370.html

2013 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-school-district/article_92b035c8-031b-5eed-b32e-af8715f37e03.html

JUNE 20, 2017 - Vern Sullivan Rejoins Fox School Board
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/familiar-face-rejoins-fox-board-of-education/article_99632784-55eb-11e7-afd1-5f555d421750.html

Must Watch! HBO's "Bad Education" Movie Receives Two Emmy Nominations

The movie "Bad Education" just received two Emmy nominations the other day.

Bad Education is a movie about the true story of the misuse of taxpayer dollars and the deception by some of the administrators in a Long Island school district in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The movie may remind you a lot about what happened in the Fox C-6 School District in 2013-2014 and the misuse of credit cards by some of our former school district administrators.

I’ve watched Bad Education a few times already since it first premiered on HBO a few months ago. It’s an excellent movie. It reminds me of so many things that was going on in our school district during Dianne Brown-Critchlow’s tenure as superintendent that I was documenting on my FoxC6Watchdogs blog back then.

Of course, I was looking into several things going on in our school district at the time like the over the top salary being paid to our superintendent, the comments be posted about me online for asking questions at board meetings as well as the ongoing 504 issues in our school district.

No Audio or Video Recordings of School Board Meetings

And, since Fox wasn't audio or video recording school board meetings back then, the public was pretty much kept in the dark about what I was asking our school board and our administrators. School board meeting minutes didn't provide any details as to what I was asking during public comments.

I would bet that if any of Fox’s former school board members watched the movie Bad Education, that it would bring back quite a few memories for them as well. It was at the February 2014 school board meeting when I asked our Fox school board members during public comments how they could approve bill payments without good descriptions of bill payments and without being provided copies of the credit card statements.

Great Scene About Personal Purchases Brings Back Memories

There’s one scene in the movie when the superintendent, played by Hugh Jackman, tells the school board members about the amount of taxpayer money that the auditor found that was spent on personal purchases by the school district’s business manager. That scene makes me wonder if our school board members felt the same way when they started looking at the credit card statements that were received in bulk by fax after I made a Sunshine Request for copies of them in April 2014.

Shredding Documents

I’m guessing that the district credit card statements may have been part of the documents that were shredded by Mark McCutchen, Fox’s former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) during Dianne's tenure as superintendent. Mr. McCutchen abruptly left the district after I made a Sunshine Request for copies of the credit card statements. Mr. McCutchen didn’t respond to the auditor’s questions during the state audit. His input to the audit should have been crucial to the state audit.

Grandview School District Patrons Can Relate

The parents and patrons in the Grandview School District can probably relate to the movie as well.

Some of the administrators in the movie Bad Education and the business manager at Grandview were prosecuted for their improper use of taxpayer dollars.

No one was prosecuted at Fox related to the findings of the state auditor's report that I'm aware of.

U.S. Attorney Told Me They "Didn't Find Any Criminal Intent"

The U.S. Attorney’s office told me in November 2017 that their office “didn’t find any criminal intent” when they reviewed the state auditor’s report, the FBI report and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office report due to the fact that our school board had approved all of the bill payments even though Fox's board members weren’t provided copies of the credit card statements. It was suggested by the U.S. Attorney's office that our school board needed to improve its approval processes.

Freedom of Information Act Request for FBI Report

I've made a couple of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the FBI for a copy of the FBI Report related to the state audit. I have a copy of the Jefferson County Sheriff's report and a copy of the state audit.

My first FOIA request response from the FBI informed me that the FBI was unable to identify any main file records responsive to my request related to Dianne Critchlow or the Fox C-6 School District. My second request was made with the actual FBI report number (46H-SL-7854210) provided to me by Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak.

The FBI's response to my second FOIA request informed me that it may take up to 1500 days to respond to my request.

Is that what people refer to as sweeping things under the rug?

Bad Education is a great movie!

It shows what can go wrong when school board members and outside auditors don't do a very good job of oversight of a school district.

https://www.hbo.com/movies/bad-education

If you don't have HBO, you can always sign up for a Free 7 Day Trial just to watch the movie.

Three New Fox C-6 School Board Members Take Oath of Office

Tonight, three new school board members will take the oath of office for the Fox C-6 school board.

The new board members are: Krystal Hargis

Michelle Chamberlain

Bob Gruenewald

Fox hasn’t had this many former school district employees on our school board for a very long time, if ever.

Fox’s school board will have 3 retired central office administrators, a retired central office human resources secretary and two retired school teachers.

Workshop/Special Meeting of the Fox C-6 Board of Education

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Fox C-6 Service Center

849 Jeffco Blvd.

Arnold, Missouri 63010

3:00 pm - Oath of New Board Members/Election of Officers

3:15 pm - Closed Session

7:00 pm - Open Session

https://go.boarddocs.com/mo/foxc6/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BMYR5V6C614C

2020 Fox C-6 Graduation at Family Arena - Sunday July 26, 2020

For informational purposes, it cost $28,000 to rent the Family Arena for Sunday, July 26, 2020 for the Fox and Seckman 2020 senior graduation ceremonies.

Total costs are capped at: $28,000.

The Base Fee is: $7,486.00.

There is a $2,000 Buyout for Parking Per School.

The contract for the event is posted in BoardDocs for approval at the June 16, 2020 Fox C-6 school board meeting.

Agenda item 7.2: Graduation - St. Charles Family Arena

I was curious to see how much it cost in the past to have graduation at Chaifetz Arena for a comparison to how much Family Arena was charging. I think Family Arena is a good alternative to Chaifetz if it can't be held at Chaifetz.

Chaifetz has been a good location, especially when weather can be a factor.

Fox Graduation on Fox High School Football Field
I have video that my dad filmed from the old press box at the Fox High School football field the year that the chairs and equipment were blowing across the football field when a storm blew in right before the graduation ceremony. Almost everyone had evacuated the field prior to the heavy winds but not everyone could fit into Rickman Auditorium for the ceremony. It was a very memorable experience but not one that anyone would like to repeat.

Chaifetz Arena Costs In Prior Years
Looking at Fox's budgets dating back to 2015 in BoardDocs, the district budgeted a total of $14,000 each year for graduation ceremonies at Chaifetz Arena. The $14,000 amount included both the Fox and Seckman graduation ceremonies.

The actual amount spent each year for the graduation ceremony at Chaifetz Arena was slightly less than $14,000.

I know that some parents asked about having graduation at the future PowerPlex facility like Rockwood did and Lindbergh plans to do. However, the response from district officials was that it was too costly. 

Plus, having graduation inside an air conditioned building near the end of July may be much nicer than sitting outside in a parking lot.

http://go.boarddocs.com/mo/foxc6/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BQHKB2510229

Fox C-6 Voters Approve $40M Bond Issue - ED OCR Ignores Nearly 7 Years of Investigation Data

It's good to see that Fox's $40M Prop P bond issue was passed by voters last week.

Meramec Heights Elementary and Antonia Elementary have long overdue upgrades needed to bring them into ADA compliance.

New School Board Members Elected

Also, congratulations to our new Fox C-6 school board members. It’s interesting to see that we now have 5 people on our school board member who were either directly involved or are related to someone who was directly involved with the 504 issues that I have been following up on since 2008.

ED OCR Did Not Issue A Monitoring Letter for 16 Months What’s also interesting is the fact that OCR did not issue a “monitoring letter” to Fox C-6 for 16 months after the district submitted a “monitoring report” to OCR.

Fox submitted a monitoring report to OCR on December 12, 2018 with the final changes to Fox's 504 Manual. Originally, Fox agreed to update the district’s 504 Manual by June 3, 2009.

OCR didn't send a "monitoring letter" to the district until April 17, 2020 approving the changes that were submitted to OCR in December 2018. I obtained a copy of OCR’s “monitoring letter” from the district a few weeks ago.

OCR's Delay Was Due To Being "Understaffed"

I contacted OCR to find out what caused the delay. Kansas City OCR’s excuse for the 16 month delay was due to their office being “understaffed” and having to work on new complaints and district wide compliance reviews. It's been the same excuse I've heard for years.

What's odd is that OCR told me last July, that they hoped to complete their review of the changes before the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

Parents and Advocates Need To Know How Kansas City ED OCR Handles Complaints

There’s a lot to cover on this ongoing issue. It’s definitely worth the effort documenting how OCR handles complaints. Parents and advocates need to know just how long it may take their school district to comply with Section 504 and how long OCR can drag out a complaint once it goes into the “monitoring” phase after the signing of a Resolution Agreement.

Fox's Compliance Review Would Make A Great Law Student Research Paper

Fox’s District Wide Compliance Review would be a great example for a research paper for law students as to how OCR conducted a Compliance Review. It took 8 years for OCR to perform Fox’s District Wide Compliance Review. It took OCR 8 years investigate whether or not Fox C-6 was providing Individualized Health Plans to students with disabilities instead of Section 504 Plans.

Before OCR completed their investigation and issued any findings, Fox agreed to sign a Resolution Agreement in March 2018 which closed the complaint and moved it into the “monitoring” phase.

OCR Decided Not To Look at What Occurred Prior To 2015

To top it off, OCR also informed me that what occurred in the district between March 2008 and December 2014 related to the 504 issues wasn’t really looked at because so many people had left the district. It just happens that the law firm that was responding to OCR during that time left the district as well. The law firm was released by the district in 2014 during the Critchlow fiasco.

All I can say is, Wow!

Accountability seems to be a thing of the past.

Who's Watching Over The Office for Civil Rights

Don't Forget to Vote Tomorrow! (June 2, 2020)

Here's an online article posted by the Leader newspaper for Fox C-6 school board candidates:

FOX C-6 SCHOOLS Two seats are open in race with plenty of experience

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c-6-schools-two-seats-are-open-in-race-with-plenty-of-experience/article_0bf290c2-88d0-11ea-8536-ff5bcc9726b3.html

Below are links to some of the past Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guides:

2018 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/fox-c--school-district-crowded-field-seeking-pair-of/article_79e7d016-2d37-11e8-8445-5f6b2d04c71c.html

2017 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--schools----at-least-one/article_0853e54c-10ce-11e7-af5a-3721123fbf27.html

2016 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--schools-all-four-candidates-say-district-is/article_73e33700-f5d0-11e5-983f-cfac20f8507d.html

2015 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--school-district-six-candidates-line-up-for/article_868dca38-d3f7-11e4-82eb-17747b9f37a7.html

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/five-vie-for-three-seats-on-fox-c--school/article_76d657c2-bc38-11e3-aefa-0017a43b2370.html

2013 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-school-district/article_92b035c8-031b-5eed-b32e-af8715f37e03.html

JUNE 20, 2017 - Vern Sullivan Rejoins Fox School Board

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/familiar-face-rejoins-fox-board-of-education/article_99632784-55eb-11e7-afd1-5f555d421750.html