NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Department of Education is ordering the Fulton County school system to comply with a state law that requires educators to provide written notification to parents any time a student is restrained in the classroom.
The admonition came in a Jan. 25 letter obtained by Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik from State Deputy Superintendent of Federal Programs and Special Education Deborah Gay, sent to Fulton County’s superintendent, Jeff Rose.
"The GDOE is requesting that Fulton County School District review and revise, if appropriate, its policies, practices, and/or procedures with regard to restraint of students to ensure policies , practices and/or procedures comport Georgia Department of Education Rule," the letter said. "The district shall provide these revised policies to GDOE no later than February 27th, 2017."
The letter said the concern was raised by attorney Chris Vance, who is representing a former Hillside Elementary School student whose parents claimed the school had failed to notify them that their autistic son had been restrained several times in the classroom.
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Petchenik first reported over the summer that Mikey Veschi’s now former special education teacher said the vice principal had ordered her not to send home written notifications.
That teacher secretly recorded the administrator telling her: “We are not going to provide parents with those letters.”
Vance told Petchenik she believes the motivation was to ensure there was no paper trail of problems in the classroom that would require the district to provide more services to students.
“Fulton County’s approach is what parents don’t know won’t hurt them,” Vance told Petchenik Monday. “They had no idea how many times their child was being restrained in that system.”
Vance is now suing the district on Veschi’s behalf, arguing he didn’t receive an adequate education because his teacher never received the appropriate training to work with children who have autism.
A report on an internal investigation, which Petchenik obtained last month, showed the school system had exonerated the vice principal, who has since resigned, of any wrongdoing.
Specifically, school officials pointed out that district policy was that parents “shall be provided a copy of the complete Restraint Incident Report form (or equivalent),” and they claimed state law didn’t dictate a specific kind of form to use.
“What Fulton County School District said was oral notification is the equivalent of written notification,” said Vance. “That is nonsense.”
Susan Hale, a spokeswoman for Fulton County schools, told Petchenik it wouldn’t be appropriate for the district to comment on the GDOE letter in light of pending litigation.
Cox Media Group
