Copyright 1999 P.G. Publishing Co.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
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March 4, 1999, Thursday, SOONER EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL, Pg. A-10
LENGTH: 1080 words
HEADLINE:
SCHOOLS MUST PAY FOR NURSES FOR DISABLED;
SUPREME COURT'S INTERPRETATION OF
1975 LAW IS CERTAIN TO BURDEN THE NATION'S;
SCHOOL DISTRICTS
BYLINE: MARY DEIBEL, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Even as President Clinton and Congress pledged to give public
schools more flexibility in spending federal dollars, the Supreme Court issued a
reminder yesterday of the costly strain that federal mandates can put on school
district budgets.
Ruling 7-2 in the closely watched case of a paralyzed
Iowa teen-ager, the justices said a 1975 federal law mandating "a free,
appropriate public education" to disabled students requires school districts to
pay for one-on-one nursing care to stu dents who need continuous care during
school hours.
There are an estimated 17,000 such students nationwide.
"The district may have legitimate financial concerns, but our role is to
interpret existing law," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court. He said
the issue wasn't cost but the law's requirement that "meaningful access to the
public schools will be assured." Justice Clarence Thomas, in a dissent written
for himself and Justice Anthony Kennedy, warned the ruling stands to "blindside"
school district budgets.
The decision is a happy victory for Garret
Frey, described by Stevens as a "friendly, creative, intelligent young man" who
suffered a severed spinal cord in a motorcycle accident at age 4 and now needs a
ventilator and other mechanical assistance that require constant maintenance.
The ruling also marks the latest chapter in the long, sad saga of the
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act since it was passed
almost 25 years ago.
For all the promise the law holds for the disabled,
federal policy-makers have never made good on their pledge to fund the law,
which has helped push spending on disabled students to $ 15,000 per pupil a year
on average, compared with $ 5,000 a year per healthy student.
Congress
and Clinton promised to pick up 40 percent of the tab for disabled students when
the law was renewed in 1997, and while federal funding has increased in the
three fiscal years since, the $ 4.8 billion Washington will spend this year to
carry out IDEA is only a tiny fraction of the $ 50-plus billion a year schools
spent on special needs children.
Judith Heumann, Clinton's assistant
secretary for special education, said the law "provides the mechanisms to assist
school districts to tap other available financial resources" to lessen the
burden of services covered by the Supreme Court ruling.
"I'm proud to be
part of an administration that stood up for Garret's rights and that offers real
assistance to schools that are responsible for implementing the law," she said.
But general counsel Julie Underwood of the National School Boards
Association wondered, "Where's the money going to come from?" when the federal
share of spending to carry out the law has been minimal since its enactment in
1975?
Local school districts currently account for about 50 cents on the
dollar, or about $ 25 billion of the more than $ 50 billion a year the nation
spends to educate 5.8 million special needs children. Another 43 cents on the
dollar comes from state sources, with a bare 7 cents from the federal
government.
"And that's without all-day, every-day medical care,"
Underwood said. "When that will cost $ 500 million a year more nationwide,
where's the money going to come from? Local property taxes? State sales taxes?
The federal budget surplus?"
In Pittsburgh, five or six students require
nursing care during the school day, said Kaye Cupples, district coordinator for
such students. If Pittsburgh had to pay those nurses salaries and benefits of $
80,000 to $ 90,000 each, the additional cost to the district would be about $
500,000.
Officials in several other Allegheny County school districts
were less certain because no students requiring nursing care attended their
schools right now. But, realizing that this could change, some officials said
the cost of providing nurses to such students could drain district finances at a
time when special education funds were tight.
"We want to make it
possible for these students to receive educational services," said Lynne
Porterfield, coordinator of educational support and special education for the
Fox Chapel Area School District. "But I have to raise my voice in questioning,
where do the responsibilities of public schools begin and end? How long can
schools continue to bear this kind of extraordinary expense? Where will the
money come from?"
On the other hand, city school board member Liz
Healey, whose daughter, Bevin, 18, requires nursing care and whose family lost a
similar case in federal court several years ago, hailed the decision.
Bevin Healey, a senior at Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill, has
several disabilities including cerebral palsy, chronic lung disease and
blindness. Her health care needs include suctioning of her tracheotomy and
monitoring of her eating through a feeding tube.
Liz Healey said her
family reached the $ 1 million cap on one health insurance policy because of her
daughter's nursing care and had had to change policies twice in order to
continue to provide a nurse for her.
"We're going to look into this,
because it really does exhaust our benefits," Liz Healey said.
Diane
Ravitch, the Bush Education Department official who heads the Brookings
Institution's education policy center, believes the reason Congress and the
White House can't reform IDEA and face up to the federal government's financial
responsibility is "fear of offending advocacy groups for children who are deaf,
blind, autistic, retarded or otherwise deserving of special help."
The
politically smart solution? She says, "The best hope for reform is for the
administration and Congress to create a special commission removed to the
maximum extent possible from political pressure . . . much like the commission
that oversaw the closing of U.S. military bases."
Disability rights
groups, who joined the Clinton administration in urging the Supreme Court to
side with Garret Frey, were delighted by the lawsuit's outcome.
The Freys estimate the cost of providing Garret with daily nursing care to
monitor his ventilator and take care of his needs should be no more than $
18,000 a year to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, schools. They're also seeking more than
$ 285,000 in legal fees and nursing costs run up since they exhausted insurance
money from the motorcycle manufacturer that was initially used to pay a licensed
practical nurse during school hours.
Post-Gazette staff writer Carmen J.
Lee contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: March 4,
1999 
