Hello and Welcome.  Each month The Child and Family Law Center of the North Shore, Ltd. will provide articles of interest and updates on areas that our office deals with on a regular basis.  We appreciate and welcome feedback, so please feel free to send us an email at mickim@lawforchild.com with questions or suggestions.

 

ISBE Cuts Reimbursement Rates to School Districts Funding Residential Placements

In December, 2013, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Superintendent announced dramatic cuts in the reimbursement rates to districts for students who are in residential placements. Previously, districts had been reimbursed up to 100% of their costs for these placements. While residential placements have always been reserved for the most severe of students whose needs could not be met in a less restrictive setting, there was the comfort in knowing that with effort from parents, often with attorneys, districts would be compelled to see the need and know that they would be reimbursed.
This has all changed dramatically this year. Schools will now be reimbursed for only 50% of the costs of these placements. A "typical" residential placement can cost schools on average between $120,000.00 and $170,000.00 annually,. For cash strapped schools, this is not something they can or will agree to easily. Unfortunately, the need for these placements has risen incrementally. In an informal discussion with the ISBE administrator who is responsible for approving these placements, it was indicated that applications have doubled in the past several years.
Students who need these placements have the most severe issues. While there is no typical student, a few profiles of the students who are in residential placements may be helpful.

• Student A is a teenager with autism. They have become increasingly aggressive at home and at school. They have not made progress and are regressing. Staff have been injured at school and the student requires intensive behavioral interventions on a 24/7 basis.
• Student B is severely depressed. They have an eligibility of Emotional Disturbance and OHI. For the past school year, they have been psychiatrically hospitalized several times and their medications don't seem to be helping. The student has talked about suicide and has no friends. Student B is barely passing their classes and spends most of the day out of the classroom in the therapeutic day school with the social worker or in the hall. 

What does this mean for parents whose students are already in residential placements or in need of these environments? While residential placements were never easy to get agreement from the school, districts are scrutinizing these requests as never before. Some districts are simply saying no. As a parent's attorney, I have almost always informed clients that they needed an attorney to help them in their request for a residential placement. These cutbacks in funding will most certainly make the need for lawyers to navigate the process more important than ever. This is not an infomercial for legal services but an unfortunate reality. The result will be that cash strapped parents who are in a desperate situation will need to hire counsel to sue the district in a due process hearing to get much needed help. Most parents cannot afford private legal services. This process is not fast, easy or without tremendous stress. The stakes are high for both sides. For the school district, it is money. For the parents, it is their child's life.  

 

The Child and Family Law Center of the North Shore is a unique legal practice that specializes in providing legal services to families and children in the areas of special education, IEP consultations, divorce and custody, parenting agreements, mediation, guardianship and juvenile law, including criminal law, DCFS and mental health. Where possible, we have initiated flat fee billing for appropriate matters.

 

The Child and Family Law Center of the North Shore 

1950 Sheridan Rd.

Suite 201

Highland Park, IL 60035 

 

For more information about The Child and Family Law Center of the North Shore, please call 847-926-0101 or visit our website at www.lawforchild.com