Questions and concerns emerged soon after it was reported that a single student was restrained or secluded 858 times in one school year. The number of incidents to this student — who has parents in Darien but attends a residential school outside of town — represented 96% of the total number of restraints and seclusions reported by Darien Schools during the 2012-13 school year.
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School administrators will not be given raises this year, saving the district $68,000 after an arbitration panel decision. However, the panel found that responsibility for last year’s special education debacle should be shared among all those involved, including the Board of Education.
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Many people will live their entire lives without being restrained from moving their bodies, and never being held in a confined space, unable to leave, for a long period of time. But one child of a Darien family experienced these incidents 858 times at the hands of an out-of-district school, according to information provided by district administration.
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Auditors tasked with scrutinizing Darien Schools’ excess cost reimbursements for special education services have found so many problems that they are saying it will take three or four times the amount of effort and time to determine how deep the problems go.
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If school administrators get their way, Darien will be shelling out an additional $70,000 among the 24 union members who all make six-figure salaries and are top earners in their field across the state.
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Suspicious language in a statement from the Board of Education that appeared to restrict free speech rights is now under review after The Darien Times brought this concern to the school board.
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The gloves are off. But some of the punches being thrown could involve legal implications that now have the school district publicly condemning the recent actions of the district’s former special education director.
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Negotiations between school administrators and the Board of Education drew contentious debate at two arbitration hearings over the weekend, with lawyers on both sides using the special education debacle to try and sway the arbitration panel.
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A controversial piece of a complicated puzzle has emerged with an 18-page letter penned by Darien’s former special education director who describes a desperate Board of Education that hired her to fix a culture that catered to the whims of demanding parents and their high-powered lawyers.
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More than 10% of children with disabilities are being taught in schools outside of Darien, and this has parents and district administrators concerned for a variety of reasons. Yet the exact number of children who are receiving special education services who live in Darien remains unreported.
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David DesRoches 