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Felix decree:
Problems and
progress
With three months to meet
Namesake doing 'excellently' By Crystal Kua
special-ed obligations, a
court-appointed monitor
says the state falls short
Star-BulletinOn Maui, children are being seen for mental health services in hallways and on stairs.
Kona, an area with a lower-than-average percentage of identified special-education students, has one of the highest rates of kids being suspended from school.
Across the state there is a shortage of certified special-education teachers, speech pathologists and other crucial positions.
A hearing is scheduled tomorrow before U.S. District Judge David Ezra to assess how Hawaii is progressing under a 1994 federal consent decree to improve mental health and educational services to special-needs students.
A court-appointed monitor overseeing the process says "major impediments" prevent the state from meeting its court-ordered obligation.
The monitor, Ivor Groves, notes in a May 9 letter that the state has less than three months to achieve "substantial implementation" of requirements under the Felix consent decree, yet it falls short in these areas:
Skilled professionals capable of providing timely functional assessments.
'A real frustration'
Groves said there has been progress made but there also continue to be problems with identifying children with learning disabilities and with what he called another "major barrier": the ability of the Department of Education to provide timely and accurate data.Amanda McConnell, the mother of an autistic child on Maui and parent co-chairwoman of the Maui Children's Coalition, said the court monitor's letter hits the mark on several points.
"I totally agree with it," McConnell said. "We're not producing a systematic change."
McConnell's organization wrote a letter to the monitor detailing continued problems on Maui that it contends stem from a "Band-Aid approach." That letter is filed in court as part of the plaintiff's case.
For example, the letter says, children are being seen for mental health services in hallways and on stairs, children are not receiving needed services in a timely manner because of drawn-out processes, and there is a lack of coordination and no increase in the number of special-education teachers.
Coalition members said they would rather see a court-appointed receiver take over than to see "further futile efforts" on the part of parents and professionals to obtain quality services.
McConnell said the letter "comes from a real frustration with there being inadequate planning, being in a crisis mode, putting-out-the-fire, reactive approach."
A federal lawsuit in 1993 for Jennifer Felix alleged that the state is violating federal laws requiring adequate mental health, education and other services for special-needs children. The state agreed to a 1994 consent decree ordering improvements.
The state -- mainly the departments of Education and Health -- has until June 30 to comply with the consent decree, but most observers believe that the state will need more time.
'The issue is noncompliance'
Tomorrow, Ezra will hear a motion filed by the plaintiffs asking that the state be held in contempt for failing to improve services to special-needs children after six years.The plaintiffs also want a receiver appointed to take control of services on the Big Island and Maui, as well as in Aiea, Kapolei, Waianae, Kahuku and Kaimuki.
The plaintiffs' attorney, Shelby Floyd, believes the monitor's report will carry a lot of weight with the court.
"I think there have been improvements in the ability of state agencies to work together in a common goal for kids," Floyd said. "But resources that we have are thin. ... We don't have the depth of services."
Part of the problem is money, but part of it is also the way the system is set up, she said. "The system is not set up for full-time work for people at a decent wage," Floyd said. "Use the least amount of money to get the necessary manpower, and what that does is ensure that we get turnover."
Floyd said that in some areas -- especially rural sections -- children that should be getting services are not. "Many, many kids aren't making progress in learning. That's scandalous. What are they going to school for?"
Floyd maintains that the state should be held in contempt, while another attorney for the plaintiffs, Eric Seitz, reportedly has said he does not believe that is the best course.
Floyd said, "The issue is noncompliance; it's not a question of lack of good faith or bad conduct. They haven't been able to do what they signed on to do."
State claims 'progress'
The state in its April 14 reply argued that it has made "tremendous progress" in developing a self-sustaining system of care for delivering special-education services.The fact that the state is running out of time should not be cause to find the state in contempt because it is in "substantial compliance," according to the state's court documents.
Of the 30-plus school complexes -- high schools and the schools that feed into them -- four are in compliance, six are recommended for partial provisional compliance, four are pending formal recommendation, and 13 need to be retested next school year, the state said.
But the plaintiffs said in a May 18 rebuttal that the state has not shown any evidence that it is in substantial compliance.
Plans submitted to the court are either drafts or actions that are to be taken in the future, the plaintiffs said.
Still other plans were not developed until after problems -- like those on Molokai -- were brought to light by the plaintiffs, their lawyers said.
A lawyer for the state could not be reached for comment on the state's latest court filings.
Teachers' load is 'heavy'
Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said the problem is not with collective bargaining but with the system as a whole. Changes need to be made to respond to recruitment and retention concerns and to alleviate the frustrations experienced by special-education and regular teachers who end up being burnt out, disenchanted and leave.Although there is a shortage of certified special-education teachers, regular-education teachers are being called upon to do more in serving special-education students in their classrooms as federal law requires, Ginoza said.
Teachers need additional personnel support and less paperwork, Ginoza said. "The load is heavy."
Decree’s namesake
By Helen Altonn
doing ‘excellently’
Star-BulletinThe Felix consent decree in many ways was "a little late" for Jennifer Felix, says her mother, Frankie Servetti-Coleman.
"But we didn't want to see families in the same position we were in so long."
Jennifer was left brain-damaged, epileptic and visually and speech impaired after a viral infection when she was an infant.
She was 20 when a class-action lawsuit was filed in her name six years ago alleging state violations of federal laws requiring education and mental health services for special-needs children.
She has had some horrible experiences but now is doing "amazingly well -- excellently, in fact," her mother said.
She is living at Hale Lokahi, a home operated by the state Health Department's Developmental Disabilities Services Branch, and goes to the Kokua Mau Work Center on Waimano Home Road during the day.
She earns about $120 a month and buys a round-trip ticket to go home every month to Maui where her parents and brother live.She swims in the family's pool and Saturday competed in the 15-yard assisted swim at the Special Olympics at the University of Hawaii.
"She was so excited that she qualified," said her mother, among proud spectators at the event.
She said that Jennifer's case manager, Kim Alakahi, "has really gone to bat" for her and that Yvonne Angut, the work program director, took her under her wing.
Jennifer works on airline headsets, wrapping cords around the earpiece and putting them in plastic bags.
"The first day I was there, I left crying. I was so ecstatic because everything Texas said Jenny could do she is now doing with a structured program that she needs," her mother said. "It is fabulous." (Jennifer was in a treatment program in Texas for nine years until August 1998.)
Servetti-Coleman and her husband moved their family to Maui from California in 1983. Jenny had attended a special school there with therapy and counseling for kids with physical and emotional problems.
But the family could not find any services on Maui for Jennifer. She was self-abusing, running away and hitting her, Servetti-Coleman said. So when she was nearly 16, they sent her to the Brown Schools, a residential facility in Texas for brain-damaged kids.
"She was doing excellent in Texas," her mother said. But in 1998 a "Felix panel" of "three experts" recommended that she be placed in a program at Kula Hospital.
Servetti-Coleman said she and her husband "were totally against it" and that "it was a total nightmare. Her behavior totally deteriorated."
She said Jennifer did not fit in with the kind of kids in the hospital program, designed for children and young adults with disabilities.
"Even the admitting doctor said, 'What is she doing here?' But we had to go with the Felix panel. I'm still upset by that."
One month after going to Kula Hospital, Jennifer fell and shattered her knee and spent nearly three months at Maui Memorial Hospital. She was then moved to Hale Lokahi in Waipahu.
Servetti-Coleman said she paid for Delois Thompson, director of the Sequin Community Living Program in Texas where Jennifer had lived, to come here. She worked with Hale Lokahi on its program.
Jennifer is "the mildest" of five people in the home with physical and emotional problems, Servetti-Coleman said.
She is doing so well that she could be a candidate soon for a more independent living situation, but she can never live alone, her mother said.
A year ago, Servetti-Coleman said, she was "screaming at everybody" in the Developmental Disabilities program. She recently told them: "Give yourselves a big hand. The results are: Look at Jenny.
"We knew that Jenny had potential because of what she did in Texas. ... Things have worked out wonderfully. Her behavior, I can hardly believe it myself."
Servetti-Coleman said she receives many calls from families of other special-needs kids. "I highly recommend trying to work with the system, and not hire a lawyer at first."
But after several hours at a recent meeting about the Felix consent decree, she said, "It was the exact same story I've heard for years, especially kids with severe emotional problems. ...
"Six years later, I don't see it (big improvements). They're still sending kids to the mainland."
Servetti-Coleman urges more support and training for special-education teachers. "I have met some wonderful teachers, and I think there are some wonderful people who work in the system," she said.
"But the system overall needs a lot more work on it. It's been six years. I think it's a beginning. ... It will help a lot of kids."
