Appointing a receiver to oversee Hawaii's special-education system would be a "drastic remedy, one which I am not prepared to take," U.S. District Judge David Ezra said. No receiver for special education
By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com"There will be no takeover."
Ezra decided against federal receivership at a hearing to determine whether the state was in substantial compliance with the Felix consent decree, the federal mandate to improve the delivery of educational and mental health services to special-needs children.
The judge had threatened federal receivership if the state had not reached certain benchmarks by Nov. 1 to meet certain benchmarks.
The next significant deadline will come March 31, when the state must have all school complexes in compliance and remaining benchmarks met.
The state, the plaintiffs and Ezra all agreed yesterday that progress has been made since the filing of the 1993 lawsuit that resulted in the consent decree.
But that is where the agreement ends.
"There's undeniable progress in the sense of more kids being identified and serviced, but I believe we now have more kids being identified not getting services in accordance with the consent decree," plaintiffs' attorney Shelby Floyd said after the hearing.
Deputy Attorney General Holly Shikada said that while the state is in substantial compliance, it will never be able to be perfect.
"There is no system that will give you 100 percent compliance 100 percent of the time," Shikada said.
Shikada said that the time has come to move away from federal oversight and give the Department of Education more control.
Floyd said the department has always had control. "The question is whether anyone is watching over what they are doing."
Attorney Eric Seitz, who also represents the plaintiffs, said the department still is not meeting all its obligations, including those for reading and for recruiting a required number of licensed special-education teachers.