That’s more than a third of the special education budget and nearly one-ninth of the entire school budget.

But no one from the city is monitoring the students’ progress or evaluating the services they receive, and there are no legal contracts in place to govern the billing.

Special education administrator Freida Lacey revealed those disturbing facts to the appointed board of school trustees May 12 with one hopeful note: monitors and contracts are at last being put in place.

"Apparently the city used to have contracts with the schools," said Lacey, who came to D.C. Public Schools last October on loan from Montgomery County, Md., schools. "Somehow, they were discontinued for some reason. Now the schools submit a bill and charge us what they want. They add extra services and fees if they think it’s necessary."

"Right now we have very little control," she added. "Without contracts, we are extremely vulnerable, we have no leverage. We have to show that we are in charge, not the private schools."

Officials plan that next year, instead of just paying the bills submitted by some 50 different private schools, D.C. officials will have contracts in place with set fees for services agreed upon at the outset. This summer, school officials plan to draw up a request for proposals and accept bids from interested schools.

A small group of administrators, including representatives from the offices of procurement and finance, have been working on the plan for several months and will bring their recommendations to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and Deputy Superintendent Elois Brooks May 19, Lacey said.

Acknowledging the disturbing process of discovery now going on in an attempt to fix the city’s deeply troubled special education system, Lacey said that funding has been requested for four full-time monitors to visit D.C. special education students in private placements, obtain their records and track their progress. The task really requires six people, she added.

"This sounds dismal," she said, "but the good thing is, we recognized there’s something wrong."

Copyright 1999, The Common Denominator