Complying with Disability Laws

By Olympia Meola and David Ress
Published Jan 20th, 2008 Mediatalk listserv/ Richmond Times Dispatch

Davis Beatty should attend William Fox Elementary -- the school his brother and his neighbors attend -- a few blocks from his Richmond home. But there are five steps to the Fan District school's front door. Children must go to the second floor for assemblies and to the basement for lunch. There's no elevator.

And Davis needs a walker.

Federal law says he is supposed to be able to get into school. But unless someone complains, nobody enforces that law. And when people complain -- even if they win a settlement, as Richmond parents including Davis' did -- there's no guarantee things will be fixed. Cost is a big deterrent.

So Davis, a 12-year-old fourth-grader, goes to John B. Cary Elementary, away from his brother and friends.

Nearly every school in Richmond remains out of compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, two years after the Richmond public school system settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by parents with a promise to fix the problem.

Other school districts in the Richmond and Tri-Cities region say people with disabilities can get into their buildings and participate in their programs, as the 17year-old ADA demands.

The U.S. Department of Education says it received only two complaints in Virginia in the past year and a half. Both were from Henrico County, and only one involved building accessibility. In that case, involving parking spaces, the department found no violation.

All new schools comply with the act, and older schools are renovated as needed, Henrico schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson said.

It's not a trivial issue, parents and advocates say.

"When you're left outside the building and you can't get up the stairs, what's happening is you are being excluded," said Fred Orelove, executive director of the Partnership for People with Disabilities.

"Getting inside a school doesn't mean you'll be a great learner, but being kept out pretty much guarantees you won't."

In a way, complying with the law is easier in the suburbs. Many suburban schools built in the past several decades are one-story buildings, and school officials with little fuss have installed ramps for entrance steps, accessible bathrooms and handicap parking.

"We have a book on compliance concerns, and as we do our inspections we try to identify areas needing attention," said David Szalankiewicz, director of facilities for Louisa County's schools. "Staff and community members also provide their thoughts and concerns."

The response in Richmond has been different.

"I really want to teach in Richmond," said Derek Bayard, 47, who has had three interviews at schools with teacher shortages and a quiet word from a human-resources official that it might be tough for him to work because of his wheelchair. He still hopes for a job in a system where he had been a volunteer and PTA president for years.

"I went through sleet and hail and snow to go to school," he said, referring to his graduating in 2006 from Virginia Union University with a bachelor's degree. "It's frustrating because I know how easy it is to overcome things. It's not impossible."

Despite a 1992 study outlining problems in almost every Richmond school, officials did little to fix problems, and then only when parents complained, said School Board member Carol A.O. Wolf. She says that is outrageous, and she has pushed for years to get the school system to address the issue.

But finding cash to make improvements is tough, said the school system's ADA coordinator, Aisha Shamburger.

So two years after the School Board settled a 2005 lawsuit that Davis Beatty's mother, Vicki, and other parents filed to force the system to obey the law, 50 of 55 schools don't meet ADA standards, school officials admit. Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, named in the suit, didn't settle and argues it is up to the School Board to fix the problem.

City officials this month froze the $311,806 the Wilder administration and City Council agreed would fund ADA-related improvements this year, as Wilder and the board continue feuding over money.

The school system used most but not all of the $565,000 set aside for ADA projects in the 2004-05 school year, said Lynn Bragga, the budget director for the school system.

The money was designated to pay for an elevator at Ginter Park Elementary School and design for a project at Fox Elementary, but it was diverted to pay for other, smaller ADA projects. There is about $44,000 left, Bragga said.

The elevator at Fox to help students with disabilities get to the school's second-floor auditorium and its basement cafeteria remains uninstalled -- it was scheduled to be done last year.

. . .

Access for people with disabilities is a problem no one really wants to accept responsibility for, according to many parents in and out of the city.

"There's no room for her in her classroom. She walks with a walker, and it can't fit," Chesterfield County resident Mauretta Copeland said of her 10-year-old daughter. It means her daughter needs to hang on to an aide to move around the classroom, undercutting the sense of independence and self-reliance Copeland is trying to teach her.

It's a special classroom -- Copeland is still battling with the school for her daughter to get reading, arithmetic and other academic classes.

"It's funny, the special classrooms are always tucked 'way in the back,'" Copeland said. "It's like nobody wants to see."

Jim Bradshaw, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, the agency designated to enforce ADA in the schools, said enforcement is primarily driven by complaints.

The state Department of Education does not monitor whether schools are accessible, except for high schools participating in a federally funded vocational education program.

School administrators say enforcement is pretty much on an honor system and that fixes often come at the request of parents or other community members.

That is why there is a wheelchair lift for the high school stage in Hopewell, said Ray Watson, assistant superintendent in Hopewell. It cost more than $6,000.

There is only one classroom in Hopewell, for a high school English class, that is on the second floor, and if accessibility were an issue, Watson said the class would be moved.

New Kent County Superintendent J. Roy Geiger II noted that in his school system, "there's still some work that we do time to time to continue work in those areas, but we believe we're in good shape."

King William County Superintendent Mark R. Jones said recent renovations made all the county's schools accessible. There are ramps for all steps in the single-story schools, as well as handicap parking, he said.

At a heated Richmond School Board meeting last month, one of the lawyers representing Beatty and other parents who sued the school system said ADA projects should be a priority.

They said those projects should have been included in the school construction and renovation plan the board prepared for the City Council. The council wanted that plan as it considers a $169 million school construction budget for the five years beginning July 1. The board, meanwhile, has asked board member Wolf to look into finding funds for ADA compliance.

It can be a fight to let children with disabilities have more access to schools, but the battle is worth it, said Chesterfield resident Jennifer Peers.

It took years of arguing to get her 10-year-old daughter, Molly, who uses a wheelchair and a communications device, into a regular third-grade class at Swift Creek Elementary School.

"I think she's teaching them a lot -- they look differently at her now," Peers said.

"It's: Wow, she really can do that. It's: Wow, Molly's right there in her wheelchair hanging out with all the other kids."