“Every time I have tried to contact her(Carmen Dixon), I have never, once gotten a response.”
The Iowa City Community School District’s (ICCSD) Special Education program has been in rocky territory lately with a new interim director, Jane Fry, and many sanctions from the Iowa Department Of Education which were initiated from Grant Wood Area Education Agency (GWAEA).

Carmen Dixon, the Director of Special Education had requested a leave of absence for unknown reasons. Jane Fry, is undertaking the position until January 1, 2017. Fry is the assistant superintendent normally.

GWAEA had issued 26 citations (or fixes) that the ICCSD needed to address. Long story short, they failed to do so. The Iowa Department of Education listed a noncompliance list of the necessary measures needed to be met. The beginning of the report states, “The program accreditation team determined that the corrective actions ordered by Grant Wood AEA were correct and necessary citations, and that Iowa City CSD is out of compliance with a number of additional areas of IDEA.”

One of the major issues listed by the report is informing parents about meetings and changes regarding their student’s special education. Parents feel they are not getting the necessary information they need about their child’s education.

A (prefered anonymous) parent states, “They told me at the end of the year in elementary school that he(Autistic son) would lose paraeducator time.” This turned out not to be the case. “We had to consult with a lawyer.” The elementary special education teacher told them para time would be decreased. Then the district turned around and completely said, no, that wasn’t the case and, that had never even been said. This definitely speaks to the feeling of distrust many have for the special education program.

Numbers of students with IEPs are going down. This trend is shown statewide. In 2014 there was 1,366 students with an IEP in the ICCSD. Now there is 1,170. It seems questionable why this is, especially with Autism reaching 1 in 45 people. Scott A. Woodruff, of the Home School Legal Defense Association, says, “Yes, I have seen many cases where families chose to homeschool because their child with special needs was not being treated right in the public schools.” Could this be the case of our district?

To be fair, I couldn’t find any statistics to back this up. Also, Stephanie Phillips, of the Home School Assistance Program, says, “The HSAP population hasn’t changed much in the last four years. HSAP continues to serve more elementary than secondary students, and the number of homeschooled students with active and inactive IEPs is consistent with previous years’ numbers.”

Also a major issue is the budget deficit. Fry said, “I think we are always taking a look at our efficiencies, when it has to do with where our classrooms are at, the number of staff that are needed to provide supports and services to our students. We look at transportation. Are we keeping kids in the school program that is closest to their neighborhood school, or in fact at their neighborhood school. So any of those things we continue to take a look at.” The budget must be minimized by, at least, $11,632.00 this year alone.

But what of the department saying the citations are only a “documentation issue”? Well, the report shows that is definitely not the case. The district has tried to play down these issues by saying so.

Only time will tell if the Special education coordinators can regain trust back from countless families.

Noncompliance Report