(Note: this blog post was written by third year IHRC student Cindy Chu.)
After a brief summer hiatus, IHRC students hit the ground running on their respective projects. Only a couple of weeks into the Fall 2015 semester, students submitted an amicus brief and travelled overseas to visit clients. I traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR) with IHRC Professor Francisco J. Rivera to present work on an ongoing clinic project aimed at ensuring children with disabilities in PR receive adequate education and services. Specifically I presented advocacy research and conclusions, gathered in Spring 2015 by Tiffany Uhri Chu and me, on the federal monitoring of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA provides federal education funds ($12.5 billion in 2014) to all U.S. states and territories to ensure students with disabilities are provided a free, appropriate public education.
IHRC student Cindy Chu and IHRC director Francisco Rivera with Rosa Celorio and Tracy Robinson (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights), and Annette Martínez and Diego Alcalá (Caribbean Institute of Human Rights)
The research and trip were part of the clinic’s continued efforts to support human rights attorneys representing Puerto Rican children with disabilities in a class action against the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) for failing to provide adequate special education and related disability services. To learn more about the Rosa Lydia Velez Class Action see past IHRC blog post (paragraph 3) or watch this compelling video. After IHRC students researched and presented in Spring and Fall 2014 various advocacy options available, class action attorneys asked the clinic to explore the tools and avenues available through the federal monitoring of IDEA to ensure PRDE is managing federal funds adequately to guarantee the right to education for children with special needs.
I travelled to DC in Spring 2015 with Tiffany and Prof. Rivera and met with senior staff in the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). What we learned was eye-opening. The IDEA federal monitoring process, with all its data-driven bells and whistles, does not measure actual, proper delivery of special education services (the very goal of IDEA funding!). The process instead gets weighed down by measuring the process – for example, whether PRDE is reporting data in a timely manner or creating Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) in a timely manner. There is no measurement for whether IEPs reported are actually being conducted competently or in an individualized manner. We also learned from our interviews of USDE staff that because they prioritize their existing, cooperative relationship with PRDE, they are sometimes hesitant to put financial pressure on Puerto Rico to shape up, despite acknowledged awareness that PRDE is not adequately implementing IDEA objectives.
IHRC student Cindy Chu and IHRC director Francisco Rivera with clients Lina Torres and Manuel Torres
In a whirlwind of a day and a half in Puerto Rico in early September, Professor Rivera and I coordinated three different meetings with attorneys and scholars to present and discuss these findings in further detail. We met first with Lina and Manuel Torres, professors at Sacred Heart University and human rights advocates who also have a personal stake in the matter because their son has significant developmental disabilities. Later, the evening of the same day, we met with Osvaldo Burgos, a human rights attorney who serves children with disabilities in PR and has served as chair or on the board of various human rights groups and non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International. Our final meeting was with our clients, the Rosa Lydia Velez class action attorneys. Each meeting lasted approximately two hours. With the support of Director Rivera who helped to translate and hammer home points, I witnessed my own presentation skills and public speaking confidence improve from one presentation to the next.
IHRC student Cindy Chu with human rights attorney Osvaldo Burgos
Our research was well received by clients and partners alike. Lina Torres remarked after our presentation that she was happy to have proof corroborating their suspicions that the federal government’s IDEA monitoring process did not formally take into account feedback from parents and community organizations, and that USDE is hesitant to intervene despite PRDE’s continual failure to meet the needs of a significant portion of their student population. The clients appreciated having hard data in their hands to demonstrate that an IDEA compliance determination of 87.5% (PR’s score in 2014) means little more than a pat on the back for timely filing paperwork. This enables them to confidently dispel the myth promulgated by PRDE that according to the federal government they are adequately providing special education services.
We presented our clients and partners with the following advocacy options:
- advocate for federal monitoring process to formally account for community feedback in compliance determinations;
- ask the investigative branch of USDE, the Office of Inspector General, to investigate and hold PRDE accountable for specific violations;
- petition the Department of Justice (DOJ) to intervene in pressuring PR to better manage federal funds;
- seek a neutral, non-federal or local monitor such as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Catalina Devandas, to address this issue, and
- confront PRDE with our findings.
They approved all options listed above, but prioritized formalizing community feedback in the monitoring process, which they agreed should involve holding public hearings where parents of children with disabilities in PR can share their feedback and grievances. They were also interested in a neutral monitor and capitalizing on the momentum of the recent DOJ crackdown on PR for mismanaging funds. I will be focusing my efforts for the rest of the semester on working with USDE to formalize community feedback; in addition, I hope to at least connect with U.N. Rapporteur Devandas and figure out who to talk to in the DOJ.
IHRC student Cindy Chu and IHRC director Francisco Rivera with APNI director Celia Galán
In our remaining spare time we squeezed in a lunch with Tracy Robinson and Rosa Celorio, Commissioner and staff attorney of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, respectively, and with other human rights attorneys, where we discussed this and other human rights issues affecting PR. Commissioner Robinson was speaking at a human rights conference in San Juan and meeting with PR government officials to discuss human rights concerns, including the issue of special education that the clinic had raised before the Commission in a public hearing last Spring (see video). See past IHRC blog post for more details. We also visited a local non-profit funded by IDEA called Apoyo a Padres de Niños Con Impedimentos (APNI) and met with Executive Director Celia Galán who told us about the services they provide to help parents of children with disabilities understand and exercise their rights and obtain the services their children need to actively participate in school and the community.
In my brief time there I got a taste for the natural beauty and vibrancy of the history and culture in Puerto Rico. At one point during our visit, as we made our way through the city streets from one meeting place to the next, Professor Rivera said, “I love my country – even though there are so many things wrong here, there are also so many good and beautiful things about it.” I hope that as I continue my work this semester I will help to tip the scale, even ever so slightly, towards the beautiful and good.
IHRC student Cindy Chu with class action attorneys
