Someone had to be punished for the agency's wasteful and arrogant ways.
Money, by the millions, disappeared into a bureaucratic black hole. The current deficit of $105 million is expected to be followed by a $155 million shortfall next fiscal year. And no one running Florida's Agency for Persons with Disabilities could quite explain why.
The agency culture was about as open as the old East Germany. John Hall, executive director of the Florida ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) said his advocacy group had to sue before APD relinquished a death grip on public information.
The Legislature had demanded that APD adopt some modern managed care and accounting practices. To no avail.
It was all too much. Waste. Lousy management. Inexplicable accounting. Snooty attitude.
PUNISHING THE VICTIMS
Someone had to pay. And the Florida Legislature has decided just who.
Lawmakers took their frustrations out on Floridians with Down syndrome, with autism, with spina bifida, with cerebral palsy, and other disabilities. Someone has to pay for the sins of the APD.
The 16 percent cut in appropriations will mean some special punishment for the parents of disabled children who depend on money funneled through the agency to fund home healthcare services. ''If you have 10 hours of home care cut to five, that means parents working eight-hour jobs will have to quit their jobs and stay home and take care of their kids,'' said Michael Messer, president of ARC's South Florida chapter.
''It's just not right,'' he said Monday evening. Not that anyone in Tallahassee was listening.
It's too early to be precise about how much the budget cuts will affect those now getting home services, but it's a near-certainty that the disabled Floridians on the waiting list for help are out of luck. Some 15,000 are now on the list. The cuts, of course, will coincide with an increase in the ever-growing number of disabled folks in need of the services. The waiting list will only grow more formidable.
But someone has to be punished.
MYSTERIOUS LOGIC
The logic behind the cuts in the APD's budget seems all the more mysterious considering that for every 45 cents the state spends on care for these disabled folks, the federal government pitches in another 55 cents. ''It's like every dollar we don't spend, we lose another dollar,'' said Messer, his voice wavering between bewilderment and anger. The home care system itself saves the state money by eliminating the very expensive alternative of housing the disabled in state institutions.
Gov. Charlie Crist inherited the APD mess from Jeb Bush, who severed the agency from the Department of Children and Families three years ago and created an organization with a lean, mean, minimalist bureaucracy that would pay private contractors to provide most of the home services. But the APD staff proved far too lean to manage a $700 million budget. It hemorrhaged money.
GOVERNOR MOURNFUL
Crist told reporters, ``My heart goes out to the disabled and the most vulnerable among us. I want to support those who need the help, but I don't want to support fraud.''
No one wants to support fraud. But the crackdown on APD coming out of Tallahassee doesn't target fraudulent or incompetent or arrogant bureaucrats.
Instead, kids with profound disabilities and wretched hardships will feel the wrath. But, hey, someone has to pay.
The final regulations under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) providing additional
flexibility to states to more appropriately measure the achievement of
certain students with disabilities, otherwise known as the 2% regulation,
was released today. The regulations have now been posted on the U.S.
Department of Education's website. It can be accessed at
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2007/04/04042007.html
Secretary Spellings Announces New Regulations to More Accurately Assess
Students With Disabilities Allows states to count 2.0 percent of proficient
and advanced scores on alternate assessment when measuring adequate yearly
progress
FOR RELEASE:
April 4, 2007 Contact: Rebecca Neale
(202) 401-1576
Secretary Spellings Announces New Regulations to More Accurately Assess
Students With Disabilities Allows states to count 2.0 percent of proficient
and advanced scores on alternate assessment when measuring adequate yearly
progress
These regulations allow states to develop modified academic achievement
standards that are challenging for eligible students and measure a student's
mastery of grade-level content, but are less difficult than grade-level
achievement standards. The new regulations are part of an ongoing effort to
ensure that all students, including those with disabilities, fully
participate in a state's accountability system and are assessed in an
appropriate and accurate manner.
FOR RELEASE:
April 4, 2007 Contact: Rebecca Neale
(202) 401-1576
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today
announced new regulations under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) allowing states
to test certain students with disabilities using an alternate assessment
that more appropriately aligns with students' needs and yields more
meaningful results for schools and parents. The new regulations provide
states and schools with greater flexibility by allowing them to more
accurately evaluate these students' academic progress and tailor instruction
based on individual needs.
"Through No Child Left Behind, we're continuing to raise the bar and improve
the way we educate and assess students with disabilities," Secretary
Spellings said. "These students are capable of achieving high academic
standards, and now states and schools can be better attuned to their needs.
No Child Left Behind has put the needs of students with disabilities front
and center, and this regulation helps continue to drive the field forward in
developing better tests for students with disabilities."
Secretary Spellings also announced that the U.S. Department of Education
will provide $21.1 million in grant funds for technical assistance as states
develop new assessments for these students. Today, the Department also
released written guidance to states on the implementation of the new
regulations, offering recommendations on issues such as how students with
disabilities can be appropriately identified for this assessment.
Under the new regulations released today, states may develop modified
academic achievement standards based on grade-level content, and alternate
assessments based on those standards, for students with disabilities who are
capable of achieving high standards but may not reach grade level in the
same timeframe as their peers. States may count proficient and advanced test
scores on these alternate assessments for up to 2.0 percent of all students
assessed when calculating adequate yearly progress (AYP) under NCLB. These
regulations build on the flexibility provided for students with the most
significant cognitive disabilities, which allows states to count up to 1.0
percent of proficient and advanced assessment scores based on alternate
achievement standards toward AYP calculation.