Parent tells Jefferson County board denials of ABA scheduling are harming special-needs students
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Summary
A parent told the board that Jefferson County schools are denying schedule accommodations that allow students to receive ABA therapy during the school day, calling the denials arbitrary and inconsistent across admission and release committees. She urged the board to audit ARC decisions and ensure compliance with IDEA, Section 504 and the ADA.
A Jefferson County parent told the school board on June 10 that scheduled accommodations allowing students to receive applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy during the school day are being denied inconsistently and that the practice is harming students who need the services.
Nicole Fleetwood Short, the mother of a child with special needs, addressed the board during public comment and said admission and release committee (ARC) decisions were “arbitrary” and varied by school and committee membership. Short said many children who require ABA to develop basic daily-living and communication skills are being denied scheduled access to that therapy during school hours, and that the denials effectively block access to services that are critical to long-term independence.
“Some may never learn to use the bathroom independently, communicate their needs, or perform basic daily living skills,” Short said. “These are not luxuries. These are survival skills.”
Short told the board she and other parents have been warned by local therapists that the district “likes to bully parents into thinking they have no rights,” and she cited the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as legal frameworks that require schools to provide a free appropriate public education and reasonable accommodations.
What the board heard: Short asked the board to audit ARC decisions, to examine whether parents’ expertise about their children is being respected in meetings, and to ensure the district honors schedule accommodations when outside therapies are clinically necessary and available only during school hours.
What staff said on the record: During subsequent consent-item discussion, district leaders confirmed that when schools encounter potential criminal items or other matters that require police involvement, the district refers those matters to school police; district staff also said they would correct several handbook and policy references and provide clarifications about how referrals and searches are handled. Short’s public comment asked the board to apply that same scrutiny to ARC decisions.
Next steps requested by the speaker: an audit of ARC outcomes, review of scheduling practices for students who require ABA therapy, and direct engagement with families to assess consistency across schools.
Quote in context: Short cited federal statutes and said district leaders must “look closely at what’s happening in your ARC committees.”
Speakers listed are from the public comment period; no formal action on ARC policy was taken at the June 10 meeting.
