Ron Drake 
Retention Rule Still Valid, After All These Years
May 19, 2004

DCPSWatch Home

Major Areas
DC Public Schools
Mayoral Takeover
Special Education

State Education Agency
State Education Office
Vouchers
WTU
Wilson S.H.S.

Calendars
Board of Education
School Year

Columns
Elizabeth Davis
Ron Drake
Erich Martel
Nathan Saunders

Directories
Schools

Letters

Links

Organizations
DC Education Compact
Parents United
Proposition 100%

Press

Search

DCWatch Home

RETENTION RULE STILL VALID, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

May 19, 2004

Good evening my fellow DC residents. I'm Ron Drake.

A dozen years ago the school board, under the leadership of board members Linda Moody and Iris Toyer, adopted what DCPS refers to as the "Drake Rule." That Rule, simply stated, requires DCPS to refer a retained child for an assessment to determine if that child is in need of special education.

The Drake Rule worked well for years. But a hand full of DCPS administrators, still here, loathed it. And then came the Gingrich Control Board.
DCPS collaborators seized on the Gingrich Control Board as their opportunity to rid themselves of that troublesome Drake Rule. And so they did - or so they thought.

But, in typical DCPS administrators fashion, they misfired. They shot their own rule. They unintentionally left the Drake Rule still standing, still valid.

During the fall of 2002 the Secretary of the District of Columbia notified a top administrator in the Division of Special Education of DCPS's misfire. That top administrator did not even respond to the Secretary's call.

And then, in December 2002 the Secretary published an updated version of 5 DCMR. Contained in the updated version were both the Drake Rule and DCPS's misfired effort to kill it.

But DCPS's Division of Special Education, under its current leadership, operated as though DCPS had not misfired. And tragically, DCPS continued its defiance of the Drake Rule.

Now this week a courageous DCPS hearing officer ruled that the Drake Rule stands still in place, still valid, untrammeled, unbowed, still binding on DCPS. The hearing officer relegated the DCPS misfire to the deserved oblivion from whence it had crept.

What is the practical effect? DCPS is now bound by law to evaluate every one of those thousands of students that DCPS has retained over the past six years and not evaluated. In addition, DCPS owes those thousands of students compensatory services for all that deprivation. Tens and tens of millions of dollars are now on the line, all because just a few DCPS administrators were so blinded by their hatred of the Drake Rule.

But more than that, how many mothers in our city tonight grieve over the loss of a child? How many young people chose the streets over classrooms where they could not learn? Could the Ballou tragedy have been averted? Sursum Corda? The loss of an eight-year-old little girl? Dropouts congregated on the corners of our streets in our own neighborhoods?

How far do the ripples of hatred reach? Just one misguided vendetta, by misguided DCPS administrators, and oh the cost, the cost. Will it bring a welcome end to the Montgomery County regime presently in power in our city? Probably not. But one can hope, and hope, and hope.