DeVos Continues ‘Rethink School’ Tour With Visit to Autism School, Air Force Academy
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continued her "Rethink School" tour on Wednesday, visiting a school that was at the center of a significant Supreme Court case. DeVos visited Firefly Autism House, the school that was involved in the Endrew F. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. This ruling stated that districts must meet higher standards in providing education for students with disabilities.
During her visit, DeVos had the opportunity to meet with the parents of Endrew, the child at the center of the case. In a later post on Medium, DeVos expressed her admiration for the family and their determination to ensure a quality education for their child. However, DeVos also emphasized that no family should have to take their case to the Supreme Court to achieve this. She commended Endrew’s parents for initiating this landmark ruling, which will benefit other families in similar situations.
Endrew’s parents enrolled him at Firefly after feeling that he was not making sufficient progress in public school. They sued their home district for reimbursement of tuition fees, and the lawsuit was eventually taken to the Supreme Court. The court unanimously agreed that the standard for educational progress must be higher, overturning the "minimally more than minimal" standard that was in place in certain regions, including Colorado.
During her tour, DeVos expressed her disagreement with the idea of minimum progress for students with disabilities, labeling it as "preposterous". She connected Endrew’s legal struggle for education with her broader theme of "rethinking school", stating that different students in different places require different solutions.
The school tour was closed to the press, as it was requested by the school to comply with privacy laws. Firefly Autism House receives most of its funding from the eight school districts that send students there. The school’s executive director mentioned concerns about insufficient federal funding for special education to DeVos, who appeared to be receptive. The school’s tuition can reach up to $78,000 per year.
DeVos previously faced confusion during her confirmation hearing regarding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its potential applicability to her proposed private school voucher program. One of the protesters outside the school cited this confusion as a reason for their demonstration.
Firefly officials attempted to address potential criticism of DeVos’s visit early on by emphasizing their focus on having a dialogue with the Secretary of Education about improving autism treatment and raising awareness of the needs of these children and the education system as a whole.
Later in the day, DeVos visited the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. She toured the academy’s chapel, interacted with cadets, practiced using a flight simulator, and witnessed PT (physical training) testing.
DeVos will conclude the day at a satellite campus of Midlands University near Omaha, Nebraska. Tomorrow, she is scheduled to visit four schools: Nelson Mandela Elementary School, a tuition-free private school in Omaha; St. Mary’s Catholic School in Lincoln; the Lincoln Public Schools Science Program at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo; and Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.
