Mr. Strickland, Ms. King,
Mr. Stone, Ms. Balthazar, Mr. Durkee, Mr. Monnig, and Mr.
Sayers:
Unfortunately, business prevented me from attending the 7:30
a.m. Monday board meeting regarding the Eanes ISD/Kidventure
Camp partnership. As you know, my daughter is one of the
Eanes students prevented from attending KidVenture Camp
based on her disability. As I'm
sure you also know, I have brought this issue to the
attention of the US Department of Education Office of Civil
Rights. If you have read my complaint, you know as well that
before taking that action, I first brought the issue to the
attention of Dr. Wellman, Mr. Bechtol, and Ms. Martin, all
of whom ignored my written complaint.
I was, quite frankly, shocked when the owner of KidVenture
informed me that his camp is "not set up for special needs"
and that in order for my daughter to attend, I would be
required to find, hire and provide a full-time aide for her,
as well as to provide her with transportation to any camp
outings. I was shocked because this is a blatant violation
by KidVenture Camp of Title III of the Americans With
Disabilities Act, which states in part: "A public
accommodation shall make reasonable modifications in
policies, practices, or procedures, when the modifications
are necessary to afford goods, services,facilities,
privileges, advantages, or accommodations to individuals
with disabilities, unless the public accommodation can
demonstrate that making the modifications would
fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services,
facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations."
Because Claire's participation would not fundamentally alter
the nature of the camp program--and because in fact I
contacted Mr. McDonell specifically to query which session
would be a best fit for her, his policy of requiring a
full-time aide for a child who does not need a full-time
aide also violates the sections of the law which state that
"A public accommodation shall not impose or apply
eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out
an individual with a disability" and that which states "A
public accommodation may not impose a surcharge on a
particular individual with a disability or any group of
individuals with disabilities to cover the costs of
measures, such as the provision of auxiliary aids, barrier
removal, alternatives to barrier removal, and reasonable
modifications in policies, practices, or procedures, that
are required to provide that individual or group with the
nondiscriminatory treatment required by the Act or this
part."
When Mr. McDonell first told me of his policy, my response
was: "You can't say this to me. This is against the law."
His answer was that he had had "extensive discussions with
the superintendent" about this very issue. This, combined
with the silence of the district-level administrators when I
brought it to their attention, left me believing that I had
no choice but to ask the federal government to intervene on
behalf of my daughter. To this day,
in fact, only one Eanes ISD staff member has contacted me
regarding this issue, and that was a call made to my home
late in the summer by Cindy Martin, who, in a very
aggressive tone, took me to task for sharing this
information with other special education parents in the
school district. She was offended, she said. As I told her,
I don't believe she is the wronged party here.
I find it absolutely appalling that Eanes ISD would contract
with a program whose owner stands before you and says, "If I
hired aides for children, I would have to raise camp fees
for every child." Let me remind you--my child does not need
a full-time aide at camp. She never had one at Summer Fun.
She never has one at other camps. It was Mr. McDonell who
insisted--without an evaluation--that Claire would have to
have an aide paid for by me. But even if she did, Mr.
McDonell could not require her family to pay for that
service. Mr. McDonell runs his private company in a nation
of laws, and that nation's Congress has protected the rights
of children with disabilities against the very
discriminatory policies he uses as a defense.
You have heard from him, and now you have heard from me. He
said. She said. But I ask you to
ask yourself: who has reason to lie here? Is it
the mother whose child came flying through the door one
Thursday afternoon last February waving a glossy KidVenture
brochure handed out in her fourth-grade class, asking
excitedly, "can I go? can I go?" Is it the mother who later
told that child a fabricated story in order to protect her,
so she wouldn't have to think that a program at her school
didn't want her? Because that's the bottom line here: in
that child's mind, and in her mother's, the fine line
between KidVenture as a "private program" and Eanes' summer
recreation is a blur. If KidVenture has replaced Summer Fun,
and it is held at Eanes elementary schools and it is
advertised and promoted by the school district, it really
doesn't matter who runs it. What matters is that one of your
elementary school students is not welcomed there, solely
because she uses a walker to move around.
This is all I have to say to you. I will not write to you
again about this issue. But I will leave you with this. My
husband and I were literally chosen to be this child's
parents when she was ten days old, long before anyone knew
she would never walk on her own. Patrick and I take the
sacred trust and promise of our role as her parents very,
very seriously. We expect her
school district to be a partner in this process, not a foe.
I hope that you will ask hard questions of our
superintendent and our ADA compliance officer. And I hope
you will ask hard questions of private contractors using our
school district's facilities and populations as the
fundamentals for their business model. Because you are
Trustees not of them, but of us, and more importantly, of
our children.
![[Company Logo Image]](_borders/AG00052_.GIF)
Keep Eanes Informed