This is the way the Due-Process racket worked before the Brownsville Independent School District administration under Superintendent Hector Hernandez and Special Needs Director Art Rendon upset the apple cart.
And a cursory review of the district's legal costs indicates the scheme may be on again.
The BISD's legal counsel (at that time Mike Saldaña's Walsh, Anderson, Gallegos, Green and Treviño PC) was made aware that the district's diagnosis instruments for Special Needs students were not "legally defensible" and that not correcting the problem would result in costly lawsuits accusing the district of not providing due process to its special needs students.
There were an estimated 400 or more of these questionable diagnoses, often consisting of nothing more that observing the reactions of students to a finger tapping on a tabletop.
To some parents, a diagnosis of any of scores of mental impairments meant a $700 monthly check from the state. Given the local economy, many shortsighted parents rushed to have them diagnosed to cash in on the boom unmindful of the stigma that would follow their child for the rest of his or her live.
A parent or a public agency can file a due process complaint on any matter relating to the identification,
evaluation or educational placement of a child with a disability, or the provision of an appropriate education.
After a parent is coaxed into filing a due process claim, there is a resolution meeting (where, of course, nothing is resolved) and then the move is toward mediation. It is at this point that the cash register starts ringing. The student's lawyers are paid an average of $4,500 per due-process hearing by the district. These cases rarely get to the next step, the hearing or min-trial stage contained in the Texas Education Agency guidelines.This pyramid scheme started at the bottom, where some local counselors recognized that a Special Needs student had been misdiagnosed. The parents were consulted and encouraged to file the due-process claim. Once the mediation was held, the lawyers collected the $4,500 and the parents got nothing except perhaps a different educational program for the student. And of course, the lawyers representing the school district got their cash as well.
After Rendon filed his findings with the Texas Rangers, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney and the Texas Attorney General's Office, an investigation (still ongoing) was launched.
However, the DA in Cameron County was Armando Villaobos and he sat on it until he left office. However, when a majority of the BISD board members terminated Rendon and Gonzales, the evidence of this racket was included in the lawsuits filed in state and federal court.
(One explanation of why Villalobos did not follow through [although the flow of due-process cases did slow down] was because his wife, a medical student in Matamoros, was working for a local doctor who employed a local licensed professional counselor who figured prominently in these cases.)
If the student's attorneys on a majority of these cases had followed the TEA requirements, they would have to appear in Austin and hold a pre-hearing conference where the parties would stipulate the issues for hearing and requested relief are as set forth in the request for the due process hearing. The student or "next friend" (parent) would then allege that the district had failed provide the student a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and show that the district had failed to provide the student with an Individual Educational Program (IEP) and did not provide the appropriate program to address the needs in any of several specific fields.
There was a catch, however. The TEA dies not award payments to plaintiffs' attorneys by the hearings officer.
But that was a mite too involved for most lawyers who just wanted to get to the mediation stage and collect their fee. Of course, the district also had to be represented in the mediation and its counsel Walsh, Anderson, also profited from every Special Needs case. The getting was good all the way around for lawyers from both sides. It was the district and its taxpayers who ended up paying both the plaintiff's and BISD's lawyers for their work.
It's interesting to not that the Texas Department of Education has long discouraged the use of attorneys for either side in mediation on the ground it “may have the potential for creating an adversarial atmosphere that may not necessarily be in the best interests of the child.”
And although we looked high and low, we could find no state law or district policy specifically stating that the BISD was required to pay attorney fees for the mediation. In fact, some states have laws that either exclude or discourage attorneys from some mediation proceedings.
We just do.
In Brownsville, the district would usually agree to provide compensatory educational services to the student and the case would rarely – if ever – get to the TEA hearing stage.
Rendon stated in his lawsuit that his probe identified several individuals who consistently figured in these due-process cases. One of them was Corpus Chrsiti lawyer Christopher Jonas, who had had filed a spate of due-process cases against the BISD. Jonas was said to be assisted in identifying these cases by local counselors, notably one Gloria Kury, a Licensed Professional Counselor and also a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology. Kury was said to be fed these cases by BISD some school diagnosticians and other district personnel.
Kury, who wears the two hats, would recommend a student's Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) for the BISD and – when the case got in the lawyer's hands – was also said to assist Jonas in providing him with a student's Independent Psychological Evaluation, a sort of double dipping. In 2004, the state made a significant change by limiting parents to public payment for only one IEE for each evaluation with which the parent disagrees.The fact that she billed Medicaid for the IEE and then Jonas for the psychological evaluation was made known to the state and feds through the Rendon's and Gonzales' lawsuits.
This, even though the Texas Department of Health Services State Board of Examiners of Counselors Code of Ethics clearly states that "a licensee shall not engage in activities for the licensee's personal gain at the expense of the client."
Several parents also figured prominently in the cases Rendon provided law enforcement and prosecutors. These parents would act as "runners" for lawyers and often had children diagnosed with some special need to collect their monthly disability check.
After the Rendon and Gonzales cases were settled and both med were returned their employment with the BISD, these type of cases started to reappear on the BISD legal cost budget. For example, from May 2013 to December 2013, the BISD paid the Chris Jonas Law Firm more than $109,000 for these "best next friend" cases. District administrators know that Jonas, who is disabled and is restricted to a wheelchair, is being assisted by other lawyers and paralegals to perform his work.
Another law firm that has been appearing lately in these "best next friend" due-process cases is the Law Firm of Yvonnilda Muñiz, of Austin, who cashed in with $19,500 from October to December 2013.
Will it take yet another state or federal probe and indictments for the use of the BISD as an ATM for lawyers, counselors and shortsighted parents to end?
After Rendon filed his findings with the Texas Rangers, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney and the Texas Attorney General's Office, an investigation (still ongoing) was launched.
However, the DA in Cameron County was Armando Villaobos and he sat on it until he left office. However, when a majority of the BISD board members terminated Rendon and Gonzales, the evidence of this racket was included in the lawsuits filed in state and federal court.
(One explanation of why Villalobos did not follow through [although the flow of due-process cases did slow down] was because his wife, a medical student in Matamoros, was working for a local doctor who employed a local licensed professional counselor who figured prominently in these cases.)
If the student's attorneys on a majority of these cases had followed the TEA requirements, they would have to appear in Austin and hold a pre-hearing conference where the parties would stipulate the issues for hearing and requested relief are as set forth in the request for the due process hearing. The student or "next friend" (parent) would then allege that the district had failed provide the student a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and show that the district had failed to provide the student with an Individual Educational Program (IEP) and did not provide the appropriate program to address the needs in any of several specific fields.
There was a catch, however. The TEA dies not award payments to plaintiffs' attorneys by the hearings officer.
But that was a mite too involved for most lawyers who just wanted to get to the mediation stage and collect their fee. Of course, the district also had to be represented in the mediation and its counsel Walsh, Anderson, also profited from every Special Needs case. The getting was good all the way around for lawyers from both sides. It was the district and its taxpayers who ended up paying both the plaintiff's and BISD's lawyers for their work.
It's interesting to not that the Texas Department of Education has long discouraged the use of attorneys for either side in mediation on the ground it “may have the potential for creating an adversarial atmosphere that may not necessarily be in the best interests of the child.”
And although we looked high and low, we could find no state law or district policy specifically stating that the BISD was required to pay attorney fees for the mediation. In fact, some states have laws that either exclude or discourage attorneys from some mediation proceedings.
We just do.
In Brownsville, the district would usually agree to provide compensatory educational services to the student and the case would rarely – if ever – get to the TEA hearing stage.
Rendon stated in his lawsuit that his probe identified several individuals who consistently figured in these due-process cases. One of them was Corpus Chrsiti lawyer Christopher Jonas, who had had filed a spate of due-process cases against the BISD. Jonas was said to be assisted in identifying these cases by local counselors, notably one Gloria Kury, a Licensed Professional Counselor and also a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology. Kury was said to be fed these cases by BISD some school diagnosticians and other district personnel.
Kury, who wears the two hats, would recommend a student's Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) for the BISD and – when the case got in the lawyer's hands – was also said to assist Jonas in providing him with a student's Independent Psychological Evaluation, a sort of double dipping. In 2004, the state made a significant change by limiting parents to public payment for only one IEE for each evaluation with which the parent disagrees.The fact that she billed Medicaid for the IEE and then Jonas for the psychological evaluation was made known to the state and feds through the Rendon's and Gonzales' lawsuits.
This, even though the Texas Department of Health Services State Board of Examiners of Counselors Code of Ethics clearly states that "a licensee shall not engage in activities for the licensee's personal gain at the expense of the client."
Several parents also figured prominently in the cases Rendon provided law enforcement and prosecutors. These parents would act as "runners" for lawyers and often had children diagnosed with some special need to collect their monthly disability check.
After the Rendon and Gonzales cases were settled and both med were returned their employment with the BISD, these type of cases started to reappear on the BISD legal cost budget. For example, from May 2013 to December 2013, the BISD paid the Chris Jonas Law Firm more than $109,000 for these "best next friend" cases. District administrators know that Jonas, who is disabled and is restricted to a wheelchair, is being assisted by other lawyers and paralegals to perform his work.
Another law firm that has been appearing lately in these "best next friend" due-process cases is the Law Firm of Yvonnilda Muñiz, of Austin, who cashed in with $19,500 from October to December 2013.
Will it take yet another state or federal probe and indictments for the use of the BISD as an ATM for lawyers, counselors and shortsighted parents to end?
6 comments:
Unfortunately, the "one" basic need of BISD's students is "education" and no one seems to focus on that need....but to address "special" needs. Most of the students need education but the administration is focused on how they can spend money to protect themselves from any question about how they treat "disadvantaged" students. Of course, I believe all are "disadvantaged" because there is little focus on academics in BISD...thus we get graduates who are illiterate in two languages and must undergo remediation just to move on in their educaton. TSC should be preparing students for the real world, but TSC must teach them to read and write first. I guess BISD believes they can waste tax dollars and that TSC will make up for it later, with more tax dollars.
Very good post, great explaination of how parents and some of our community finest fill their pockets with our bisd tax dollars. One thing you forgot to mention is another meeting advocate, yes Juana Rodriguez. She attacks, barks at principals, diagnasticians, teachers, and the worse thing is she know less than I do about special ed, I don't know much (I'm a mechsnic). I'm friends with a couple that she sold herself as a sort of an attorney. My buddy tells me that this lady would tare into the people in the meeting. She has been hired by schools to keep her alway from meetings but she finds working for her pay does not campare with the power trip she gets in meetings and the money she gets by due process. My friends got money part went to this lady. My friend got sent to counseling, family trips all paid by tax dollars. My friends used to laugh at this lady and worse at how the principals and teachers would be scared in meeting.. they wanted me to date her sort of taking one for team lol... they would add that she was lonely and not happy.. I saw her once when I gave my friends a ride to meeting (no thanks I said, I could not have handled all that attitude lol) not my type to big.... my friends dropped her services on my advise after they would tell me what she asked for in meetings.. I heard a recorded cd where she argued for 25 minutes on a word she did not agrre with teacher. My friends tell me that teacher is great and their mertings now are much better without her present. Imagine how much this Kury and Rodriguez have taken from the schools together. . They should be taken to court and see them bully the judge. Earn your money ladies stop taking tax dollars.. juana if u need job, come by to change some oils.. its good exercise. ...
Is this the lady that was hired and protected by H. Gonzalez and A. Rendon to keep her happy regardless of her knowledge in working with parents? Her only skills were yelling at the school administration because those at the main office protected her.
The BISD board needs to look into the Special Needs Program on mental retardation, incompetence, brain disorders, graft, inbreeding, etc. All which belongs to them alone. Oops,I forgot their Mouthpiece too!
Juanita Rodriguez. . Joke.. she worked at cummings m.s. and had her own office.. she did next to zero.. again bisd preferred to conpensate her in that form instead of her just taking money with open hands.. she quit that cushy job.. again free money is easier and causes no tiredness. . We don't miss her at all... she went to seek greener pasters...
If the government would quit giving out 700$ a month, believe me parents would not be interested in getting their kids in he special Ed program. Parents suing because their kids in special Ed don't get there open education, how about the regular Ed students who don't get the proper instruction due to a special Ed student disrupting the learning environment.
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