To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

RALEIGH – The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is reporting that Wake County Schools, for a second time, are not hitting the mark when it comes to educating special needs students on long-term suspension.

The reports came out in both cases after an official complaint was filed by Advocates for Children's Services, a non-profit legal group.

The first report requiring corrective action was released in April 2010. The more recent report was released July 29th of this year.

The recent report found students on long-term suspension receive far fewer hours of instruction per month. It also found that a computer-based program to educate those students was proving ineffective.
"We're not anticipating this being any sort of an antagonistic event at all, but more of an ongoing conversation," said WCPSS Communications Officer Michael Evans. "We want to do better. We want to become compliant and we want to see where they saw gaps in how we deliver education to special needs students."

But the managing attorney for Advocates for Children's Services thinks antagonistic might be the right word to describe the situation.

"Here you have these two multi-page reports coming out a year apart from DPI to Wake saying, 'we find you in non-compliance with the federal law in three categories that have occurred for two years in a row,'" said Lewis Pitts. "That's not let's just have a little chat about how your wallpaper is looking."

Attorneys with Advocates for Children's Services want to be involved in shaping how Wake will have to comply with DPI's decision, but now DPI maintains the matter is now between it and Wake County schools.

Representatives of the two sides will meet on August 23 to come up with a corrective plan of action.