Our family moved to a rich neighborhood, in a wealthy city, for their school district.

We needed a really good one. Our children are on the autism spectrum. They need an individualized education plan (IEP) that is heavy on expensive therapies and extra staff. A wealthy town should mean more money invested in the school. No reason to mince words. We came for the special education services!

Four years ago, I was impressed. Our school has a therapy animal and the campus is all shiny with a kinder-garden and art everywhere. Most significantly, we cared about the pedigree of the special education specialists. The kids adjusted well and we got them good IEPs. Finally! We can sit back. It’s the constant vigilance that exhausts parents of disabled children. What is going to go wrong next?

And sure enough, things started to get worse with the school. Then worse than that. And then extra worse.

The high muckety-mucks at the district office were clamping down on services and dismissing parent concerns. A message appeared to have been handed down to deny services and to be evasive about it.

Several of my friends moved to another town because they were sick of fighting for the obviously essential services their children needed. Others put their kids into private schools. All of that property tax and yet the kids who needs occupational therapy and speech are told they’re fine! They are smashing their IEP goals. Your kid is no longer considered autistic. (I know…)

At one point, we also pulled our kids out of the district and went with a charter school because we knew we’d get a better IEP for our kids. Yup. We had to go outside of the rich school to a far more modest community to find special education providers who cared about helping my children do well in school.

Now we’re back in the district, in the posh neighborhood. It’s a very hard pill to swallow, but it’s so the kids can be a part of the community. It’s all for kids.

How long did it take for the re-worsening? No time at all.

We’ve re-joined the district when they are actively suing several people with whom I’m friends! And I don’t have a lot of friends!

These people are being sued because they are pushing back against the school district and insisting on the appropriate services for their autistic children. Just let that sit in your mouth for a minute.

The school is suing families with disabled children.

The parents got uppity and asked for the meetings to which they are entitled. They asked for the data and for their child to be included in the classroom with his peers. They asked for the same free access to public education that every other child is getting. Lawsuits.

These women were recently interviewed by CBS 8 San Diego. Please read the article. You’ll be blown away.