Out of Control - Florida Bureaucracy Demands Testing Paperwork for Dying Boy

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post's Answer Sheet blog reports the heartbreaking story of the merciless Florida education bureaucracy that is hounding the mother of a brain damaged and dying boy to complete paperwork that her son is not able to take the Florida standardized assessments (FCAT).  Here is an excerpt:

Andrea Rediske's 11-year-old son Ethan, is dying. Last year, Ethan, who was born with brain damage, has cerebral palsy and is blind, was forced to take a version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test over the space of two weeks last year because the state of Florida required that every student take one. Now his mom has to prove that Ethan, now in a morphine coma, is in no condition to take another test this year.

Ethan wasn't the only brain-damaged child in Florida to be forced to take a standardized test; I have written in the past about Michael, another Florida boy who was born with only a brain stem -- not a brain -- and can't tell the difference between an apple and an orange, but was also forced to take a version of the FCAT last year. (See here, here and here.) There are many others in Florida and across the country as well.

Why does Florida -- and other states, as well as the U.S. Department of Education -- force kids with impaired cognitive ability to take standardized tests? Because, they say, nearly every child can learn something and be assessed in some fashion.  Even, apparently, a boy born without a brain.

Here is the note that mother Andrea wrote to a member of the Orange County School Board and an Orlando Sentinel columnist:

Rick and Scott,
I'm writing to appeal for your advocacy on our behalf. Ethan is dying. He has been in hospice care for the past month. We are in the last days of his life. His loving and dedicated teacher, Jennifer Rose has been visiting him every day, bringing some love, peace, and light into these last days. How do we know that he knows that she is there? Because he opens his eyes and gives her a little smile. He is content and comforted after she leaves.

Jennifer is the greatest example of what a dedicated teacher should be.  About a week ago, Jennifer hesitantly told me that the district required a medical update for continuation of the med waiver for the adapted FCAT. Apparently, my communication through her that he was in hospice wasn't enough: they required a letter from the hospice company to say that he was dying. Every day that she comes to visit, she is required to do paperwork to document his "progress." Seriously? Why is Ethan Rediske not meeting his 6th-grade hospital homebound curriculum requirements? BECAUSE HE IS IN A MORPHINE COMA. We expect him to go any day. He is tenaciously clinging to life.
This madness has got to stop. Please help us.
 
Thank you,

This appalling example of the Florida education establishment reducing every child, even a dying one with brain damage, to a test score is just a glimpse of what will happen as the full Common Core regime is implemented.  This mentality was fostered by Jeb Bush and is being pushed by him as he seeks to impose Common Core on the Florida and the whole nation.  Let us renew our efforts to prevent that from happening.

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