Disabled access in schools faulted

[Guest guest]

Disabled access in schools faulted

Random audit finds that 19 L.A. Unified schools have not made

upgrades for the handicapped. Monitor says district has acted

in 'bad faith.'

By Larrubia, Times Staff Writer

May 31, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd31may31,1,7442329.story?

coll=la-headlines-california

An audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District's progress in

building and remodeling schools to make them accessible to the

disabled found chronic problems in the design of parking, restrooms,

ramps and drinking water fountains, as well as a troubling lack of

documentation and misstatements of accomplishments.

" We find this to be really offensive and frankly kind of squandering

limited tax resources that are designed to build schools for

everyone, " said Blakemore, a lawyer with the public

interest law firm Protection and Advocacy.

Her firm was one of three that sued the school system in 1993 on

behalf of disabled students, principally alleging that the district

had failed to provide adequate special education.

The suit resulted in two consent decrees, known as the Chanda

decrees, in which the district agreed to make future schools

accessible to the disabled and spend at least $87.5 million to

upgrade existing campuses to provide access, in compliance with

state and federal laws. An independent monitor was appointed by the

court to review the district's performance.

" The progress report raises serious issues, " school district general

counsel said in a written statement Wednesday. The school

system is reviewing the report and will come up with an " action

plan " within 60 days, he said. He did not address specific problems.

The audit, performed by Disability Access Consultants, found ramps

with handrails that stopped short, new bleachers without wheelchair

seating and outdoor lunch tables without wheelchair access.

Bathrooms or stalls marked for use by the disabled did not provide

proper clearance or the appropriate height for wheelchair users.

Auditors found numerous problems in each of the 19 schools selected

randomly for compliance, including four new campuses.

It was the latest audit in a series commissioned by the monitor, but

the first to tackle disabled access. In a scathing letter to the

school board and superintendent, monitor Frederick Weintraub said

the district had failed so dismally that it " appears indicative of a

systemic problem in the management and oversight of the district's

facilities program. "

Weintraub directed the school system to hire an accessibility expert

to oversee the upgrades.

Weintraub said it is impossible to know how much the district has

spent on projects to improve access, because after nearly a year of

meetings, telephone calls and broken promises, the district had

acted in " bad faith " by failing to provide backup documentation for

a majority of projects that had been chosen for the audit.

District staff acknowledged that three projects reported as

completed had never been started, and a site visit of one school

found that work that was shown to be finished was not.

The district kept a log intended to outline the renovations

completed for disabled access, but the audit showed it to

be " considerably inaccurate in many areas and a misrepresentation of

funds expended. These inaccuracies extend beyond what may be

characterized as reporting errors, " Weintraub wrote.

He questioned the district's decision to include as disability

access improvements $66 million in fire alarm strobe light upgrades,

when the reduction of barriers should have been given higher

priority. The log also included projects labeled class-size

reduction and earthquake repair.