Our Shared Committment to Students with Disabilities

All students, regardless of disability or impairment, deserve to attend a high quality public school. The civil rights laws – the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act – properly make that the law of the land. It is more than a legal requirement however. If the promise of America is that the circumstances of your birth do not limit the horizon of your life then we have an obligation to students with disabilities to help them realize the full benefit of the education opportunity in the Westfield School District.

When I served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Enforcement in the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, I had the privilege of overseeing enforcement of the civil rights laws, including those affecting students with disabilities. Hearing the stories of students in need of accommodations was overpowering. Since leaving federal service in June 2009, I’ve have assisted several families pro bono in enforcing their child’s right to receive a free and appropriate public education. In my work representing educational institutions, I’ve assisted schools in implementing these civil rights laws.

After talking with so many friends and neighbors, it appears our school system does a good job of providing accommodations for students during school and in extracurricular activities. That is something Dr. Dolan and everyone associated with the district should be proud of. Nonetheless, we must keep speaking with parents and teachers in our efforts to continuously improve and avoid implementation errors as much as possible. As a member of the Board of Education, I hope to use my substantive expertise to aid the administration to continue their record of providing educational opportunity to students with disabilities, employ best practices to minimize implementation errors, and ensure every student benefits from the tradition of excellence of the Westfield School District. And that’s one of the reasons I am asking for your vote on November 6^th.

Dennis Cariello is a Westfield resident, an education lawyer, and candidate for Westfield Board of Education