Support for Dr. Rhen and Pennsylvania's Children with Disabilities

The Petition was mailed January 24th. Wow! What great effort and unity, thanks to all those that have signed. Your message will be heard!

To:  Pennsylvania Govenor Ed Rendell and Gerald Zahorchak Secretary of the PA Department of Education

We the people of Pennsylvania, individuals, parents, advocates, educators, professionals, family members, friends and others listed below call upon Pennsylvania's Governor Rendell and Gerald Zahorchak Secretary of the PA Department of Education to reappoint Dr. Linda Rhen to her former position as Director of the Bureau of Special Education. In the greater interest of ensuring an appropriate education to all students, specifically those with disabilities Dr. Rhen has proven to be a devoted leader creating positive changes in the educational system to meet the needs of all students.

Pennsylvania has been, and still is, one of the worse states in educating students with disabilities. Years of ignoring parents, families, advocates, and best practices have resulted in a closed-door policy unwelcoming of feedback from stakeholders and ultimately unresponsive to the needs of students with disabilities. Previous leadership in the Bureau of Special Education has chosen to ignore issues and focus on covering up problems, rather then facing them head on and working in collaboration with stakeholders to find win-win solutions. Most importantly past leadership has failed to take steps to ensure that appropriate supports and services were being provided to students entitled to them under federal law IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education) to receive FAPE (A Free and Appropriate Education) in LRE (The Least Restrictive Environment).

The Gaskin Class Action is evidence of the systemic issues that resulted in blatant disregard of federal laws and student rights. Clearly, these issues that families and other stakeholders had approached PDE with over many previous years were not just isolated incidents, as the previous department leadership claimed. It is not in the best interest of children to remove a person from leadership that has shown dedication to providing each child an appropriate education, and replace that person with someone from the previous leadership that led to the current poor state of the system.

Dr. Rhen has proven to be knowledgeable, intelligent, collaborative and open-minded. We are confident in her ability to understand both the needs of the system and the students and we know that she will work toward implementing best practices in order to move the state forward as a leader in the education of students with disabilities. Indeed, she already has, up until her untimely dismissal. We urge you to reconsider this decision and reappoint Dr. Linda Rhen as Director of the Bureau of Special Education.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Support for Dr. Rhen and Pennsylvania's Children with Disabilities Petition to Pennsylvania Govenor Ed Rendell and Gerald Zahorchak Secretary of the PA Department of Education was created by Kids Together and written by Colleen F. Tomko (staff@kidstogether.org).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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