ABC 7 Highlights EFE Special Ed Success Story

B.J.'s Winning Smile Tells It All

On Dec. 8, 2002, ABC 7 aired a major segment on EFE's legal advocacy services with deaf reporter Karen Meyer. Meyer asked Legal Advocacy Director Barry Taylor about eligibility (anyone in Illinois with a disability), costs (free) and types of services, including self-advocacy technical assistance, legal representation (at a hearing, an administrative proceeding or court) and EFE's Training Institute on Disability Rights - what it covers and how it works.

B.J. Byrne and his mother, Terese; ABC 7's Karen Meyer; and EFE Attorney Debra Wysong

To illustrate how EFE's free legal advocacy services work, Meyer talked with 6-year-old B.J. Byrne, his mom, Terese, and EFE Attorney Debra Wysong.

B.J. is a precocious, active little boy with a winning smile and an open personality. He's a ham in front of a camera. One of two surviving quadruplets, he was born with spina bifida and has a tracheotomy. He must sleep with a ventilator. His school district had refused to address these and other medically fragile conditions, which prevented him from being integrated into the classroom with non-disabled kids. Today B.J. is on a new track at his afternoon preschool program, which he attends four days a week and which might soon be extended to five days.

B.J. and his sister, Caytie

Terese attempted to get the school to teach her son how to swallow so he could at least eat lunch with the other kids. Unsuccessful, she filed for a due process hearing. Because she neither had the money for a private attorney nor knew how to proceed, she contacted EFE where Wysong took her case and was able to reach a settlement with the school district, thus averting the emotional and financial burden of a due process hearing.

Terms of the settlement mandated that the school district provide speech therapy, including swallowing therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy at school and at home, since B.J. is absent a great deal because of his medical conditions.

B.J.'s mom says, "He has made enormous progress and now eats lunch with his classmates and even participates in gym. He still has a ways to go, especially making friends, which has been difficult with so much time out of the classroom."

Thanks to Wysong's coaching at the initial meetings with the school district, Terese says that she has become a different, more confident person in her relationship with the school as an advocate for her son's rights. She has learned that formulating an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) is a team effort involving parents and the school, as well as physicians and clinical staff. And - that her son, as a child with a disability, is fully entitled to this process by Illinois law until he is 21. =

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