Update on Henry

Remember Henry, the fourth grader I tutored during the 2013-2014 school year? He's the one I persuaded my boss to assess for free in our office. After a rather sad goodbye at the end of the school year, I met up with him twice this summer. Our first outing was a rock climbing excursion at my gym, and the second was a kayaking adventure in the Hudson River. Henry is very energetic, and he's been cooped up inside all summer because their neighborhood in the Bronx is so dangerous that his mom won't allow him to leave the apartment while she's at work. So I thought it was best to take him places that would let him move!

We had a blast and Henry splashed me a lot. I suspect only a few of those time were accidents.

After he was assessed, we wrote up a report for him and then nothing happened. Henry is very bright but pretty severely dyslexic, and his school has not been giving him the specialized instruction he needs. This is common in schools like his that have too few resources; I think most of the personnel mean well, but they often haven't gotten great training and don't have half of what they need to educate complex kids. (Nearly all of their kids are complex, by the way, if for no other reason than that they live in poverty.)

Usually, our report is a very persuasive piece of evidence that can be used to persuade districts to get moving, but a complaint needs to be lodged by the parents in these cases. Henry's mother is a truly wonderful person who cares enormously about his education, but she doesn't speak much English and I'm not sure what her own educational background is. She finds the system tortuous and feels powerless. She's not in a great position to advocate for her son, and it was nearly impossible for us to counsel her about the process due to the language barrier. The tutoring organization said they were going to "look into it," but I didn't hear anything for months and was beginning to give up hope. I was anything but content to let Henry be just another one of the under-served masses, but I felt I'd done all I could do.

Then, on Tuesday, I spoke with one of the directors at the tutoring organization and got great news: Henry's case has been taken by the lawyers at Advocates for Children! If any of my readers have cash burning holes in their pockets, they should donate it immediately to Advocates for Children. This heaven-sent organization provides free legal advocacy services for kids whose families couldn't normally afford them. (It's kind of a drop in the bucket, but still.) The tutoring company had sent them Henry's case and our report, and several of their lawyers are preparing to write everything up to present it to the school board. They are going to demand compensatory services as well, which means that the district would have to pay for two years of high-quality, individualized reading tutoring for Henry because for the last few years they have not provided him with the instruction to which he was entitled. Henry's disability should have been crystal clear by about the end of first grade or so, but the district just threw him in a classroom with an extra aide and has done nothing else for him.

I spoke with some representatives from Advocates for Children yesterday. They are as charmed by Henry and his family as I am, and they share my outrage at his school's indifference (though they see this kind of thing more often than I do and seemed a little less raw). We talked about the kinds of services they should demand. Then, since they plan to sue if the district won't settle, they asked if I'd testify in court on Henry's behalf and of course I said yes. I can do this by phone, apparently, but I'd much rather come back to New York in person. Anyway, I hope it won't come to that.

I'm feeling really optimistic about this, and have high hopes for Henry!