Arkansas mother claims LISA Academy did not follow son’s IEP, pulled him from school activities

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark.- An Arkansas mother says she relied on a local school to provide the extra steps to help her child with special needs be able to learn only to see the school not make the grade.

Lyndsey Valenzuela was already concerned when her son Jayson, who has autism, started kindergarten at Lisa Academy North, but the situation has exceeded her worries.

“At the beginning of the year, we had a really hard time in general just getting him accommodated,” Valenzuela said.

Jayson was placed in a classroom at Lisa Academy North with an Individualized Education Program (IEP), a legal document created for public school children in the United States who need special education.

While the school may have made a program, Valenzuela said it was not being followed.

“He was placed in a general education classroom, but he wasn’t provided with the one-on-one aid or any support that he needed,” she explained.

Valenzuela added that Jayson was also placed on a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) due to his diagnosis of autism and ADHD, though she contends those conditions were not the cause of problems.

“He started having behavior issues just because his needs were continuing to not be met,” she said.

On top of the in-class challenges, Valenzuela said Jayson was also not included on grade-level field trips or noneducational school activities such as parades and events that took place during the school day. That was when Valenzuela said she knew she had to do something for her son.

Valenzuela said she reached out to Disability Rights Arkansas to get advice regarding her son’s IEP and her own rights as a parent.  The group suggested Valenzuela apply for the Centralized Intake and Referral/Consultant Unified Intervention Team (CIRCUIT) to help her son.

“We applied for the CIRCUIT team to come in from the Arkansas Department of Education, and reading those reports that his IEP was not being followed was disheartening,” she said.

A review of Jayson’s IEP by the CIRCUIT committee determined his accommodations needed to be upheld and expanded to create a more inclusive environment for him in the classroom and for his grade.

“We then found out that their recommendations were not being followed,” Valenzuela said. “That was really a red flag for us.”

Valenzuela said she decided she needed to file a formal complaint against Lisa Academy to the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education Office of Special Education.

The Arkansas Department of Education conducted an investigation, interviewing district staff members, reviewing emails between district staff, reviewing the district’s current policies and procedures, reviewing Jayson’s IEP and Behavior Intervention Plan, and reviewing the CIRCUIT report for Jayson.

After a review, state officials found two conclusions : Lisa Academy failed to educate the student in the least restrictive environment and failed to develop and implement an IEP for the student that is reasonably calculated to allow for reasonable educational benefit.

That includes providing a paraprofessional and implementing the behavior intervention plan upon recommendation by the CIRCUIT referral team.

The district must perform five different corrective actions, such as training and revision to policies/procedures, and submit documentation for those corrective actions by September 20, 2024, to be in compliance with the Disabilities Education Act.

KARK 4 News reached out to LISA Academy for a comment on this report. In a statement, senior communications director Bethany Ratermann said the school has “comprehensive support structures” in place to help learning and that staff would be implementing new policies & training in response to “a single parent complaint.”

“LISA Academy the largest charter school serving over 4500 students in 13 schools. We take pride in our diverse student body and the comprehensive support structures we have in place to facilitate their learning. We work with the Arkansas Department of Education to provide high quality professional development for our staff.  We look forward to implementing the updated policies and training required for the 24-25 school year in regards to a single parent complaint.”

LISA Academy communications director Bethany Raterman

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