Former special education teacher sues Lansing School District

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A former special education teacher claims the Lansing School District is ignoring students who need disability services and that administrators are doing nothing to fix it.

Danielle Hovenkamp is a former special education teacher for the Lansing School District and has filed a lawsuit against the school district, alleging that the school district neglects the needs of its disabled students.

6 News spoke with her attorney, Liz Abdnour, who analyzed Hovenkamp’s claims.

Schools are required by law to provide accommodations based on a student’s Individual Education Program (IEP), but the lawsuit alleges the school district is ignoring them.

“Depending on the student’s limitations, sometimes they’ll be given extra time to work on assignments, projects or tests,” Abdnour said. “Sometimes they’ll have the support of an individual assistant or person to help them, and that can be all kinds of limitations.”

Hovenkamp joined the Lansing School District six years ago. During her time there, she regularly saw other teachers fail to provide needed accommodations for students and administrators cover up required logbooks.

“My understanding is that when these logs were not completed, the administration instructed the teachers to go back, date them, and write them down for a number of months ago,” Abdnour said. “But in practice, how is there any way for someone to remember what services they provided to each individual student on a Tuesday three months ago?”

After Hovenkamp blew the whistle on the case, she left the district and found a new job. She says this was due to retaliation from the principal, who had to teach more classes, had less time to prepare, and was taken away from the students she had worked with for years.

“It all happened after she filed that complaint,” Abdnour said. “So if this was really something, something they were struggling with, why didn’t she hear about it until after she filed that OCR complaint last year? That’s why we think it’s related.”

Normally, Lansing School District does not comment on pending litigation, but 6 News reached out Monday but has not yet received a response.

In the meantime, education experts say parents should talk to their children to make sure they are getting help in class. If they aren’t, have a direct conversation with their teacher.