A mother of a Rochester City School District special needs student is outraged after she says her son went missing inside of the school.
“The administrator from the school actually texted my phone instead of my son`s phone and said ‘where are you’,” said School of the Arts parent, Juanita Jones.
According to Jones, her son returned back to School of the Arts this week after being on medical leave. Prior to his return, there was a schedule change put in place to accommodate his special education needs. However, the school wasn't on the same page the day Jones says her son went missing.
“Going forward I think that perhaps the lesson from this type of scenario would be to ensure that communication is occurring across the board,” said Chief Compliance Officer, Yolanda Asamoah-Wade. We work with one child at a time out of my office but I think overall and systemically the district has been making some efforts and I think it will just take time for all of those efforts to filter through the system and become second nature.”
The Autism Council of Rochester says the School of the Arts is at fault.
“We had just spent numerous hours at the district over a couple of days working on the plan for him and to know that the first day back from an injury that he was potentially lost, I was definitely disappointed and I believe the building administration needs to take some accountability for it,” said, President of the Autism Council, Lawanna Jones.
“You have had a child that has lost their life in this district for the same reason because you couldn`t account for where they were. Will I be surprised if it happens again? I won`t be surprised if it happens again,” said Jones.
The Rochester City School District says this is a lesson learned and they are currently expanding their department for children with special needs. The district is currently under investigation by the attorney general`s office following the death of 14-year-old Trevyan Rowe. Dylan Pauly is one of the new additions the district is bringing in to make sure the district is compliant and accountable.
“We`re writing guidance documents for our teachers and our special ed administrators and helping principals and all of our district stakeholders so they can understand processes and procedures so that parents can start experiencing consistencies and coherence in their experiences,” said Dylan Pauly of the RCSD Special Education Counsel.
“It`s completely unacceptable, there`s no excuse at this point for us to still talk about kids that are unaccounted for, said Jones. When I send him to school, I don`t know what`s going to happen. I literally wait for my phone to ring and I know there are a lot of other parents that experience the same thing.”
Jones is still uncertain whether or not her son will remain in the Rochester City School District next year.