<p>A neighbor just reported that, during an interview w/ a public hs admissions committee (which included current students!), her D was asked whether she had any LD. The girl responded honestly that she has ADD. Mom and D now fear this admission will hurt D's chances for admission.</p>
<p>I told them the question was at least improper and may be actionable. </p>
<p>Is this as serious a breach as I suggested, or do I just have litigious tendencies?</p>
<p>Improper and actionable (especially if this forms any part of the decision to deny admission) sounds about right. And in front of other students, who have no concept of confidentiality, also outrageous. If your neighbor is involved in any LD support organizations, this might be the time to turn to them for guidance as to how best to proceed. But clearly, if asking about LD's is part of the interview protocol, it needs to be changed. Right now. If the school district has a specific LD support office, which presumably knows the rules, a nice phone call might be in order.</p>
<p>It depends on their intention. If they use it to influence a yes or no decision, then most certainly actionable. </p>
<p>If they were like, wow, I really like this girl I wonder how many LD staff people we will need next year, that's a different story</p>
<p>However, their intention is hard to determine</p>
<p>Either way I believe it's improper because it is personal and confidential information. </p>
<p>I would call the admissions office and inquire as to the purpose of the question. They may be shocked that it was asked. They many not be surprised at all, and say it was completely benign in nature. They may reveal themselves to be discriminatory in saying that it is a part of the admissions decision, in which case, frankly, you don't want to go there anyways. But should still bust a cap in their as$.</p>
<p>Foolishpleasure -- Please update. What finally happened here? Did your neighbor challenge the committee? Was the child accepted into the program?</p>
<p>The school doesn't mail admissions decisions until the end of May. My friend has contacted several advocacy groups.</p>
<p>The school claimed that it asked the question to determine whether it can meet a particular childs needs. This seems suspicious to me since my friend reports that the school never asked to see her D's evaluation or aked the current school for a copy of the IEP or 504 plan.</p>
<p>they are required by law to meet your childs needs</p>
<p>I assumed the reason the school asked was to deny admission to those w/ IEPs so that the school wouldn't have to provide services, as required by law.</p>
<p>It is illegal to ask for that information on an application or in an interview. I am guessing that maybe the interviewer was new and made a mistake. The school should definitely be informed - if it were me, I would call an advocacy attorney and have him/her call the school. I'll bet your daughter is accepted when they pick up the phone and hear a lawyer's voice on the other end!</p>
<p>Well, my neighbor didn't call an attorney, but told the principal that she knew the question was illegal. She also made it clear that she was interested in her D, not being a plaintiff and D recently received her acceptance letter.</p>
<p>I didn't know that public hs's had admissions committees? I thought you either had to be on a first-come basis or something like that. Interesting. Learn something new every day. Is that common?</p>
<p>In NYC, for example, many of the stronger high school programs ncreasingly employ something called "screened" or portfolio admission. This process is similar to private school admission - - tour/open house, classroom visit and interview; parents submit a list of school choices ranked 1-12 - - but without an entrance exam. It is not unusually for students to conduct tours and initial interviews at the open house sessions; students on the actual admissions committee is less common.</p>
<p>OK, here is a new suggestion for addressing the problem of the illegal interview so no one else will have to go through this in the OP's local public schools, particularly the part with another kid being there asking a potential student about LD's, which could be experienced by the LD kid as humiliating and also sets off a lot of flashing lights and bells in terms of violating confidentiality -- the legally mandated kind of confidentiality. </p>
<p>The Dept. of Education Dept. Office of Civil Rights has branch offices that are remarkably accessible by telephone and also has an easy, on-line complaint form. I think it would be a very good deed in terms of students to follow if the OP's friend would pick up the phone. Who knows how many other gifted and deserving LD kids whose parents weren't as savvy as the OP's friend, who didn't call the principal and draw attention to the illegal question, have been denied access to this program? </p>
<p>Taking action could also have a direct, postive impact on the LD child in question, since the more LD students are in the program, the more used to accommodating the school will become; accommodation will be more routine, and less of a hassle for the students once the school has a critical mass. </p>
<p>(I also think it would be a great idea to find out how many other LD and physically challenged students there are in this program. If the percentage is miniscule as compared to the percentage of LD kids in the school system, there's a problem, and the problem may hinge on a policy of exclusion, erroneous assumptions about the academic abilities of LD kids, and the use of the illegal question.)</p>
<p>Lifeboat syndrome?</p>
<p>A popular school in NYC makes similar inquiries, but admits high-functioning LD students - - those w/o IEP and who don't require a lot of services. The mother of one such student recently remarked recently that she was untroubled by the school's inquiry/policy. The school enrolls a critical mass of LD students who ungrudgingly receive minimal accommodations (mostly extra time on tests), but more importantly, the mom feared that if the school admitted LD students who needed a lot of services, those "needier" students would siphon resources from the general student body and the current LD students, like her child.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that's why OP hasn't picked up the phone (OP had no personal knowledge), but it may explain what appears to be a startling absence of formal complaints.</p>