Special Ed’s Ardent Advocate

EDUCATION

Special Ed’s Ardent Advocate

COURTESY OF MARCY LIPSITT

Marcie Lipsitt fi ghts for the rights of impaired and disabled students.

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

For most people “back to school” might mean new pencils and new books. For one Franklin woman, it also means new state special education and civil rights complaints.

Marcie Lipsitt, 62, is a special education advocate who spends her time fighting for students’ rights.

Every child in the United States is entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE), regardless of race, ethnic background, religion, sex, economic status and disability. When a child has a disability, they may need support in order to learn in a typical classroom as successfully as their able-bodied peers.

Enter the Individualized Education Program (IEP), a legally binding document crafted for each student to provide access to an education.

When parents hire Lipsitt, it means their child is not succeeding or reaching their potential in school. Parents are often unfamiliar with the laws and what their child is legally entitled to.

Lipsitt’s schedule is hectic; she spends her time answering emails and phone calls in between attending several meetings daily.

“Every day of the Michigan school year, I have meetings,” said Lipsitt, who started her advocacy work when her son Andrew, now

32, was in elementary school. “I don’t keep track of how many students I’ve advocated for because the number would probably frighten me! “I’m the Michigan Department of Education’s worst nightmare,” Lipsitt said, who describes her job as “going to the U.S. Department of Education and their office of Special Ed and basically COURTESY OF MARCY LIPSITT ratting out Michigan for some pretty bad behavior.”

FIGHTING FOR BETTER EDUCATION

When Gov. John Engler stripped the authority of the elected state board members of the Michigan Department of Education and gave it to the non-elected state superintendent in 1996, Lipsitt said it made education in Michigan much worse.

“We’ve had five of these non-elected state superintendents, who have all the authority of a dictator,” Lipsitt said. “There’s no transparency; no one holds them accountable.”

One example that always gets Lipsitt riled up is the Highly Qualified Teacher Provision in the then-named No Child Left Behind Act. The provision stated that teachers were required to pass the state teacher licensing exam in the subject that they teach.

“In 2008, Michigan was the only state in the nation that was allowing people to teach high school special ed after simply passing the test to become an elementary teacher!” Lipsitt said. “What can a student with a disability learn in a resource room from a teacher who can’t understand algebra himself? Kids were being taught by teachers who weren’t trained.” In 2009, Lipsitt filed suit against the state of Michigan, and the U.S Department of Education found Michigan in formal violaMarcie Lipsitt tion of two national laws and required them to rectify the matter immediately. In 2016, the Highly Qualified Teacher provision was removed altogether, which Lipsitt said broke her heart. “That’s the end of pushing teachers to be better trained.”

Marcie Lipsitt with her son Andrew at the Capitol in Lansing advocating for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

PERSONAL LIFE

Lipsitt has lived in Michigan her entire life, with the exception of her first two college years in California. She and her husband, Eric, are affiliated with Temple Israel.

“My mother said I was born carrying a soapbox,” Lipsitt said.

Without laws in place, school was very