In ‘limbo’: North Texas family’s legal battle with school district could affect special ed statewide

From KERA News:

Shannon Harriman is careful when he talks about his son, Kelton Lightfoot.

Harriman describes his son as a funny 17-year-old who wants to get a job, learn how to drive and spend time with the family’s gentle black labrador retriever, Hudson. For all of his affection and devotion to Kelton, there’s also exhaustion, frustration and concern.

“A lot of times, it is good,” Harriman said. “[He] can be funny and great to be around. It’s just when it’s bad, it’s sometimes really bad.”

Kelton’s intellectual and behavioral development has been significantly affected by a traumatic brain injury he sustained when he was two weeks old. Harriman said Kelton’s disabilities manifest mostly in his behaviors — which can often be violent.

Harriman said Kelton misses the family’s dog, Hudson, the most. Hudson follows Harriman around the family’s home in Azle. Hundreds of miles away, Kelton stays in a short-term care facility in Utah. Harriman isn’t sure what he’ll do once Kelton needs to be moved again. Yfat Yossifor / KERA News

“He can go from being happy to spitting on you, to hitting, throwing things, threatening you with knives, a lot of verbal escalation as well,” he said.

For several years, Harriman has split his time and energy between his job in IT and trying to ensure his son has the resources he needs.

That’s how Kelton became the center of a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for accessible education across Texas.

Earlier this year, Weatherford ISD — about 30 miles west of Fort Worth — was given 10 days to comply with an order to provide specific resources for Kelton. Months later, the family is still waiting — and advocates warn Kelton might not be the only kid affected.

Kelton’s tumultuous time at Weatherford ISD

As a child, Kelton went between school districts, full-time therapy providers and short-term treatment programs. During a three-month stay at a residential treatment center in Liberty Hill, an evaluator noted Kelton appeared “emotionally distraught with little or no provocation, confronting him will likely result in an escalation of these emotions and accompanying behaviors,” according to Texas Education Agency, or TEA, documents. The evaluator advised Harriman to enroll his son in a public school.

Kelton started attending one of Weatherford ISD’s middle schools in 2021; even before then his father had started working with school staff to develop an individualized education program, or IEP. The purpose of an IEP is to establish what accommodations and modifications are necessary to ensure each student has access to a free and appropriate public education.

Shannon Harriman started working with Weatherford ISD to develop an special education plan for Kelton before his son was enrolled. He said he wanted to make sure staff understood the extent of Kelton’s behavior to ensure everyone’s safety and to prevent Kelton from being arrested. Yfat Yossifor / KERA News

“I told them my one concern is he can’t be somewhere where he gets arrested,” Harriman said. “I said, ‘Here’s all the things he can do,’ as I’ve described to everybody in the world because I never want to have anybody act surprised.”

Harriman said school officials reassured him that arrests were considered only as a last resort. If Kelton’s behavior escalated to that point and the school could no longer handle him, staff would recommend him for residential placement, according to Harriman.

When a student’s needs are greater than what a school district can accommodate, it may be responsible for paying for placement in a TEA-approved center or program where students receive an appropriate education.

Because of Kelton’s level of need, Harriman said the options for his son are incredibly limited. Harriman said he was only able to find one TEA-approved program that Kelton qualified for — a residential treatment center in Missouri called Calo Programs.

While at Weatherford ISD, Kelton had dozens of instances of physical aggression, leaving school and causing property damage. He was also arrested three times — once following an incident that left two teachers injured.

Harriman said he repeatedly advocated for residential placement for Kelton but was met with resistance. The district “simply added another goal” to Kelton’s IEP, according to TEA records.

“This is where I’ve kind of failed in putting too much trust in them,” Harriman said. “They’re supposed to be the experts on what these plans are supposed to look like…But in hindsight, it seemed they put in place what was minimal for them – what they believed was minimal for them to legally do.”

After Kelton’s third arrest in May 2024, Harriman pulled his son out of school for the rest of the year after speaking with an attorney. They decided this was the best way to avoid additional criminal arrests or charges.

Weatherford ISD scheduled a meeting to review Kelton’s IEP in August, according to court records filed by the district. Before the semester began, Harriman decided to withdraw Kelton from Weatherford ISD out of desperation.

“By the end of the child’s time there, things were just so out of control,” said Mark Whitburn, the family’s lawyer. “There’s nothing the school district could do that was going to be able to help him then. He, at the very least, he had to have a private placement then and probably well before then.”

After moving, Harriman filed a lawsuit and a due process complaint against Weatherford ISD.
He said the district not only failed to meet his son’s needs but also took steps that made his son’s behavior and educational performance worse during the several years Kelton was enrolled.

If there’s a concern about the child’s rights being violated, due process allows parents or guardians to ask for an opinion from a hearing officer with the Texas Education Agency who has authority similar to a judge.

Weatherford ISD told KERA it can’t comment on ongoing litigation. In legal documents, the district denies Harriman’s allegations and claims it’s no longer responsible for Kelton because the family moved outside of the district almost a year before filing a complaint.

Waiting for relief

In January, the TEA hearing officer sided with the family and directed the district to provide one year of residential placement at Calo or “a comparable program” as a remedy.

In the final decision, the hearing officer said the school didn’t make enough of an effort to address Kelton’s needs.

“The fact that [Kelton] assaulted staff members in the District, who then filed felony assault charges against him – which is highly extraordinary – should have placed the District on notice that its previous goals, supports, and accommodations were not going to work with Student regarding his behavior,” the hearing officer wrote. “And in the end, they did not work.”

Whitburn said there’s case law that establishes school districts can still be held accountable, even if the family moves from the district.

“The hearing officer said, ‘Look, you made this, you put this child in a worse position than he would have been. You need to provide this private placement as compensation for all the wrongdoing that you inflicted on this kid while he was in your district,’” Whitburn said.

More than six months later, Whitburn said the district still hasn’t provided the relief awarded in the final decision. He said he’s never seen a school district “simply refuse” to implement a decision — until now.

“The law is clear,” he said. “Even if it is a decision from the officer that you disagree with as a school district, you’ve got to implement it within ten school days. There’s no ambiguity in the law on that. They’re just refusing to do it.”

In a statement to KERA, TEA said it couldn’t comment on the case due to federal privacy laws.
The school district appealed the hearing officer’s decision in federal court.

In a letter sent to Harriman in April, TEA said it was “prevented from ensuring compliance with the hearing officer’s order” and the due process complaint was placed on hold while the case works its way through the courts system.

Whitburn said there’s no way to tell how long that might take.

Kelton turns 18 in October, which Whitburn and Harriman worry could make things more complicated.

The complexity of Kelton’s case has left the family with a lot of questions, but few answers. Whitburn said he’s worried the way this case has gone could weaken the due process complaint system.

“If they can win and yet get nothing for it, that’s hard for me to accept,” Whitburn said. “Every case sets a precedent of some kind…If other school districts see a school district having success with that strategy, why not go down the same road?”

What could this mean for students across Texas?

Monica Santiago founded 3 in 1 Advocacy after struggling to understand how to get services for her own child — despite years of experience working in school administration.

Without a mechanism of enforcement, Santiago said students with disabilities will lose access to a free and appropriate public education, which they are entitled to under federal law.

“Whenever you’re a citizen of a community and you go to court to hold an entity accountable, if that can never be enforced, how can you call it justice?” she said. “How can you call it a viable option?”

Santiago said parents don’t have a lot of control over their child’s IEP, which is developed by a committee made up of a parent, one general education teacher, one special education teacher or provider of the child, a representative of the school and a person who can “interpret the instructional implications of the evaluation results.”

“The parent is a member of their child’s committee, but they’re also a singular member,” Santiago said. “The parent…is the actual greatest expert of a student in that committee, even though they’re not usually treated that way.”

If a parent doesn’t agree with the school district’s plan, the district has to try working with them. But, at a certain point, the district is allowed to implement the plan without the parent’s approval.

Santiago said often parents don’t have an option available to stop the process if the school wants to make a choice that’s “detrimental” to the student. She said due process is meant to offer parents an official process to ask for a third party to review their case and potentially stop the school from implementing it.

“I couldn’t imagine as a parent not having access to that option,” Santiago said. “There’s a reason laws exist….If we allow the options that currently exist that were fought for to all of a sudden become null and void, it opens us up to not being able to access the rights that are said to be ours.”

Kelton and his family stuck in limbo

Harriman’s eyes carried the weight of exhaustion as he sorted through a stack of pictures he took from an overstuffed envelope. The envelope is destined for Utah, where Kelton is staying in a short-term care facility.

“We’re hoping that at some point there’s a transition straight to Calo,” Harriman said. “The way things look right now doesn’t seem positive, but I don’t know what happens…because coming back home is really not much of an option. It’s too dangerous for the family, so I don’t know.”

Kelton’s stay in Utah is covered by insurance – for now. Starting in August, the family will have to cover room and board, which costs about $150 a day. After that, the family isn’t sure what will happen.

Harriman said the only option may be to try and get Kelton in a juvenile detention center.

Over the past year and a half, Harriman said Kelton has been “bouncing around” several short-term placements – none of which have been educational.

“Now he’s at the new place and trying to find his footing,” Harriman said. “He does miss his family – well, this dog, that’s the thing he misses the most, but he does miss his family. So, he’s been more depressed the last month or so.”

Harriman said he’s put his family at risk for years because of how much he loves Kelton, but he’s worried about something dangerous happening if his son comes back without access to the resources he needs.

“I’ve been fighting for years and years,” Harriman said. “I’ve taken it on to make sure the community doesn’t get hurt, but I can’t take that anymore…Everyone will scream after the fact, ‘How did no one know? Where were the parents? How did they do this?’ Parents have been screaming for years, but no one’s here to help.”

Harriman said there are a lot of nights and weekends dedicated to doing “leg work” and calling the dozens of people involved in his son’s care and life — including therapists, counselors, social workers, attorneys, probation officers and care facilities.

Harriman said all he’s able to do is wait.

“All I’m doing is trying to really help my son and find the right path,” he said. “If anybody has the right answer, please let me know.”

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