Superintendent Kathleen Bodie has responded to stinging criticism from the head of an Arlington parent group who said that trust and the law was violated after a map showing proposed new school district lines included dots indicating where special-education students live.

In a statement, Bodie wrote that the incomplete map, intended only for administrators and never expected to be public, was a tool aimed at assessing the numbers of special-education students in districts with schools having those services. The redistricting effort, which began this month and aims to fashion a proposal by next June, involves trying to equalize student numbers according to each capacity for the seven elementary schools.

On Tuesday, Nov. 22, Trish Orlovsky, chair of SEPAC, wrote that creating and releasing this map to the public shows Bodie's "ignorance of her duties or disregard for the law -- both of which are very concerning to parents and a violation of our trust and perhaps a violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)."

Orlovsky asked five questions: (1) Who authorized and created this map targeting students with special needs and what did it cost? (2) What was its purpose? (3) Why was this map ever shown to the School Committee and released to the public? (4) What should the superintendent have known but didn't, and (5) What steps need to be taken to ensure this never occurs again?

The next day, YourArlington asked the superintendent and School Committee Chair Cindy Starks to respond to Orlovsky's questions. Bodie responded Monday, Nov. 28. The full text of her statement follows:

"I first want to reiterate my apology over the release of the district map that distinguished the location of special education students and non-special education students. It was a mistake for which I accept full responsibility. The map was not intended to be released to the public, but it is no less regrettable that it happened. Those few who were given copies by mistake have been asked to destroy or return their copies. The map will not be available in the future to anyone who requests a copy.

"The question that has been asked by many people is why such a map was developed in the first place if it was never intended to be released. How does the location of special education students affect redistricting? The location of our special education students who attend specialized programs in the district does affect redistricting in two ways: (1) the classroom capacity of schools in which the programs reside; and, (2) the distribution of students across the district. The map that was inadvertently released is not helpful in this analysis because there was no distinction made between students who may only receive one service, such as speech and language support, from students who attend specialized programs. It was, however, a first step in developing a map that will be helpful in this analysis.

"First, four of our elementary schools house special education programs that did not exist when the district lines were determined years ago or when the schools were rebuilt. In the last few years, the district has developed a number of programs at all levels (Pre-K-12) to address the needs of students who require support beyond what can be offered in a regular classroom.

"Absent these programs, some of these students would likely have had to be placed in out-of-district programs, which are costly, but, more importantly, takes them out of their community and often requires a long commute. We work hard to ensure that we offer high quality specialized programs. Quality control is another reason for maintaining specialized programs in the district.

"One measure of the quality of our programs are MCAS results, which indicate that the achievement gap between high needs students (special education, minority subgroups, low income and ELL) significantly narrows as students remain in our school system. The ongoing goal is to narrow that gap each year.

"Our intention with respect to these special education programs is to keep the programs in the schools which currently house them. In future years, some of these programs may need to be expanded and other programs may need to be developed (in the other three elementary schools). Any new or expanded programs will require additional space. To the best of our ability, we want to anticipate those needs and building capacity now as we determine new district lines.

"Second, where students in these programs reside also affects the distribution of students among all of the schools. For example, if 10 students in one district attend special education programs in schools in other districts, then those 10 students should not be counted in their home district numbers, but in the numbers of the school they are attending. This is particularly important for the Thompson district since we are required by MSBA to have 380 students enrolled in Thompson when it opens in September 2013.

"To respond to concerns about privacy and trust, going forward, as we have always intended, this program analysis will be completed by district administrators only.

"The Redistricting Committee will be provided only with capacity numbers of the elementary schools after the analysis has been finalized. A very rough start to that analysis is reflected in the map created last spring.

"The school capacity chart on the map reflects some subtraction of the special education classrooms from school capacity totals. Since last spring, however, we have both moved some classrooms and expanded some programs, so the chart does not reflect the current situation. The challenge for the District with respect to redistricting is to predict with some certainty special classroom needs for the foreseeable future.

"Again, I want to apologize for this mistake. I hope that anyone who may have downloaded the map from YourArlington during that brief window of time will commit to deleting or destroying the map. I commit to greater vigilance with regard to all documents involving special education students that leave my office."

YourArlington's publisher has also apologized for his role in releasing the map for three-plus hours on Nov. 18.

SEPAC chair's statement

Here is the full text of Orlovsky's statement sent Nov. 22, and titled "Violation of Trust; Violation of the Law."

"As the SEPAC Chair in Arlington and a citizen, I hear feedback from many parents on a variety of issues. The recent event of the Superintendent releasing to the School Committee and then to the press, a map pinpointing the residences of children with special needs (designated as "sped students" on her map), is more than merely a case of administrative carelessness. As superintendent of the schools, Dr. Bodie is charged with ensuring that the rights and safeguarding the identities and personally identifying information of all students with disabilities. Her creating and releasing this map to the public shows her ignorance of her duties or disregard for the law -- both of which are very concerning to parents and a violation of our trust and perhaps a violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

"Hearing from many parents and thinking of my own child, I am angry with the Superintendent because her negligence has put my child, and every other Arlington child with special needs, in harm's way. Any person with ill intentions and decent skills at searching the internet can find this map and pinpoint the streets where every child with special needs lives. I'm not the only parent who is now become more vigilant at watching street traffic and any cars or persons lingering in the neighborhood, because everyone can see which streets and locations of our children. I feel less secure and am worried even more about the safety of my already vulnerable child with special needs. All this thanks to the Superintendent.

"So the questions I want answered are (1) Who authorized and created this map targeting students with special needs and what did it cost? (2) What was its purpose? (3) Why was this map ever shown to the School Committee and released to the public? (as it then became a public document) (4) What should the superintendent have known but didn't, and (5) What steps need to be taken to ensure this never occurs again?

"While we appreciate her letter of apology to parents, it does not begin to make amends for the damage done. I sincerely hope the administration takes full responsibility for this, with the School Committee, and conducts a complete investigation, as well as comprehensive recommendations and steps to ensure this will not ever happen again.

"The loss of trust is significant and the Superintendent has much to account for.

"We look forward to a response to how this will be rectified."

The next meeting of the Redistricting Committee is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13, in the School Committee Room.

Nov. 16: Redistricting underway | Nov. 18: First draft released | Nov. 19: publisher's apology

This story was first published Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011.