Lost and Found

Michelle Rhee, the school chancellor of the District of Columbia Public School System (DCPS), is standing behind me in the ladies room of the U. S. District Court in Washington, D.C. I start to sweat. I feel as if I'm standing next to Elvis, an impeccably dressed, petite, Blackberry-carrying Elvis. Hailed as the educator who will save Washington's schools, singled out for praise by Barack Obama, Rhee is a celebrity. Our restroom proximity is due to the hearing we are both attending that day, where DCPS will outline its progress in compliance with a class action consent decree. Rhee sits at the large oak counsel table before the judge, while I and the other special education attorneys, attorneys who represent parents who sue DCPS for failing to provide their children with needed special education and related services, sit in the gallery.