A Veteran’s New Mission: Ensuring Education Equity in Montana 

After retiring from 22 years of service in the Navy, Clifton Grilley moved with his wife and three boys from San Diego to his family farm in Choteau, Montana.

Two of his boys, Wesley, 11, and Elliott, 13, have individualized education plans (IEP) under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to help them receive an appropriate education. However, once the family moved north of Helena, they realized how difficult it can be to access education services for children with special needs in a rural area.

“When we arrived, we tried to take our sons to a school different from our assigned school because it has an exceptional special needs program.” Clifton explained. “We enrolled the boys and ordered transfer of the IEP. But the day before classes began, the school said we were no longer enrolled because it had reached capacity. So, we were left with no option but to attend our assigned district school.”

Unfortunately, their assigned district school did not provide the necessary services. Instead, they must attend a co-op system. So, the boys spend half of each school day in a regular classroom and half with paraprofessionals providing IEP services.

Under the transfer IEP, Wesley, who’s been diagnosed with autism, was supposed to receive speech therapy and occupational therapy. However, his co-op neither offers him that full array of services nor conducted another IEP evaluation to determine whether such services were still necessary.

“When we went to sign the IEP, they had stripped out the occupational therapy without a formal evaluation, which is against IDEA,” said Grilley.

Unfortunately, due to being underserved, Wesley has regressed over the last three-and-a-half years. His agitations have returned including hitting himself, kicking, and exhibiting meltdowns. Once Clifton was able to receive an updated IEP from his school, quarterly progress reports show an entire year of regression over a 5-month period. Clifton asked the school district to revisit the IEP and reinstate all the services Wesley needed, but Wesley still hasn’t been able to get the necessary hours of occupational therapy, and what he does receive is provided by unqualified paraprofessionals at his school through his co-op.

Elliott, too, has trouble receiving needed services. While his Montana school has classified him as having dysgraphia, a neurological condition in which someone has difficulty turning their thoughts into written language for their age and ability to think, Clifton believes autism is a more accurate classification. And the different classification may be contributing to the lack of services offered to him. Although Elliott does suffer from handwriting difficulties, the occupational therapist from the co-op determined that Elliott would not benefit from her services due to his classification with dysgraphia.

The Grilley’s face other obstacles to finding services for Wesley and Elliott on their own. They live on a farm in rural Montana, and the closest town with services that could assist Elliott and Wesley is more than 30 miles away. The result is limited educational opportunities for the Grilley boys.

“Private Christian schools in the area provide more one-on-one time with the teacher and smaller classes. But we don’t have the means to send the boys to those schools. It makes you feel almost like a prisoner, like we’re stuck in our situation. If we decide to pull the boys out of public school, we will have to sell a vehicle just to pay for services,” Grilley said.

Frustrated with the uphill battle with the local school district to obtain needed services for Elliott and Wesley, Clifton began attending local school board meetings, where he first heard about Montana’s new education savings account (ESA) program for students with disabilities.

Montana’s Special Needs Equal Opportunity Education Savings Account program provides families of students who meet the federal definition of a “child with disabilities” under the IDEA an account with a maximum annual allocation up to $8,000 for flexible educational and therapeutic uses, including private school tuition. The accounts may also be used for education-related transportation.

The Montana legislature passed the Special Needs ESA in 2023, however two organizations filed a lawsuit in January 2024 to stop the program from being implemented.

“I was surprised to see the groups that filed the lawsuit, especially Disability Rights Montana, which is supposed to help all citizens with disabilities,” Clifton said. “The Montana special needs ESA program affords families choices in their children’s education. Programs like ESA should be very welcomed because it takes a burden off administrators and allows them to focus and align their resources better as a compliment to families using ESA funds to provide services to their special needs students.”

Now, on behalf of Montana State Representative Sue Vinton, who sponsored the bill creating the special needs ESA, EdChoice Legal Advocates is defending the new program in court to ensure all Montana families and students with disabilities can have equal access to educational opportunities and necessary services to meet their educational goals. And Clifton Grilley has stepped up as a witness in the case to tell the court how the Montana special needs ESA program will help his boys.

“The ESA would give us a chance to actually get the services Elliott and Wesley need, as well as a tutor and other resources we’ve been working so hard to get from our district school. It would provide benefits to all children with disabilities, no matter where they attend school.”