Private meetings on seclusion, restraint would undercut trust

A Blue Ribbon Task Force, created to examine the disgraced special education programs in Frederick County Public Schools, has made an understandable but tragic mistake. The group has decided that its meetings will not be open to the public. This is a group specifically formed to restore public confidence in the district’s special education programs after the U.S. Justice Department exposed severe problems in the way children were treated. The district was forced to sign a consent decree, pledging to improve.