Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995                   TAG: 9503060054
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE LETS AUTISTIC BOY ATTEND MONTGOMERY SCHOOL

A Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of the Loudoun County parents who want to send their autistic son to Montgomery County schools.

The judge made ``a very strong decision this time and we were very excited,'' Roxana Hartmann said Friday.

She said she hopes to get her 9-year-old son, Mark, into his new classroom at Kipps Elementary School next week.

``The community has been very positive and supportive,'' Hartmann said. ``A lot of people have called me and a lot of people have asked if they could baby-sit Mark so I could do anything.''

In January, Roxana and Mark Hartmann moved to Montgomery County, lured there by the school system's nationally recognized inclusion program. Her husband, Joseph, and their daughter, who attends a private school in Northern Virginia, are staying in Loudoun County.

Montgomery County school officials questioned the Hartmanns' living arrangements, saying the one-bedroom apartment Roxana Hartmann rents does not constitute residency. The Montgomery County School Board asked Judge Ray Grubbs last month to issue an injunction prohibiting Mark from entering school in the county.

Grubbs ruled in favor of the Hartmanns.

``At this preliminary stage, the court finds ... that Mark and his mother meet the residency provisions," Grubbs wrote in his ruling released late Thursday.

The Hartmanns are no strangers to the courtroom.

The parents garnered national attention last year after they challenged the Loudoun County school system's decision to take Mark out of his regular classroom and put him in a special-education class. The Hartmanns wanted their son to remain in a regular classroom to learn positive behavioral habits from his classmates, but the school system said he was too disruptive.

The Hartmanns lost the case but have appealed the Loudoun County Circuit Court's decision.

In the meantime, the Hartmanns decided they no longer wanted their son to attend Loudoun County schools and ended up in Montgomery County.

Montgomery County School Superintendent Herman Bartlett has said throughout the case that the issue in question was residency and nothing else.

``I want to stipulate that the attorney and I will talk to the School Board to make sure how they feel about it, but I feel the issue has been resolved,'' Bartlett said Friday. ``I'll do everything I can to make the student and parent comfortable in Montgomery County and provide them with the same educational opportunities that we afford all of our students.''

The county School Board will review the case and decide whether to appeal the decision, but Grubbs warned in his ruling that the Hartmanns probably would succeed in the end.

Roxana Hartmann, who said she had received many phone calls from those who had read of her situation, said Blacksburg is beginning to feel like home.

She said that after a Feb. 17 Roanoke Times & World-News article mentioned her sparsely furnished apartment, people offered furniture and kitchen items.

``I have to tell you that they have been so nice; this is home,'' she said. ``Even one of the local furniture companies called me to offer furniture.''

Regina Smith, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, said she is not surprised by the community support.

``I have heard nothing negative about having this child stay,'' Smith said. ``What I have heard is: Why did the school system take a negative stand against this child in the first place? From a parent standpoint, this woman did everything she could for her kid [in Loudoun County], then set out to find what she could for [him] somewhere else.''

Smith acknowledged that there has been an influx of special-education students as a result of publicity the county has received for its inclusion program, but no parent has had to prove residency before.

``It's almost a magnet [the way] we're attracting,'' she said. ``We need to show that it works so other school systems can try to do the same thing. This child has been out of school long enough. This is where he should be.''