Special Education Law and Advocacy
As you may know if you have been reading my 2 Things: Special Education Law Tips Newsletter, there are laws which grant access rights to parents of their student’s educational records. This is especially true when the student is a child with a disability. Such rights are granted by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act […]
When a parent disputes a decision made by a school district regarding the special education and/or services of their child, one option is to file a “Due Process Complaint”. [See Procedural Safeguards, 20 USC 1415(b)(6) and (c)(2).] When a complaint is filed, the state’s Department of Education assigns the case to an “Independent Hearing Officer”. […]
Sometimes you just need some quick tips to help you through the maze that is special education law. Fair enough. Here are my Top Ten tips for parents and advocates: 1. Put everything in writing! Document every single thing you do as it will only help your child and help if you find yourself in a […]
Recently, I was asked this (not so) hypothetical: “4th grade child has an IEP (high functioning Down Syndrome) and is placed in a life skills classroom. There is one special education teacher and seven aides rotating through the classroom. Reading and math instruction is being solely taught by an aide with the teacher touching base […]
Since the U.S. Department of Education more or less mandated implementation of the ‘Common Core‘ education standards on a state level, I have seen numerous examples of how such suggested teaching method fails. As a small example, several states have opted out of the Common Core or backed away from some of the assessments associated […]
Many of you probably don’t know there are laws that exist to protect the rights of disabled kids, but perhaps none more important than the special education laws. I’m quite sure that even fewer of you know that your tax dollars are being used to deny those disabled kids their lawful education and thereby violating […]
I’m shocked. It takes a lot to shock me these days, but I am admittedly shocked. My alarm has been set off by numerous recent studies into the “cause” of Autism. I’m not alarmed purely because of the research, but rather what it may implicate and the resulting frightening thoughts of how we, as a […]
There is a bad reputation out there for special education lawyers, advocates and parents of special education kids. The reputation is that we hate all school teachers and those who work in the schools and we are simply out for vengeance. I’m going to focus this post on the misrepresentation that I must hate teachers […]
I’ve had a lot of people ask me lately if I provide free legal services or if I can take their case for free. The answers are: (1) Yes, I do pro bono (free legal) work through South Jersey Legal Services (www.lsnj.org/sjls); and (2) No, if you can afford a mechanic, HVAC repairman or doctor, […]
There have been many recent, well-publicized incidents of teachers and school staff doing horrible things to kids – and not just any kids, special needs kids. Here are just a few examples: In Cherry Hill, NJ, a dad of a special needs child wired his kid for sound and audio recorded verbal abuse by the […]
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