Special Education Law and Advocacy
A group of smart minds in the New Jersey world of special education gathered and put together an excellent guide to assist schools, parents, and providers in helping children with dyslexia. They recently issued “The New Jersey Dyslexia Handbook: A Guide to Early Literacy Development & Reading Struggles” (PDF) which is free to download from […]
In the Comments describe your worst experience advocating for a child with a disability with your school district. Did they fail to adequately find or evaluate a disability? Did they design a poor IEP? Did they fail to take your suggestions for the IEP? Are you unhappy with the placement or classroom for your child? […]
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 […]
I am an attorney who represents children with disabilities and their families in special education matters. I am also a member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (“COPAA”, www.copaa.org), a national organization of special education lawyers and advocates with the same client base. Recently, my colleagues and I have witnessed a substantial uptick in very […]
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 […]
I think many, too many, lawyers have forgotten what the ethics rules (“Rules of Professional Conduct”) really say. I encourage every lawyer (especially school district counsel) to go back and read their ethics rules (each state has their own, based on the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct) periodically. This will help them understand that […]
I filed a brief in a special education case recently opposing a motion to dismiss the case. Want to share the Introduction as it spells out my view of how school districts (and their insurance companies) are treating kids with disabilities: What is getting lost in the legal gymnastics of the pending motions to dismiss […]
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 […]
Since the 1980s, there has been a strong movement toward “alternate dispute resolution” of legal cases. Our court system is overloaded and, as a result, the U.S. Supreme Court has encouraged parties to try to resolve their battles somewhere other than in a courtroom. This is particularly true in special education matters. After parents are […]
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