Special Education Law and Advocacy
You may look at the title and think you’ve accidentally wandered onto a blog about pack animals. Â No, don’t worry, you’re in the right spot. Â I’m not talking about actual beasts of burden, but rather the beast of the burden of proof in special education disputes and how to overcome the beast that it is […]
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 […]
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”. Â [See Procedural Safeguards, 20 USC 1415(b)(6) and (c)(2).] Â When a complaint is filed, the state’s Department of Education assigns the case to an “Independent Hearing Officer”. […]
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. Â 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 âalternate dispute resolutionâ 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 […]
Your child is not receiving the attention or services he or she needs in school. As a result, your child is doing poorly in school. Youâre not even sure of the cause of the problem, but you know something is wrong. What do you do? If you are the parent of a child with special […]
[Appeared previously on Special Education Advisor blog] Probably the most frustrating part of being the parent of a child with a different ability[1] is the response from the very organization you hoped you could trust the most to do right by your child â your school district. After all, teachers and administrators are trained to […]
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