Special Education Law and Advocacy
Many parents are aware of their child’s diagnosis (or the symptoms of the diagnosis), but perhaps have never formally received a diagnosis for their child from a physician. Why is a diagnosis important? A child must have a diagnosis that fits within 13 categories of disability in order for that child to be eligible for […]
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. Ā 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 āalternate dispute resolutionā 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. Youāre 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 […]
Article on the wrong way and right way to evaluate a child for a disability is available on Special-Ism.com website at this URL: http://special-ism.com/evaluating-a-child-for-disability-the-wrong-way-and-the-right-way/
I did a seminar recently. My seminar was on what to expect at an IEP/504 meeting. Here are some of the comments I heard from parents spoken to them by school districts: “We are at our quota of eligible disabled students already. We can’t have more.” “Evaluations must be done in the summer time.” “Your […]
On January 6, 2011, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law one of the toughest anti-bullying civil rights laws in the United States. Ā As with most laws, the creation of the law was the easy part. Ā The difficult part is the enforcement. Ā Most states have anti-bullying laws (some, like New Jersey apply to cyberbullying) […]
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