COPAA, one of the leading legal advocacy organization that focuses on special education rights is organizing letter writing parties and a campaign generally to overturn the Supreme Court’s decisions in Shaffer (burden of proof on parents in due process) and Arlington Central (no expert’s fees to parents even when they prevail in due process). Both of these decisions can be overturned with Congressional action to amend IDEIA to expressly shift the burden of proof back to the schools and to allow recovery of expert’s fees to prevailing parents. Congressional action will depend upon parents, grandparents, friends, relatives and others who care about these issues to write, fax and place calls to their Senators and Congresspersons. The following is an open letter from COPAA regarding the need for everyone to contact Congress to support the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act. Download idea_fairness_restoration_act_final.pdf which has just been introduced in Congress. This bill would overturn the Arlington Central decision and again allow for recovery of expert’s fees when parents prevail in a due process case.
I Did Not Learn All I Really Need to Know in Kindergarten by Lori Miller Fox
You’ll have to excuse me for not having written a timely humorous piece on Halloween, which is in fact half-written and saved on my computer for next year’s October deadline. Instead, after having spent two long days in the hospital with our son last week, I can’t seem to let go of how unprepared parents can be for the “unexpected complications” that arise when raising a child with special needs. In thinking about this, I realized that contrary to popular belief, I did not learn all I really need to know in kindergarten.
Stinging Back Over Tom F.
I am glad the folks over at NSBA’s BoardBuzz have a good sense of humor over my criticisms of their commentary of the Tom F. case. They ‘stung’ back today with a response to yesterday’s blog. My only responses to their comment is that district’s do not have to pay for an out of district placement if they meet the relatively low standard of Rowley, and unilateralism on the part of schools, more often than not, leads to conflict (and yes, some parents are at fault in this regard). Most parents undeniably chose this risky and tough road only as a last not a first resort.
In the Tom F. Case The Tie Goes for the Parents
In the Tom F. case the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision (see pdf below) which effectively ruled in favor of a parents right to place their child in an out of district placement, sue for reimbursement, even if that child had never been enrolled in the school district. The decision was 4 to 4 with Justice Kennedy not participating.
The Federal Appeals Court in New York State (2d Circuit Court of Appeals) ruled in favor of parents’ right to seek reimbursement, even if they had not enrolled their child in public school. With a tie vote the lower court’s ruling is affirmed or upheld. (see Pete Wright’s commentary on the case.)
Lessons Learned From the Blog at the 2 Year Anniversary
Amazingly what started as a lark 2 years ago has grown to the point where there have been close to 200,000 page views averaging about 250 per day and nearly 600 comments from so many wonderful readers of the blog. The numbers do not tell much but there are deeper lessons:
1. People need, crave and love humor; an especial thanks in this department goes out to my wife, Lori Miller Fox, who is far and away funnier than I can ever hope to be. Laughter is the balm for the profound pain that so many of us experience each day;
2. Too many school people (by no means all) can not laugh at themselves and are incredibly sensitive to rebuke even if expressly not directed at them. The amount of hrrmphing over the years has been remarkable.
3. Parents need and have a right to plain spoken guidance and in many cases will use that information to pierce the veil of misinformation and get a FAPE for their child;
4. There is an ongoing need to uncover the persistant myths of special education: cases are brought to due process at the hands of money hungry unscrupulous attorneys; special education is draining the education system; school people are above reproach and never hit, lie, cheat, perjure or steal; to provide a FAPE would bankrupt the system (when so often there are cheap readily available answers and remedies which only require an attitude adjustment;
5. The golden rules (among others) have been and remain: be creative, stay focused, look for the win-win answer at all costs, and document crucial facts
So what is the focus in the future:
- Bring out issues essential to the community of students with special needs in the upcoming elections;
- Fight for legislation to overturn unfortunate rulings in Arlington Central and Shaffer;
- Advocate for more job training, transition programming and constructive alternatives to break the cycle of special education class leading to drop out or convict status;
- Resist all efforts to carve out exemptions to NCLB which will insure our children are left behind;
- My personal dream-to organize a million wheelchair march/roll on the mall in Washington D.C. to demand our rights as citizens and human beings without any resort to cliches or demoralizing pity.
Keep reading; I will keep writing; keep the faith that effective advocacy is the only path to a meaningful future for so many wonderful students/loved ones; the only zero tolerance is for hateful narrow-minded bigoted people wherever they may be.
Mama Never Said There’d Be Days Like This by Lori Miller Fox
Over the years I’ve gotten so tired of people pitying my son. I’ve heard so much useless and unsolicited advice like “ just enjoy him,” “leave the poor baby alone,” and my personal favorite “G-d doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” I think G-d gives you whatever He or She sees fit and how you handle it is up to you.
That aside, my son is on the whole, just like any other teenager, only because he’s less verbal, without the back talk. So I’ve found that at times, raising a child with special needs requires discipline — albeit of a little different nature than that required for most typical kids. Here are just a few of the things I, although sometimes regrettably, have said or have thought about saying to my son in the heat of the moment. Maybe some will work for you.
Dyscalculia Research Reveals Possible Cause by Amanda Windom
Current Biology recently published a study on the math disability, dyscalculia. Dyscalculia, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, is a term referring to a wide range of life-long learning disabilities involving math. Dyscalculia affects a person’s ability to understand and manipulate numbers and may be caused by visual-spatial disability (difficulty processing what the eye sees) or language processing difficulty (difficulty processing what the ear hears). Some symptoms of the disability include inability to balance a checkbook, difficulty estimating time and/or costs, and poor sense of direction. In young children symptoms include difficulty learning to count or understanding how numbers relate to things in the world (ex. 4 dogs, 6 cats).
The researchers found, as reported by Time, the exact part of the brain that is responsible for human’s sense of magnitude, or more specifically stated by Dr. Roi Cohen Kadosh of the UCL institute "…This provides strong evidence that dyscalculia is caused by malformations in the right parietal lobe…" This gives hope that someday scientists may be able to develop a diagnostic tool for diagnosing and/or treating the disorder.
In the meantime there are many things parents and teachers can do to help children with the disorder. Some ideas include explaining ideas and problems clearly, ensuring student comprehends the problem, providing a quiet place to study, allowing extra time for problem solving, encouraging the student to ask questions, encouraging visualizations, and providing multiple real life examples. As with other "invisible disabilities" it is critical to insist on in-depth evaluations to identify the issues and then write a good measurable IEP.
Unique Therapy for Cerebral Palsy by Amanda Windom
DuPage Easter Seals in Villa Park, Illinois is offering an intensive therapy for children with cerebral palsy with real functional results. In Sacramento, California, children have 4 hours of therapy per day, 5 days a week, for 3 weeks and as reported on KCRA.com children are experiencing positive results. The program, called Suitability, is described on the Easter Seals website and provides intensive physical and occupational therapy and has many benefits including improved head and trunk control, balance and coordination, decrease in uncontrolled movements, strengthening, positive speech benefits, improved gait and both fine and gross motor skill improvement. The program is called Suitability because an important component is the suit that is worn, which is a modification of one designed by Russian scientists to minimize the physical effects of weightlessness for astronauts.
The suit allowed one student to walk across the stage for his high school graduation and another student was able to kick a ball with her left foot for the first time after the treatment. Still another was able to lift her arms to hug her Mom for the first time. Another child was able to better maintain posture and balance while moving after three rounds of the program. While these results sound almost too good to be true a study released in 2004 by the Therasuit LLC/Pediatric Fitness Center stated that 100% of participants have improvements in strength and range of motion, 92% show functional improvements, and 75% are able to sit independently after the program. Other reports detail a 94% improvement in fine and gross motor skills and 64% in speech productivity and fluency.
Environmental Triggers for Autism Researched by Amanda Windom
A news article on Boston.com addresses environmental triggers as a cause of autism. About $2 million dollars are being put into a groundbreaking study that will intensely track possible environmental triggers of autism starting in the womb. According to Dr. Gary Goldstein, chairman of the scientific board Autism Speaks, until recently 90% of research focused on genetics, but that is about to change. Mark Blaxill, co-founder of Safe Minds, says that genes cannot account for the epidemic proportions that autism have reached. The article also mentions the recent study in California that found autism in 8 of 29 children whose mother lived near fields that had been sprayed with pesticide . Goldstein also spoke of Reye’s syndrome, which was easily eradicated when children stopped receiving aspirin. "Wouldn’t it be wonderful, he said, if we found something like that?"
The idea of autism having an environmental trigger is one that has been proposed before. For example in October of 2006 a press release from Cornell University suggested a connection between autism and early childhood television viewing. The study found that higher rates of autism occurred in rainy climates where children are more likely to watch TV and where they have greater access to cable. Other reports have claimed that mercury contained in children’s vaccines, or even in utero, was to blame. Some experts believe that autism is caused by vulnerable genes and environmental triggers. Nancy Duley, parent of an autistic child, perhaps put it best when she said she hopes this new study will answer one of the "burning questions" for many families of children with autism.
Thomas gets an A for Autism by Amanda Windom
A recent study by the UK’s National Autistic Society explores the relationship between children with autism and Thomas the Tank Engine. The research found that nearly 90% of the over 700 children participating liked Thomas very much and nearly 50% of parents reported that their child had learned about colors and numbers from Thomas. The popular train also influenced over 30% of the participating children in positive ways in regards to language. Parents reported that children who did not communicate with typical language were able to communicate with ‘Thomas’ language. Many parents also reported that children were able to learn about human emotion from the expressions on the trains. Another benefit to children with autism and their siblings is that they can begin to interact by watching a Thomas video or playing with the toy trains together. The overall effect of Thomas the Tank Engine was reported as positive and helpful, not only to the autistic children but to their parents as well. Click on the link above to read the full results from the study.
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