With mid-term elections set for later this week, there is a lot of cliche verbiage about being "for education". Unfortunately, "education" for most candidates has little if anything to do with special education. There are a vast number of families in this country who have a child, grandchild, niece/nephew or other relation with special needs. The problem is unlike other voting blocs we do not consistently vote our interests in elections, nor we even query candidates as where they stand on issues which effect our interests. I dream of a time when issues relating to special education will be on the political agenda on a regular basis, just as other recognized issues such as gun control, taxes, race, foreign policy and crime. If we as a community commanded the political respect that the elderly have achieved, the state of special education would look a lot different. It starts with identifying openly and repeatedly what our political priorities should be and then pressing them at all levels of elections. The following are some of my thoughts on political priorities:
Winkelman: Supreme Court to Review Case Involving Parents Representing Their Children
The U.S. Supreme Court has now accepted for review the Winkleman case out of Ohio which has been pending on the Court’s docket. I wrote about this case some time ago. Since that time the Bush Administration’s Solicitor General’s office argued both for the Court to take the case and for the case to be decided in favor of parents’ right to represent their children in IDEA cases.
If this case is decided in favor of the parents’ case that will have practical implications for many other parents, who represent their children because they either can not afford to hire an attorney or no attorney is available who is qualified to take the case. In addition, in the course of deciding the case the Court could very well create "magic language" as to the centrality of parent’s role in the process of advocating at IEP meetings and other contexts, that could be helpful to parents even when a case is not at hearing. Stay tuned for what hopes to be positive legal developments after losses in the Shaffer [burden of proof on parents] and Arlington Central [no recovery of expert fees even when parents win] cases.
File and Win?
New York Magazine has just published an article called The Autism Clause. The article details the "cottage industry" of parents’ lawyers suing to have children with autism placed in for-profit private schools at a cost of millions to the City of New York. While the article does get some facts right about special education correct (e.g. parents have the burden of proof at due process hearings), it proceeds from the simplistic assumpton that parents simply need to "file and win." If it were only that simple for parents around the country. I do not practice in New York, but this premise is just a gross oversimplification of the trials that parents go through to receive an appropriate education for their children.
Boo! Hoo! [Halloween for Kids With Special Needs] by Lori Miller Fox
Every year as Halloween approaches, I battle mixed feelings. For my “typically developing” daughter, it’s a day second only to her birthday. It’s a day when she can be a princess both inside and out, gather all the candy she and her dad can carry, and eat until she can’t fit one more Skittle or piece of Reese’s into her tiny mouth. For me, it’s a day when I too want to fit every piece of Reese’s into my mouth but only to swallow the pain.
Halloween, has always been a symbol of childhood. It’s a day when children can be children and live out their costume and candy fantasies. But for kids with special needs and their families, it can be a day of segregation, isolation and frustration.
Since many children with special needs can’t or have to limit their intake of candy, my son’s only enjoyment on Halloween was ringing the doorbells–a task, which in a wheelchair, was made very difficult by steps and stoops and shrubs and stares. So many unfamiliar “neighbors” tried to relieve their shock and saddness by dumping handfuls of candy my son would never eat into a bag that he couldn’t hold. But then again, more for the grieving parents.
Now that my son is 14, I thankfully no longer have to worry about what kind of costume goes with a wheelchair, and I can avoid the painful “elementary school parade” for which upright posture was the only thing to be grateful. And I can mindlessly answer the door and force a smile on my face as I pass out the Hershey bars.
Today as I look back on my Annual Autumn anxiety, I realize that as parents of children with special needs, we’re often the ones having to wear the costumes. And not only on Halloween, but every day. From the smiles we paint on our faces to the stiff upper lips we rubber cement onto our chins. As our children grow, we become the people they need us to be, to enable them to be who they are.
IDEA 2004 Regulations Effective on 10/13/06
This Friday October 13, 2006 [Friday the 13th?], the IDEA 2004 regulations [Download idea.regs.sumry.chngs.pdf
] become effective. In many ways the regulations are anti-climatic. I was hoping for greater guidance and clarity from the regulations but not surprisingly the regulations track very closely with the statute. This close congruence was expected since IDEA 2004 purposefully left very little room for regulatory leeway. A few notable changes:
- Tourette’s syndrome is now enumerated under the category of Other Health Impaired;
- Statute of limitations for filing complaints with SEA is one year;
- Issues of financial reimbursement can be raised in a due process;
- Moving away from f ailure model for eligibility;
- Laying out procedures for applying a RTI model (responds to therapeutic intervention) for eligibility for learning disability
The U.S. Department of Education is still due to release various appendices which will give some additional textual analysis and model forms for filing due process and complaints, which will help unrepresented parents from getting their due process dismissed on technical grounds.
The true significance of this Friday may be that special education directors are already passing on misinformation under the rubric of "under the new regulations we do not have to…." One such example is that the regulations bar compensatory education as a remedy (FALSE) but it is being passed off as true. As with any of these claims parents need to ask for reference to the regulations and not accept such poppy cock as being true. After this week expect more of this misinformation to be passed on as true.
Four Star Accommodations by Lori Miller Fox
I believe parents and children should always reach for the stars. It just depends on how you access the solar system. I hate when a teacher or school administrator says, “do you want us to spoon feed the information?" Or “would you want me to give your child a grade he didn’t deserve?” No, I just want my child to have a fair shot. That’s why children are allowed accommodations and modifications. They are designed to make success accessible. Everyone could use accommodations now and then, not just children with special needs. Here are just a few examples:
Schools Failing In Public Outreach
School districts need to reach out to parents and make sure that they know what special education services are available. This is not a statement of opinion it is a statement reflecting the child find responsibilities of IDEIA to do public out reach. Unfortunately, too many school district seem intent on keeping parents in the dark, and then complain that parents are not well informed in the IEP process or worse yet have "unrealistic expectations."
School Discipline Lacking Common Sense
I thought I had seen strange things in schools in the this area but the blog zero intelligence has compiled an impressive roster of the truly bizarre–Ripley’s has nothing on this lineup. Here are some of the strange events which have been recently featured:
- a student who was acting as a designated driver drove and picked up friends at an off campus party where alcohol was being served. For this act of public safety he was suspended 20 days;
- a student was suspended (later repealed) for weapons violations for folding paper into the shape of a gun;
- a student was charged with a felony for bringing a butter knife to school;
- under Indiana law a student can be suspended or expelled for actions taken "any where and at any time" even if the action has no geographic relationship to the school or any connection to a school activity no matter how remote;
- a student was charged with sexual assault and sexual harassment for streaking in his underwear during homecoming when he accidentally bumped into a science teacher;
- an honor roll student held up a 1 oz. test tube of beer (she did not drink it) and received a 6 week stint in an alternative school [probably will not be on honor roll when she gets back];
- Janesville, Wisconsin High School students beware; there have been 7 expulsions this year almost equaling the total for all of last year.
I understand the need for school discipline and order in schools. The point is that arbitrary and irrational applications of rules does not encourage respect for the system, it undermines it. Historically, there seem to be spike in this kind of irrationality, especially in the wake of real and tragic school violence in the headlines like we have had this last week. Talk to your children at all grades to be extra vigilant of staying clear of the deans of discipline, especially if there is a shortage of common sense in your district.
Catching a Branch…
I believe in the power of courageously sticking with a positive vision for children with disabilities. The challenges and obstacles to this vision are enormous but not insurmountable. Sometimes the only thing we have to sustain our vision, as parents and advocates, is what I call “catch a branch.” This phrase refers to my stubborn faith in a future of positive outcomes despite events which cascade in such a way that the future feels in state of free fall. Despite this free fall, I force myself to stubbornly maintain faith that even though I have fallen off a cliff [or have been pushed], I will “catch a branch” before I hit the ground and will regain my way. However, to put this belief in its proper perspective there is a lot of angst, chocolate eating and tirades both public and private which occur before I come to the calmer understanding that I will not go splat and will catch a branch. No, I am not a saint and not a polyanna.
Hatred Just Below the Surface
A special education student in Louisiana brought a gun and knife to school and was expelled, but the school is continuing to provide services to the student during the expulsion. That part of the story is not newsworthy. What is newsworthy are the online comments from members of the community complaining of unfair disparate treatment and how worthless it is anyway to teach "those kids." If parents have any doubt how close to the surface hatred lies towards children with special needs and special education generally check out this article.
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