Charles P Fox Law Offices

Special Education Law and Guardianship

Law Offices of Charles P. Fox
355 W. Dundee, Suite 209
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
Phone: 847-205-9897

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Special Education Law and Advocacy

Experienced Special Education Attorneys

Sleeping Difficulties Prevalent in Students with ASD

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Many children have difficulty sleeping.  But a disproportionate number of children
with special needs have sleep problems. 
Anywhere from 49 to 89% of children with autism spectrum disorders, 25
to 50% of children with ADHD, and 34 to 86% of children with cognitive
impairments are estimated to experience sleep difficulties.  Additionally children with other syndromes,
such as Angelman or Down syndromes, are also reported to have sleep
difficulties.  But what is not known is
if the learning problems cause the sleep problems, or if the sleep problems
cause the learning problems.  Dr. Bonuck
and her associates from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine attempted
to answer this question in a prospective study just published in Pediatrics by looking for an association
between sleep difficulties in young children with a later need for special
education services.

 Prospective studies follow a specific population (or cohort)
over time, identify certain risk factors, and see how these factors affect
outcomes over time. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also
known as ‘the Children of the 90s’ study) is one such cohort that had enrolled approximately
85% of pregnant women in Avon, England in 1991-1992, allowing for a large
population-based study.  The initial
cohort in the study, which was used by Dr. Bonuck and her associates for their
research, comprised more than 13,000 infants, but children with any known condition
that might lead to a disability or was associated with a disability were excluded. 

[Read more…]

Chart of Disability Issues Makes it Easy to be an Informed Voter

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Thanks to Disability Rights Ohio, an Ohio disability organization it is now very easy to be an informed voter on issues effecting people with disabilities. They have put together a side by side comparison chart of the candidate's position on the issues. Now it is obviously time to read it, be informed and vote for the issues that matter to us, our families and people with disabilities that we care about.

Education Advisors to Presidential Candidates to Debate

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Here is another forum to view the candidate's respective positions on matters related to education and hopefully special education. Education Advisers to Obama
and Romney to Engage in a Live Debate at Teachers College, Columbia University on 
Monday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m. ET

Exclusive Live Webcast Hosted by Education Week on
edweek.org

Teachers
College, Columbia University, will host "Taking the Election to School:
Making Education
a Focus of the 2012 Election," a debate between Jon Schnur, education
adviser to President Barack Obama, and Phil Handy, education adviser to
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, on Monday, October 15, at
7:00 pm Eastern. Teachers College President Susan H. Fuhrman will
moderate
the debate, which will take place at Teachers College's Cowin Conference
Center. The event will be webcast live by Education Week on edweek.org.

Participants:

  • Jon Schnur
    is co-founder of America
    Achieves. Previously, Mr. Schnur co-founded and served as CEO of New
    Leaders for New Schools. He has also served as senior adviser to U.S.
    Secretary
    of Education Arne Duncan and co-chairman of the Obama for America
    Education Policy Committee.
  • Phil Handy
    is
    the higher education co-chair of Mr. Romney's Education Policy Advisory
    Group. Mr. Handy is CEO of Strategic Industries; former chairman of the
    Florida State Board of Education; twice appointed by President George W.
    Bush as vice chairman of the National Board for Education Sciences; and
    a
    member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Excellence in
    Education.

A panel discussion featuring education journalists and other experts will immediately follow the debate.

Register free to view the live webcast on edweek.org.

Effects of Romney/Ryan Health Plan on Children and Adults with Disabilities

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Bill Clinton, in his address to the Democratic convention this month, decried the effects of the proposed Medicaid restructuring on the elderly, the poor, and families with children who have autism, Down syndrome, or other severe disabilities. Clinton, who said that he didn’t know what these families would do under these cuts, asserted that he knew what he would do: “I’m going to do everything I can to see that it doesn’t happen. We can’t let it happen.” We as parents of children with disabilities and those that care about children with disabilities need to vote for the vital interests of our children, and make sure our children with disabilities, who are over 18, register to vote and do vote. Medicaid is just one of the many issues that must be on the radar of voters for this election.Approximately 60 million Americans—including 29.5 million children, 15.2 million adults, 8.2 million people with disabilities, and 6.1 million seniors–rely on Medicaid to meet their health care needs. These numbers include 40% of our nation’s poor, 20% of those with severe disabilities, and nearly two thirds of residents of nursing homes. 

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Romney’s Educational Vouchers a Disaster for Special Education Students

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Schools are not like private corporations. Governor Romney’s
goal to privatize, voucherize, and let the market determine winners and losers
is simplistic. The reality is we do not have to wait to project that under his
system special education students will be losers. To be clear, I advocate on a
regular basis in appropriate cases for students to be tuitioned out to private
schools with their IEPs intact, even if that school is more restrictive because
it has what the child needs to receive a FAPE.

 As a primary part of his education platform, Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney is proposing a pro-choice, pro-voucher
system that will allow parents to choose which schools their children can
attend.  Romney is arguing that market
forces and competition will force improvements in public schools.  Additionally, Romney is proposing to allow
federal Title I and IDEA funds (which will also likely be cut) to become
“portable” for low income and special needs students.  These funds would follow the students to any
district or public charter school, private school where permitted by state law,
or toward tutoring or online courses. In theory, these proposals sound
wonderful.  Who wouldn’t want their
children, both regular and special education, to go to the best possible
schools?  These proposals, however, could
be disastrous for special education students.

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The Epidemic Effects of Non-Vaccination

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As an unfortunate legacy of the now discredited Wakefield
“study” in many areas of the country, it has become too common that parents are
opting out of vaccinating their youngsters before entering kindergarten. The
negative consequences for their children is obvious, but for the school and the
community as a whole the results can be quite significant. While some parents
are legitimately opting out of vaccinations for medical, religious or
philosophical exemptions from vaccinating their children. In the cases where
parents have a sincerely held religious belief that prohibits vaccinations,
those beliefs need to be respected; that is the small minority of cases.
Similarly some children must not be vaccinated, either because
they have medical conditions or have had adverse reactions which contraindicate
their receiving vaccinations.  These
children depend upon what is known as herd immunity to protect them against
serious if not lethal cases of contagious but preventable diseases.  To achieve herd immunity, a critical mass of
the population must be vaccinated, usually about 95% depending on the illness
being vaccinated against.  At this level,
disease transmission is contained because it cannot be transferred.  Outbreaks of disease, however, can occur in
areas where this threshold is unmet, and those individuals who are not
vaccinated; e.g., the young, the immunocompromised, the medically vulnerable,
or those who are vaccinated but for whom the vaccine is not working, all become
at risk.

 

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It’s Time for Individuals with Disabilities to Vote

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Given the current environment where the rights of a segments
of society to vote is being limited and challenged, it is especially important
to examine the rights of people with disabilities to vote. While often an
overlooked and ignored segment of society, people with disabilities need to
make their voices heard in the political process. As President Bill Clinton
expressed in his nominating speech on September 5, 2012, this election will
have a significant effect on the health care and educational rights of all
citizens but especially the most vulnerable among us which obviously includes
people with disabilities. Make no mistake voting for the Ryan budget and
overall plan will have a permanent and regressively harmful effect on my
clients, my son, families of children with disabilities and many people who I
care about. It is time to register all people with disabilities and to in fact
vote. We must be active  citizens in the
political process.

[Read more…]

Minority Students & Students with Disabilities Suspended at a Higher Rate

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The Civil Rights Project (Proyecto Derechos Civiles) released
a study in March demonstrating that minority students and students with
disabilities are suspended at a far higher rate than their non-disabled or
non-minority peers. At first blush,
this is not news.  Other researchers have
already documented these disproportionate rates, which have even been discussed
in this blog.   But the new study, “Opportunities
Suspended:  The Disparate Impact of
Disciplinary Exclusion from School,” is different for two primary reasons.
First, the authors, Daniel Losen and Jonathan Gillespie, use data from the
Civil Rights Data Collection survey from the Department of Education,
thereby providing the most comprehensive and exhaustive review of what is
happening in our nation’s schools.  These
DOE data are from 7000 schools districts and represent 85% of our nation’s
students.  Second, the Civil Rights
Project does not solely focus on the problem states or the problem districts
that are suspending students at such horrific rates.  The study also provides the data for those
states and districts that are not
engaging in high suspension rates.  These
districts have figured out how to keep students in school and engage them in
learning.  These are the districts from which
we need to learn. 

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ACLU files suit in Michigan

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The Michigan ACLU has taken the unprecedented step of filing a class action lawsuit in July against the Highland Park School District, the state of Michigan, and other governmental entities for failing to teach the students in the Highland Park School District how to read.  Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan ACLU, said “This is not a pro or anti-charter case. . . This is not a pro or anti-teacher case.  This is not a pro or anti-emergency manager case. This case, simply put, is about the right of children to read, a right guaranteed under the constitution and laws of this state.” 

 The ACLU has carefully jockeyed to buttress its argument that the right to read is a civil right for the students in Michigan. Although the ACLU acknowledges that state courts have not recognized education as a fundamental right granted by the Constitution, the ACLU points out that the Supreme Court has referred to education as “not merely some governmental benefit which is indistinguishable from other forms of social welfare legislation.”   Additionally, the Michigan Supreme Court has declared that “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments,” and the Michigan Constitution “imposes an obligation” on the state to offer a free public elementary and high school education. 

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Retaliation Against Parents for Advocating: An Emerging Trend

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Retaliation against parents for advocating on behalf of their special needs children with their school district is an unpleasant topic.  No one really knows how often retaliation occurs, but clearly it has happened frequently enough for parental advocacy to be protected by Federal statute.  Not only do Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protect the disabled against discrimination, they also protect those acting on their behalf to ensure the rights of the disabled.  Specifically, Section 504, which references Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, states that recipients of Federal funds, which would include school districts, “shall not intimidate, threaten, coerce or discriminate against any individual for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by the Act, or because the individual has made a complaint, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this part.”

Retaliation can be defined as “using official resources to ‘punish’ parents,” and it can take a wide range of forms from refusing to respond to emails or return phone calls, not allowing parents to view records, or continually canceling school meetings and conferences.  But sometimes the retaliation can be more sinister.  Anecdotally the internet is filled with stories of parents who claim their school districts have reported them to child protective services, filed truancy charges against them, or had restraining orders imposed on them, all as the result of their advocacy on behalf of their children. 

 

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