Special Education Law Blog
A special education legal resource discussing case law, news, practical advocacy advice, and developments in state and federal laws, statutes and regulations. Postings include insight and sometimes humor from Charles P. Fox, a Chicago, Illinois attorney who is also a parent of child with special needs, and other guest authors.
Elopement or running away behaviors are certainly at the top of the list of most serious behaviors that must be eliminated from the range of behaviors that a student with special needs experiences in school. I have had several families where elopement has been a frequent and tortuous experience. While some have been injured fortunately none have died. For students with autism there is a great propensity to elope from school supervision and put themselves in danger. According to a study just published in Pediatrics on elopement behaviors, 49% of parents reported that their child had attempted to elope at least once. Of these children, 65% had a “close call” with traffic whereas another 24% were at risk of drowning. Children who elope leave their homes (74%), stores (40%), and schools (29%). Researchers were able to compare the rate at which children with an autism spectrum disorder eloped compared with that of their typical siblings. Between ages 4 and 7 (4 being the developmental age when children can be expected to not wander off), 46% of children with an autism spectrum disorder eloped compared to 11% of their siblings. And between ages 8 and 11, 27% of children on the spectrum […]
Over the years the question has come up frequently: how do I become a trained special education advocate ? My answer is usually along the lines of read various books such as material from Pete Wright, attend legal and substantive seminars and apprentice with an exeperienced advocate or attorney. For the first time thanks to the innovative efforts of COPAA, there is finally an advocacy training course being offered. The Special Education Advocate Training (SEAT) is a year-long course that provides participants with training to become a special education advocate. The course is based in part on the SEAT Curriculum ® developed through partnership between COPAA and Children's Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) University Center for Excellence, University of Southern California on a three year demonstration grant funded by the US Department of Education. The grant funded portion of the project ended in 2009, resulting in development of a model curriculum for advocacy training that was vetted through 3 cohorts under the direction of a 10 member National Advisory Board and members of COPAA's Training Committee – all of whom are nationally recognized special education advocates.
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 […]
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.
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 […]
It is always nice when district's go out of their way to educate parents on the need to provide a 10 day notice prior to making a unilateral placment see Download 2500_0001. What this notice neglects to inform parents is that the statute carves out certain exceptions to the need to give notice, such as, when the parent is illiterate,the school district "prevented the parent from providing notice" or providing the notice "would likely result in serious emotional harm to the child." 20 USC section 1412(a)(10)(C)(iii)(III)(iv) [the good stuff is always in the fine print]. Nor does this notice inform parents that even if notice is given late, that there is a line of cases that allow for reimbursement after the 10 day notice period has run, or emphasizing that this provision is discretionary using the word "may" not "shall". While I subscribe no ill-intent to this notice, I am sure that it would be used against a parent if they failed to comply with the exact terms, as expressed in the notice, even though it does not fully advise parents of all of their legal rights. Thanks school district (and their attorney who undoubtably drew this form up), but […]
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 […]
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.
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.
The Common Core standards were developed in 2010 as an effort to create voluntary national standards for learning in math and reading. The effort, which was spearheaded by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers and funded by among others the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is to ensure our nation’s students are more globally competitive and better prepared for college or the workforce. Although voluntary, all but four states have adopted the standards, which are just now starting to be implemented by the states. Embraced by the Obama administration and vilified by some members of the far right, the standards are not without controversy, and may or may not become an issue in the upcoming presidential election as President Obama and Mitt Romney jockey to define education policies apart from one another. According to the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the standards are designed to help students think more critically and not just be able to “fill in the blanks on standardized tests.” Teachers who are familiar with the standards believe that topics will be taught in much greater depth than previously. Critics, including NYU education historian Diane Ravitch, argue that the […]