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.
A recent Chicago Tribune article highlights students with intellectual disabilities who are successfully attending area colleges. One 25-year-old who graduated from Elmhurst Learning and Success Academy is currently working two part-time jobs as she completes a veterinary assistant program at the College of DuPage. A recent graduate of the PACE program at National Louis University in Skokie described the three internships he worked while earning a two-year certificate program. Each of the students interviewed expressed their satisfaction with their respective programs and career goals.
Children who have ADHD often have difficulty regulating brain activity. A new study, conducted by German and Swiss researchers, demonstrates that neurofeedback training may help. Neurofeedback is a method of training the brain, or shaping brain wave activity which for some children results in improved behavior and reduction of hyperactivity and impulsivity. The technique doesn’t work for everyone and is not a replacement for drug treatment, but may be used as a companion, as MSNBC reports. Children in the study worked on a game like computer program that had them activate or deactivate portions of the brain and they were rewarded with points. After two weeks of the computer program they used red and blue cards to practice the brain activation and deactivation. The other group of children took part in group therapy sessions. Results indicated that parents and teachers, although to a lesser extent, reported great improvement in the children who took part in neurofeedback. It was also noted that kids did better when parents encouraged, rewarded, and reminded them to practice with the red and blue cards. In all eight children learned to successfully regulate brain activity while nine did not.
Mediation and resolution meetings are among the primary ways that many special education cases get settled. For many parents they have never attended anything like a mediation or a resolution session. An advocacy center is DC has published a useful handbook that is very accessible guide to mediation and resolution meetings.
The advent of the iPad and iPod with the proliferation of their accompanying applications offers extraordinary opportunities for students with special needs, including those with autism. In an Education Week article, Matthew S. Goodwin, the director of clinical research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, states, “A lot of this [new technology] is preliminary and promising, but it’s not a silver bullet.” Mr. Goodwin continues to say, “It’s not going to cure autism, but we’re at the precipice of a revolution.”
Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and No Child Left Behind both mandate that schools must provide research-based interventions for students, it appears that schools are often failing to provide such evidence-based methodologies. Results from an August 3, 2011 study from Michigan State University of more than 200 school professionals indicate that teachers are failing to use some of the most effective strategies for teaching children with autism. This is news? Parents already know that teachers may not be correctly applying the different treatment interventions to their children. And researchers have also known that there is a research-to-practice gap in autism interventions.
A mother in the Bronx is arguing against the social promotion of her 11-year-old son with special needs because she believes he is not ready for 6th grade. What the mother is asking for seems reasonable—if her son has failed to master 5th grade work, why would he be able to do 6th grade work? Yet, the school’s desire to socially promote the student is unusual. But is the alternative, grade retention, a more viable option? Social promotion became popular in the 1970s due to fears that its alternative; namely, retention, led to issues with self-esteem for those students who were “flunked” a grade. However, social promotion fell into disfavor in the 1980s with the recognition that students who were receiving high school diplomas were ill-prepared for either college or work. Social promotion went on to became a political issue when President Clinton, in his 1999 State of the Union Address, declared that, “No child should graduate from high school with a diploma he or she can’t read. We do our children no favors when we allow them to pass from grade to grade without mastering the material.”
In our post-Columbine world and in an understandable effort to ensure that schools are safe, schools enacted “zero tolerance policies” resulting in expulsions or suspensions for infractions involving weapons, drugs, or other violent acts. These policies were designed to ensure that schools respond harshly and consistently to serious student misconduct. With time, however, the list of violations for which zero tolerance applies has been broadened to cover acts involving defiance, noncompliance, or disrespect. These policies, when rigidly adhered to (and they often are), deny administrators the opportunity to consider any extenuating circumstances related to the incident, or in many cases, the application of plain common sense when meting out discipline. One report has dubbed zero-tolerance policies as “zero-thinking policies.”
I spend a lot of time advocating for students which can sometimes mean fighting with school personnel. When I come across a story like this expressed on youtube, I had to share it. A coat drive at Chicago school provided warm coats for students for students in need. It is very heart warming to see students have this basic need met. Now if all students could receive proper nutrition, books, and all of the other essentials we would be in a better place.. but for now I am happy to see these kids get coats.
According to a recent investigation by The New York Times, 1,200 developmentally disabled adults died of unnatural or unknown causes while living in state and privately run homes in New York over the past 10 years. James Taylor, a 41-year-old quadriplegic, was one of these deaths. Although he had no more ability to lift his head than a newborn, Mr. Taylor was left unattended in a tub with running water for 20 minutes where he drowned. No one told his family that a similar drowning had occurred only four months previously in the state. His sister, Patricia Taylor, is quoted as saying, “I believe that God put these people here for a purpose, because if we didn’t have them to look after, we would lose our humanity. How would we know compassion? It says in the Bible, do ye so unto the least of my brothers. I think that’s what it’s all about.”
We are pleased to announce that we have moved to a new location to better serve our clients. Our new office is located at: 355 W. Dundee, Suite 209 in Buffalo Grove, IL 60089. You can still reach us at 847-205-9897 and as always you can find us on the web at foxspecialedlaw.com and on the blog, http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/. We will continue to serve clients throughout the state of Illinois.