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.
The safety of drugs prescribed for ADHD have again been called into question. For depression the effectiveness of anti-depressants has been raised in a recent report reported in the Washington Post. Fortunately, under IDEA 2004, parents do not have to make a harsh choice between receiving services and having their child take medications that may not be effective (but frequently have side-effects) or in some cases can have serious risks. Among the beneficial changes to IDEA 2004 is that schools can not condition the provision of services on parents medicating their children.
Well the San Francisco Chronicle is at it again. Not satisfied with the vile falsehoods it disseminated as "news" in Nanette Asimov’s article, it has now published a lengthy op-ed piece from a California school administrator; the point of this piece is that parents’ lawyers are draining school coffers in a relentless pursuit of special education cases. She apparently has not read the recent articles of school district’s attorneys receiving blockbuster fees in losing cases that should have never gone to court, except for the bad judgment of the school administration and bad advice of the school district’s attorneys.
IDEA 2004 mandates using research based teaching methods and that teachers should be highly qualified. To put it more simply it calls for good teaching in the hands of good teachers. Implicit in this equation is that the law also require good educational leadership. I know well funded mandates are a critical component. Nevertheless, District 60, an economically poor district, in Pueblo Colorado has demonstrated over time that well trained teachers using research based materials (e.g. Lindamood Bell) at the direction of an innovative school administration can overcome shortages of cash.
NEA is one of the primary national teacher’s unions. On many issues the NEA takes positions that are adverse to the interests of special education students particularly regarding behavioral protections. Recently, however, the NEA has come out with guidelines and an overview for working with children with autism.[ Download NEA Autism Guidelines.pdf ] While it is by no means as authoritative as other texts, the fact that the NEA has officially endorsed these guidelines has an undeniable authority that schools would be hard pressed to dismiss.
I am sure many of you have heard the inspirational and heart-warming story of Jason McElwain, the basketball player with autism, who was brought in for the last minutes of the game and scored the winning points having previously never played. On a personal level, I was very happy for this young man, but I still had many uneasy feeling about the media coverage. In my experience media coverage of people with disabilities seems to come in two flavors–either the individual with a disability (e.g. special education) is draining the public coffers for no good end or otherwise victimizing society or an institution, or the good people of the community have extended their largess for some "truly deserving" person with a disability. The variant on this latter theme is the Jason McElwain story. A person with a disability has amazed us with the fact that he or she in fact has abilities which are primarily newsworthy because of the the fact of being disabled. I had not been able to capture the full range of my feelings about the media coverage of the Jason McElwain story, until I saw the following story by Kathie Snow in Disability is Natural Press […]
In a rural school district in Harvard, Illinois a substitute teacher was arrested for using masking tape to bind the arms, legs and mouths of two students with special needs. The teacher’s first explanation was that he did it as a means of discipline, but then claimed he was joking. The only one really out of control in this situation was the teacher. Criminal charges are pending.
In the movie "Its a Wonderful Life" at its climatic moment Jimmy Stewart says to his hapless uncle "Do you know what this means ? Bankruptcy, scandal and jail." In Baltimore school officials may be saying the same to themselves. Court ordered compensatory services have woefully not been implemented; of 90,000 hours of service ordered less than 4,000 have been provided. While the school officials are short on services there is no shortage of excuses and finger pointing among the politicians and school administration. Contempt of court orders are possible with penalties to include jail time.
Key phrases in American Sign Language ("ASL") are now available for free on online with video illustrations. This program is known as the ASL Browser. There is also a more comprehensive CD-ROM for sale at the site. This site represents a wonderful resource to support inclusion for deaf children and other children who use sign for communication as part of a Total Communication System. For some students it will be a nice introduction to ASL, as they consider a career in deaf education. For me the most delightful benefit of this site is that it enables typical peers to better communicate both expressively and receptively with their classmates with disabilities who use ASL. Vibrant communicative opportunities supports real inclusion and an appropriate education.
Inclusion is more than an accessible desk or a name heard in role call. It’s more than a law, it’s more than the right thing, and when it’s done well, it can be beautiful.
As any avid reader of the sports section of a tabloid-style newspaper knows, the way to read the paper is to start at the back and work forwards. IEPs should be given similar back to front attention.