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 recent deaths of Michael Brown of Ferguson, MO, Eric Garner of New York City, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice of Cleveland have brought to the national consciousness painful questions about race and police response. Clearly, much hard work needs to be done to examine these questions further and find solutions. Although there is no indication that any of these victims had mental health or developmental issues, their deaths beg a subsequent question: “what happens when persons with disabilities or those with mental health issues interact with law enforcement?” It’s an important question because up to 15% of all 911 calls in our country involve suspects who either have a mental illness or another disability. And the sad answer to the question is that these suspects fare very, very badly. Approximately half of those shot by police in the line of duty are estimated to have had mental health problems or other disabilities.
It seems that there is an increasing trend that more students are having trouble going to school and staying in class as a result of have migraine headaches. One of the unfortunate consequences for children and teenagers who suffer from chronic headaches, or more specifically migraines, is that they miss a lot of school days. When this happens, the family and school need to work together, with help and support from the student’s medical team, to find a balance where the student can attend school as often as possible, plan for when he or she is unable to attend, and ultimately help the student make progress in his or her academic program. Unfortunately, this fine balancing act can become very contentious. Although some school districts seem to recognize the medical validity of school absences due to migraines, in worst cases other school districts call truancy officers. There does seem to be an increas in district becoming more leary of medical notes for conditions that are not readily observable. Even in those cases where school districts recognize that accommodations need to be made, where and how these students will be educated can become the subject of dispute. A recent court case […]
The Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate has just released the results of its exhaustive study of the December 2012 horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 children and six educators murdered along with the shooter and his mother. While the report recognizes the “ubiquitous” presence of guns as a causal factor, it carefully states that it is not assigning blame on any one individual or institution in its review. Additionally, the report stresses that individuals with autism or such mental health issues as OCD and crippling anxiety, all diagnoses which Adam Lanza possessed, do not inherently become mass murderers. When these conditions go untreated, however, they can still be destructive to the individual, the family, and the community. The report is a sad, lengthy treatise depicting numerous lost opportunities and failures to communicate and coordinate care among the school system, parents, pediatrician, community psychiatrist, emergency room, and ultimately the Yale Child Study Center, which raised an urgent alarm about Adam Lanza’s deteriorating mental health—an alarm that went unanswered and unconsidered in Adam’s subsequent IEPs. The school district was overly focused on meeting Adam’s perceived curricular needs and not his urgent mental health needs. Though the Child […]
The issue of accessibility of web-based content is fairly new, given that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 pre-date the internet boom and the growth of innumerable emerging technologies that school districts are rapidly incorporating into their educational programs today. But as more and more schools adopt online learning, as enrollment in virtual schools increases, and as complaints from students with disabilities escalate, it is becomingly increasingly clear that schools need to determine the accessibility of new technologies before their adoption. Accessibility should not be an afterthought.
I have known this family for years. They are dedicated and willing to go to great and heoric lengths to allow their son to progress and realize his potential. This heart-warming video captures his journey, that of his family and many families acorss the world. Families like this one need to have more celebrations for their efforts and their love.
We are hearing a lot about concussions in the news these days. To the recent disbelief of sports commentators and fans, a University of Michigan football coach left a 20-year-old quarterback in a game after a blow to the head despite his stumbling in the field immediately after impact. Meanwhile, NFL players have regularly been making the news for, to put it delicately, behaving badly. There is speculation that some of the domestic violence in which these players have engaged may be the result of head trauma, a hypothesis deemed plausible by a University of Pennsylvania professor known as a “neurocriminologist.” The fact remains, however, that concussions are traumatic brain injuries. Although most patients with concussions are expected to recover fully, young children and teens, because of their developing brains, along with the elderly, are most vulnerable to the effects of concussion. Thus, these children will need careful monitoring as they return to school and other activities.
The Department of Education recently released an extensive Dear Colleague letter (Download Colleague-bullying-201410-1) detailing past guidance on the obligations of schools when students with disabilities are bullied either because of their disability or for any reason. The recent letter adds further guidance on this issue. One obligation that comes across repeatedly in this guidance letter is the need for school personnel to immediately investigate and respond to episodes of bullying in school. This recent OCR letter should provide a road map for addressing and advocating for students with disabilities who have been bullied in school. As an attorney and parent, I greatly appreciate the leadership of OCR on this painful issue.
In an editorial that appeared in The Wall Street Journal a year ago, school district attorney Miriam Kurtzig Freedman challenged the practice of inclusion of special needs students in regular education classrooms because of her belief that the presence of some of these students is compromising the education of their non-disabled peers. More specifically, Ms. Freedman urges parents of children without disabilities to speak out about how children with special needs are “short changing” the education of their children. The reasons for inclusion, according to Ms. Freedman are based more on “civil rights and social justice” and not on “best education practices.” The practice of inclusion is “entrenched” and “politically correct.” Ms. Freedman’s argument, if heeded, would set back the right of disabled children to a free appropriate public education by more than 30 years.
The internet is a wondrous strange place for the parents of a child with special needs. With the click of a mouse, parents can research information, locate specialists, learn about medical treatment and educational options, and perhaps most importantly of all, end their isolation. All at once, parents can locate a community of other parents struggling with the same issues with which they are grappling. Whether a child’s needs are severe or mild, parents may find much more effective and sanity-saving support from virtual strangers than they can from well-meaning pediatricians, grandparents, or friends.
I have reproduced this moving and inspiring story with permission. I loved this story and hope you find it as meaningful as I did. When I decided to join the cross country team as a junior, I was already bracing for the worst. I had endured countless tales of brutal training, injuries, and endless races in the mud, reducing even the toughest legs to Jell-O. In spite of this,I quickly realized that the true essence of the sport has nothing to do with a footrace. It does, however, have a great deal to do with David.