National Center for Learning Disabilities Provides State by State Special Education Scorecards

     The National Center for Learning Disabilities has provided scorecards for every state that includes information on state special education enrollment (including the number of students with specific learning disabilities), student performance on key indicators, federal funding provided to support special education in each state, and the state’s rating by the U.S. Department of Education on its [...]

Parent Centers: A resource for training and assistance for families of children with disabilities

 
          It’s back-to-school time and this posting provides information on federally funded Parent Centers that provide training and assistance to families of children with disabilities. My thanks to my long time friend Barbara Buswell, the Director of Colorado’s PEAK Parent Center, for providing this information regarding services provided by Parent Centers in general and the PEAK [...]

The IDEA and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009

     The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA) provides significant new funding for services for children with disabilities under the IDEA’s Parts B and C.  These additional IDEA funds are provided under three authorities: (1) $11.3 billion for IDEA Part B grants to states (2) $400 million under Part B Preschool Grants to States [...]

Ninth Circuit Rules that Limiting Parents’ Expert’s Class Observational Time Does Not (in this instance) Violate IDEA

    In L.M. v Capistrano Unified School District, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that limiting the parents’ classroom observational opportunities to twenty minute sessions, while the school district was allowed to observe the student in his private placement for up to three hours, did not significantly restrict the parents’ right to participate in [...]

Helping Parents Help their Students with Disabilities: Related Services to Support Parents

   Under the IDEA, students with disabilities must be provided the related services they need to benefit from their special education program. In most circumstances those services are provided to the child with a disability, but there are circumstances in which the IDEA requires that services be provided to the parents, and sometimes, others. In [...]

Second Edition of The Everyday Guide to Special Education Law Now Available

  Readers, at the end of May I posted that the Second Edition of my book The Everyday Guide to Special Education Law was available for preorder. The book is here and can be ordered now.
 
  Like the previous book, the second edition contains information about obtaining a free appropriate public education, IEPs, discipline, [...]

The Second Edition of The Everyday Guide to Special Education Law available for preorder

Readers as you may be aware, this blog features links for those interested in purchasing my book The Everyday Guide to Special Education Law. I have not, however, directly promoted the book in my posts. I’m going to break with that tradition because I want you to know that the first edition of the book [...]

Keeping it on the down low: The IDEA, School Records, and Confidentiality

     A child’s educational records often contain private personal information about the child and the family. In the course of determining a child’s eligibility for special education services and designing a program to meet the child’s needs, schools may acquire information about the child’s social and medical history. Sometimes, that record may include medical and [...]

Protection from Retaliation

       Sometimes individuals are intimidated or harassed because they are trying to enforce or help others to enforce the right to be free from disability based discrimination under Section 504 and  the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Both of these laws protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination. Additionally, these laws prohibit retaliation against a person [...]

We Can Work it Out Part II: Using Mediation to Resolve Disputes Under The IDEA 2004

 The last post began a short series of articles on dispute resolution under the IDEA 2004. That article ended with the requirements for filing a due process complaint notice. This post covers mediation and next week’s post will cover the new resolution process.

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       Mediation is a process in which an objective and impartial third party [...]